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Beginning French - 2013 TAC - Team PaX

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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 17 of 64
13 December 2012 at 1:25pm | IP Logged 
Thanks Quique for the response

I will download the FIA audio soon, I think I'll hold off the series until I finish
Pimsleur 1 over the weekend. Looks promising though.

Assimil just took another jump for me: lesson 22 seems to have jumped up in difficulty
from the previous week. I think I shall stick to 1 lesson a day and give up the active
parts until lesson 50 or whenever it is.

I shall join up to the romance TAC.

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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4663 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 18 of 64
14 December 2012 at 7:48pm | IP Logged 
Hi fezmond, I just found your log through the "Second Romance Team" thread. I am working through Assimil as well, lesson 66 this morning. I have also noticed those "jumps" in difficulty with certain lessons, and felt like there were a few of those among the lessons I have done recently. Good luck with Assimil and French!
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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 19 of 64
16 December 2012 at 2:49am | IP Logged 
tastyonions wrote:
Hi fezmond, I just found your log through the "Second Romance Team"
thread. I am working through Assimil as well, lesson 66 this morning. I have also noticed
those "jumps" in difficulty with certain lessons, and felt like there were a few of those
among the lessons I have done recently. Good luck with Assimil and French!


It's strange, lesson 22 was a big jump for me but then when I read 23, I could understand
almost every word without any difficulty.

Guess I should change this log to the TAC 2013.
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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 20 of 64
19 December 2012 at 4:24pm | IP Logged 
Finished Pimsleur French I today and started on II.

Not sure I'll make it all the way through II and III. It takes and awful long time for
not a great range of vocabulary. However, hearing the accents have been useful and
starting to learn the grammar behind the past tense has been interesting.

Still a bit confused when to use J'ai or Je suis when using the past tense (I ate/I
arrived) but guess this will come with time.

Maybe it's time to get back on the Michel Thomas CDs.
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emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5530 days ago

2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 21 of 64
19 December 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged 
fezmond wrote:
Still a bit confused when to use J'ai or Je suis when using the past tense (I ate/I arrived) but guess this will come with time.


Short form:

1. The default is avoir: J'ai fait quelque chose.
2. Reflexive verbs take être: Je me suis cogné la tête.
3. Many verbs of motion take être: Je suis arrivé. Je suis descendu.
3a. But if those verbs have an object, they tend to switch to avoir: J'ai descendu l'escalier. (This is a favorite trap of obnoxious test writers.)
4. A few other verbs take être: Je suis mort.

I could invent a tortured explanation of how this actually makes a certain kind of sense, but not everybody appreciates those. :-) And congratulations on finishing Pimsleur I!

Edited by emk on 19 December 2012 at 5:06pm

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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 22 of 64
19 December 2012 at 5:30pm | IP Logged 
emk wrote:
fezmond wrote:
Still a bit confused when to use J'ai or Je suis when using
the past tense (I ate/I arrived) but guess this will come with time.


Short form:

1. The default is avoir: J'ai fait quelque chose.
2. Reflexive verbs take être: Je me suis cogné la tête.
3. Many verbs of motion take être: Je suis arrivé. Je suis descendu.
3a. But if those verbs have an object, they tend to switch to avoir: J'ai
descendu l'escalier. (This is a favorite trap of obnoxious test writers.)
4. A few other verbs take être: Je suis mort.

I could invent a tortured explanation of how this actually makes a certain kind of
sense, but not everybody appreciates those. :-) And congratulations on finishing
Pimsleur I!


Thanks emk.

I guess in my head I was equating it to 'I hate eaten'/'I have bought something' then
when I heard 'Je suis arrive' (sorry only a Korean keyboard here) I was confused. Still
early days with the past tense and French in general but thanks for the heads-up. I had
to look up reflexive verbs today, so much about languages that I don't know.

Think I will aim for a decent B1 level by Xmas 2013.


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fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4924 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 23 of 64
24 December 2012 at 2:22pm | IP Logged 
Complete lack of effort lately, not sure what's come over me.

Studied a few Assimil lessons today that I should have looked at in more detail earlier
in the week (23-26). I can look at the words and get the meaning but I'm not sure if
that's because I know what the English translation says.

Pimsleur has been ok, but I'm starting to think there isn't much reward for the amount
of time it takes to go through all 30 lessons. I suppose it's helping with
pronunciation and maybe it's time I try to record myself like Tastyonions is doing.

The biggest worry so far is that after 6 weeks, I doubt I could write a decent sentence
in French. I expected to be further along than my current status but sometimes life
just gets in the way.


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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4663 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 24 of 64
24 December 2012 at 2:30pm | IP Logged 
Life got in the way for me recently (school studies), and I've had weeks before where I did nothing more than watch subtitled movies. It happens.

I own the first Pimsleur French but I stopped it after maybe ten lessons because I found it too repetitive. Assimil I find much more enjoyable, personally.


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