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Team EN - TAC 2010 - Goal French Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 33 of 119 15 May 2010 at 6:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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The homestay and pics around Annency on your blog look wonderful, I just can't get over those beautiful mountain vistas, and the charming old-world feel and surrounding waters.
There's neither river nor free lake where I live you see (can you believe they put barbed wire around the only real water feature here in Darmstadt, a teeny-weeny natural lake, and only open it up with an entrance fee during the height of summer). So you can imagine, water being the mean thing I really miss, it'd be dream come true to live in a place like Annency or by the sea in Barcelona! It also sounds like your listening skills are really pretty good now (which I'm not surprised with all that LR), so I guess it's just a matter of time before you activate that mountain of passive knowledge locked away in your noggin and bring your speaking ability up to a similar high standard. Allons-y, mes amis! :) Edited by Teango on 15 May 2010 at 6:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6169 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 34 of 119 24 May 2010 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
It really is somewhere very special. Apparently there are a lot of people who think so as well. Yesterday the place was flooded with people. It does however give it a very nice vibe to have a lot of people around. As for my plans here, I have less then a week left. Time has flew, to use a cliche. To leave now would feel like mission unaccomplished. Impossible to guess how far I've come along. Somewhere in a high B2 position I think. Still a long way off from possessing the skills for a C1 student. However highly satisfied and very content that I came to this corner of France to learn French. With all things considered I've decided to stay on for another month. My brother is coming to visit soon. I still have a lot to learn. More cheese, macarons, saucisson, tartiflette, fondue, glace etc.etc. to try. More cafe's to unwind in. More summer to enjoy. A swim in the lake. The list goes on and on. Will let you know how it goes. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 36 of 119 28 May 2010 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, it really does look wonderful over there...and I even notice you're holding what looks like a language book in one of the photos (which made me smile)...now there's a sign of commitment if ever I saw one, good on you! :)
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| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6169 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 37 of 119 28 May 2010 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hi yes, a stupid question :-P Non je blague. Yes I think it has been really worthwhile. I won't lie and say every day and everything is always fantastic. Can't be happy all the time you're just fooling yourself. I will say that I have lived the past few years with other people, I think I'm generally easy to live with: discreet,respectful,clean. I think having a good attitude in the house will really do wonders if you choose to live with a family. Do loads and loads of research on the school and the city you choose to live in. There are the glaringly obvious choices which appear the best and most convenient(I imagine just landing in Geneva and having to take the 45 minute bus ride to annecy would put some people off). I could have chosen Paris as my brother did, however I didn't want to live in the melting-pot and frankly chaotic Paris. I would most definetly the next time make sure the class sizes were kept to a smaller size of 8-10, having sometimes 20-22 is just not cutting it. For me it has been very good value for money. Potentially you could spend a month of courses with rent for €1100-1200. Just do a little shopping around. Cheaper doesn't mean any worse. With cheap international flights that wouldn't add much more to the total. Being in France you probably would want to bring some extra spending money to try all the lovely food. Yes I will do it again. I won't return to same spot as that's not something I like to do. I'm having dreams of saving money and doing a similar experience somewhere in South America. Evidently much cheaper..
Frankly its a michelin guide book. I'm not so big on studying outdoors actually. I have real trouble listening to music let alone studying while strolling around. I listen to music very seldomly. No, you won't find me in a post office queue flicking through a dictionary. For me the time and the place is at home. ------------------ Just a quick sidenote..... Bought myself assimil German in French. German, Japanese and French are the 3 languages which have always grabbed my attention when I heard them. A little bit of the mystery has gone from French obviously. I have no intention to learn Japanese. I would so love to learn German. It's magic when I hear it. I don't think I could maintain two languages though. Something tells me Spanish would be a lot easier and would open up more of the world. Unfortunately I don't like at all the sound of Spanish and I'm not particularly interested by Latin culture. But it would be almost like getting a language for free. I think with 1 year of intense study I would be at a reasonable level and if I take an immerision experience it would be much cheaper and different. Have not officially started German, but have nevertheless gone through some Michel Thomas and an Assmil lesson. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 6169 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 39 of 119 30 May 2010 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
I decided not to continue with the 30 hour intensive courses this month. I didn't look up this part very well before leaving for France. In my school at least, the extra hours simply means chucking you in a lower or higher class then your normal class. You do two or three lessons with that class a week. In my opinion its not very good because often you miss out on the homework or lessons from previously classes. However I think there are some schools that don't function in this way. Other schools may have reduced size classes in the afternoon. Others have classes to work on pronunciation. I think you just have to do the research. Sending an email should get you the response you want. O and if you are interested in choosing a school in France here is a good link. For the time being I'm not living with the family. I moved out just yesterday and live with other students at the school. I forgot to mention in the last post that I sat a TCF Blanche (Blanche means a kind of unoffcial test). We followed all the normal procedures of the test. The TCF is a multiple choice exam. Everybody sits the same test and you are given your level afterwards from A1 to C2. There is no written section or a part where you speak with an examiner, which makes it a little faulted in my opinion. However all these things considered I got back a C1 level for my exam. Much higher then anticipated. So tres content. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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