12 messages over 2 pages: 1 2
cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5657 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 9 of 12 07 January 2011 at 2:08am | IP Logged |
So...currently chugging away with Assimil. I'm on Lesson 20 of 140. I have the older "French without Toil" version, so some of the topics feel a little dated. Same verbs though... I wonder how much language changes from generation to generation...is it mostly nouns that get renamed, and informal phrases with special "implied" meaning?
I've been playing around with Smart.Fm. I went back to Anki after playing a bit with Smart.Fm, and Anki feels very static. I've heard people say that Anki just helps you remember, but doesn't help you learn. I kind of see that, because I have a very hard time learning vocab with just Anki.
I like Smart.Fm, because it builds up rather than just testing one thing over and over. I like how it moves through French to English/English to French with multiple choice, which helps build your confidence that you know it...then finally it makes you generate it yourself, with a fairly strict character recognition. I'd say the main difference for me between SmartFM and Anki is the multiple choice option. I know some people don't like multiple choice, but I think it helps me learn, rather than just testing me.
I think maybe the perfect flash program for me would take 5-7 words at a time and throw the them in to the multiple choice option, then once you reached high enough accuracy, would test them with the 5-7 word grouping. Once you passed the 5-7 word target-base-target test, then it would output those in to an SRS, which you could then review at leisure.
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| Violette Newbie United States Joined 5071 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 10 of 12 07 January 2011 at 2:52am | IP Logged |
Bonjour, Cazgram!
Regarding focus...
There may be patterns to when your magic focus times happen.
It helps me to pay attention to when my "stronger" times are in the day. I seem to have different times of day that work best for mental, physical, social, etc. activities. For example, since I have more physical energy in the morning, I actually cook dinner at that time (I know I will be too tired to cook at dinner time ;-P ).
Also, there may be other factors that contribute to your focus: hunger or having eaten too recently, sugar/caffeine, sleep,
too much or too little noise/commotion around you, etc.
Keep at it! Bonne chance! =)
Edited by Violette on 07 January 2011 at 2:52am
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Li Fei Pro Member United States Joined 5123 days ago 147 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map
| Message 11 of 12 07 January 2011 at 4:11am | IP Logged |
Have you tried Pimsleur? If you commute by car, it can work really well. but you have to repeat phrases
and speak out loud a lot, so it doesn't work too well on public transportation . . . Unless you enjoy getting
weird looks from your fellow passengers! Each lesson is half an hour, and you learn a lot. Good luck!
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| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5657 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 12 of 12 11 January 2011 at 9:20am | IP Logged |
Yesterday and today I didn't do much, with life's distractions. I'm currently around Lesson 24 of Assimil, and while playing with FIA over the weekend, I reached the middle of Lesson 9 in the workbook. It's not so bad if I don't put pressure on myself to finish anything in FIA.
I worked on LingQ for a while and was at the very least interested. It seems to be what I already try do, but on a larger, more refined scale. I tried to load my Harry Potter stuff on there, but was foiled by something...still not sure what. It seems like LingQ is good for intermediate levels where only 10-20% of vocab is guessing, or else everything is very easy-graded readers. I find that if I am looking up too many words, I lose the gist of the story too many times, then I get bored.
Spent the weekend with a friend who's from near Luxembourg. She's heading out for a bit, but when she gets back in to town with her husband, we're hoping to exchange English <-> French lessons. Her husband is still beginner/low-intermediate in English, so we might just hang out and point at stuff together...but it's worth a shot.
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