Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 17 of 88 10 March 2014 at 11:45am | IP Logged |
Well, I've got a lot of catching up to do on my log. First things first, the statistics.
Week 7: 649 minutes
Week 8: 691 minutes
Week 9: 764 minutes
Week 10: 566 minutes
Total: 5953 or 99 hours and 13 minutes
Nederlands
Ik ben eindelijk weer begonnen met lezen in het Nederlands. Ik geniet van mijn Spel der
Tronen boek. Nu pas herinner ik dat ik ooit heb gezegd, "Ik vind geschreven Nederlands leuker
dan gesproken Nederlands". Ik vind nog steeds het gesproken taal niet zo leuk en dat werkt
een beetje demotiverend. Het is dus goed dat ik weer aan het lezen ben want dan heb ik een
connectie met de geschreven taal wat ik dus wel leuk vind. Ik wil ook een hervertaling van
Eline Vere lezen.
Met Afrikaans wordt het niets. Het is te gevaarlijk voor mijn Nederlands. Nadat ik een bezig
met het Afrikaans ben geweest merk ik dat ik in de war raak met mijn accent in het
Nederlands. Jammer, want ik vind Afrikaans zo leuk klinken. Misschien komt er een dag wanneer
het wel mogelijk zal zijn maar nu worstel ik nog met het Nederlands.
Français
My routine has been to do Assimil everyday and go through my Anki cards, which usually
amounts to around 250 cards per day. As well as that, I usually listen to/watch something in
French for anywhere between 20 minutes and 2 hours per day. I've also started reading a
little bit. I read Le Petit Prince with the Dutch translation to help me. I've also started
reading Persepolis with a dictionary and I'm happy to say that it's going rather well. I love
that feeling of figuring out a text. I haven't had that feeling since I was an intermediate
in Dutch. It's going to be pretty fun when I get to B1 in French and I get to go on a reading
binge. Hopefully I can reach such a stage by the summer months because reading + sun =
heaven!
I've become a bit lazy when it comes to actual studying. I probably should commit to French
in Action or another course like FSI but I haven't managed to be consistent with anything
other than Assimil. Even though I seem to be making good progress with Assimil, I know it
would be better if I could stick to FIA.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 18 of 88 10 March 2014 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
Iolanthe wrote:
I've become a bit lazy when it comes to actual studying. I probably should commit to French
in Action or another course like FSI but I haven't managed to be consistent with anything
other than Assimil. Even though I seem to be making good progress with Assimil, I know it
would be better if I could stick to FIA. |
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If you're doing Assimil and Anki every day, you're doing pretty well. Don't worry too much
about the other courses. I like them both, but I haven't had the time to take FIA too seriously
(other than watching the videos). FSI is a great course to use while going for a walk in the
lovely spring weather, so perhaps you could find a place for it in your daily routine that way.
But really, if you just concentrate on getting Assimil learnt while working on
reading/watching/listening, you will make good progress.
It's great that you're finding it fun to read Persepolis. I'm sure I'll read it myself one day.
Last night I read Astérix le Gaulois, and really enjoyed it.
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Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 19 of 88 21 March 2014 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
Jeffers wrote:
If you're doing Assimil and Anki every day, you're doing pretty well. Don't worry too
much
about the other courses. I like them both, but I haven't had the time to take FIA too
seriously
(other than watching the videos). FSI is a great course to use while going for a walk
in the
lovely spring weather, so perhaps you could find a place for it in your daily routine
that way.
But really, if you just concentrate on getting Assimil learnt while working on
reading/watching/listening, you will make good progress.
It's great that you're finding it fun to read Persepolis. I'm sure I'll read it myself
one day.
Last night I read Astérix le Gaulois, and really enjoyed it. |
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Thanks for the words of encouragement. I suppose if I'm able to keep up with Assimil,
things must be moving along nicely.
Wanderlust
Does anybody have a pill for this? I've fallen for Turkish, my brain is telling me that
learning German is a great idea and Welsh is looking extremely intriguing. And then
there's Latin and Ancient Greek and Polish and Russian and Italian and Hebrew and
Yiddish and...*explodes*
I do find something strange though. I find that when I read or listen to Afrikaans and
German, although my Dutch helps me along with vocabulary, Dutch pronunciation does not
interfere with my attempts to properly pronounce these languages in my head. My brain
starts with English and tries to make it more German or Afrikaans. But if start
thinking in or speaking Dutch after I have listened to either languages, I get
pronunciation interference from the other two languages. I don't understand why a
weaker language would affect a stronger language and not vice versa.
Français
Week 11: 578 minutes or 9 hours and 38 minutes
Total: 6531 minutes or 108 hours and 51 minutes
Assimil, je t'aime. I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't learn a language
without Assimil. I've given up on Michel Thomas, Pimsleur and Teach Yourself so many
times but with Assimil feeding me perfectly sized portions of my TL every day, I
happily march on to the end. I'm at lesson 78 now. I'll be very proud when I've
finished it and I think after that I'll move onto Using French.
I've been doing a lot less this week (week 12) in terms of time but I'm still doing
things on a daily basis so it's ok. Actually, the only thing I've really been doing
less of is listening but I'm trying to rectify that.
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Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 20 of 88 23 March 2014 at 3:57pm | IP Logged |
I've been thinking about what my goals are for French. I've only ever learnt a language
because I had to and my skills had to be as good as I could possibly get them
regardless of my own personal goals. However, with French I have a choice. If I'm happy
with B1 skills, I can stop and my life won't be negatively affected by my decision.
Saying that, I would like to make an attempt at the DELF B1 or B2, maybe sometime next
year. I found the NT2 test very motivating so I think it would keep me going if I had a
set goal like that.
On a personal level I'd like to be able to read BD's, popular novels and the news
comfortably. I'd also like to be able to comfortably watch films and tv in French. So
we're talking a minimum of B2 passive skills. Active skills I'm not so interested in
but I would like to reach a minimum of B1. I remember B1 level as being the point in
Dutch when I could perform everyday tasks in Dutch without ever having to switch to
English. I just want to be able to function in French whenever I get the chance to be a
tourist in a French speaking area. I don't have any particular ambitions when it comes
to writing. Let's say B1 as well.
In a nutshell: B1 active, B2 passive is my current aim.
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Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 21 of 88 26 March 2014 at 5:21pm | IP Logged |
Français
Week 12: 566 minutes or 9h 26m
Total: 7097 minutes or 118h 17m
Not much to report except I've ordered Essential French Grammar and it should arrive at
the end of this week. Exciting! I also accidental learnt how to do the alveolar trill
while I was actually trying to learn the uvular trill. I'm sure it will come in handy in
for future languages.
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Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 22 of 88 07 April 2014 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
Français
Week 13: 424 minutes or 7h 4m
Week 14: 608 minutes or 10h 8m
Total: 8129 minutes or 135h 29m
A loose plan:
April
- Assimil French With Ease passive wave
- FSI French Phonology
- Anki as usual
- Supplement with RFI Journal en français facile, movies, tv, radio, internet browsing
May
- Assimil French w/ Ease active wave (continuing after finishing passive wave)
- Assimil Using French
- FSI Basic French
- More Anki
- Do as-yet-undecided-amount-of-writing on Lang-8
- Supplement with RFI Journal Facile, movies, tv, radio, internet browsing
- Start reading on a regular basis?
I've got a frustrating feeling of working and working but not really seeing any
results. I'm wedged in between being able to follow my Assimil lessons easily but yet
being completely daunted and perplexed by native materials. I know it will get better
if I keep going but it's just not a lot of fun at the moment. Keeping track of my study
time was a great idea because it's probably the only thing that keeps me going when I'm
not having any fun with French.
Unfortunately, I've also become enamoured with Turkish at the same time meaning I've
been neglecting the task of finding fun things to watch and listen to in French and
instead been watching fun things in Turkish! I'm very, very bad.
Nederlands
De laatste tijd heb ik veel afspraken in het ziekenhuis gehad. Ik moet in mei één keer
per week naar een revalidatiecentrum omdat ik al een lange tijd last van mijn knieën
heb en moet mijn mobiliteit en spieren en alles weer opbouwen. Ik moet ook over twee
weken een operatie hebben voor iets heel anders. Het is geen grote ingreep maar het is
wel mijn eerste operatie ooit en het moet gebeuren onder algehele narcose. Wat heeft
dit allemaal met taal te maken? Nou, ondanks mijn nervositeit wanneer ik tegenover
iemand zit die een witte jas draagt, heb ik me prima kunnen redden in het Nederlands.
Ik breng mijn vriend altijd mee voor het geval dat ik moeite heb om mijn verhaal te
vertellen maar tot nu toe is dat niet echt nodig geweest. Ik ben er wel trots op dat ik
in zo'n situatie toch redelijk vloeiend kan spreken. Toch ben ik benieuwd of ik na de
operatie Nederlands kan spreken als ik nog "drugged-up" ben!
Edited by Iolanthe on 07 April 2014 at 7:01pm
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Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5639 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French
| Message 23 of 88 17 April 2014 at 12:10pm | IP Logged |
Tiny update.
Week 15: 692 minutes or 11h 32m
Total: 8821 minutes or 147h 1m
I'm almost halfway through my 300 hour goal, yay!
Almost at the end of Assimil (passive). About 10 lessons to go. I've started reading
one Le Monde article per day and listening to the RFI journal en français facile every
day.
Lately, I've been consistently reaching my goal of doing at least an hour and a half of
French per day. However, tomorrow I have my first ever operation so I'm nervous and
probably won't get much done today. Oh well. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up where I
left off on Saturday because if all goes as planned, I'll be back home by tomorrow
evening.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 24 of 88 22 April 2014 at 11:24pm | IP Logged |
It's nice to catch up with how you're doing (especially with French). You said that from May you want to start regular reading and listening. Have you considered doing the Super Challenge? Even if you only complete a portion of it, it's great to record your progress on the bot, and watch your graph go up and up!
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