pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 1 of 15 16 December 2011 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
I participated in the 6 weeks challenge recently for the first time and I discovered that it actually motivated me more then I thought it would. That’s why I think TAC might keep me motivated all year round.
I want to focus on French and I hope to get to a C1 level in 2012.
My goals are to do with being systematic and diligent. I want to to something in French every day. Apart from that, I want to fill in the gaps in grammar that I have; make use of the resources I alread have before buying more but also enjoy the level I already achieved.
I’m really excited for this!
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Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5113 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French
| Message 2 of 15 16 December 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged |
Hello teammate! I'm also going to be studying French this year. I just started my 2012 log; it's here.
What level are you at in French right now?
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pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 3 of 15 16 December 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
Hi!
I'm glad there are other people among The Romantics to study French. I'm always curious about what resources they use, the music they might listen to in French and so on. It's always some inspiration. I'd say that my French is lower intermediate. I understand quite a lot as I started using native materials quite early on. But as I wrote earlier I do have some embarassing gaps in even some basic things sometimes, probably because I don't have many chances to speak French so I don't have many chances to know what I don't know yet.
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garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish
| Message 4 of 15 18 December 2011 at 3:20pm | IP Logged |
Good luck! Sounds like you're at around the level I was at a year ago. Reaching C1 should be possible if you put in the work; I'd say I reached that level in terms of understanding but my speaking isn't quite there yet. At the end of the day it was just good old fashioned work and consistency that got me there, and of course looking for as many speaking opportunities as possible. Speaking only really improves significantly with practice, even if you have a good knowledge of the language, I've always been someone who understands a lot more than he can produce.
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pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 5 of 15 06 January 2012 at 12:59pm | IP Logged |
You're right Garyb about the work and consistency. Too bad those never were my strongest features, but hey, I'm still trying.
Anyway, I went away for the Christmas and New Year's break. I didn't have the chance to watch or listen to any french but I did some old school learning from a book. I got two McGrawHill books a while ago. The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice and The Ultimate French Review and Practice. I quite like them. I discovered that practicing some grammar points concerning the verb usually was useful to me. I did exercices too.
Now that I'm back in my apartment with the internet and such, I'll get back to listening to live french.
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pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 6 of 15 19 January 2012 at 7:49pm | IP Logged |
Well, I haven't updated in two weeks! Time flies.
Anyway, I have been doing input mostly for the past two weeks. Listening to Tout autre chose everyday,usually twice, writing down some useful phrases and new words. I subscribe some youtubers from France, but not everything has been interesting. I must keep on going with my listening, because I remember that a year ago I could barely understand radio in French, some time after I suddenly realised that I start to understand more and more. The enjoyement is greater.
Other than that I read an occasional article on Le Monde's or Le Figaro's site. I have a feeling the ones by Le Figaro are easier. I like interviews especially, because the language is not so formal but any occasional error one might make when speaking is corrected in print, so it's ideal for input really.
That's it for now. I hope to make updates on a weekly basis from now on.
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Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5607 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written)
| Message 7 of 15 25 January 2012 at 10:10am | IP Logged |
It does sound like we are at a similar level, I have reached a point where I can enjoy
audiobook and podcasts in French but production of the language comes much slower. I race
through novels though so at least my reading is good. It's ironic, my German speaing is
better but I think I can read faster in French than German even though I consider my
German to be better.
Good luck with your endeavours this year, I will be following you closely for advice and
ideas :)
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pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian
| Message 8 of 15 27 January 2012 at 11:17am | IP Logged |
Thanks for the kind words Quabazaa, but I'm pretty sure my French is not yet so good as to read Proust in French! :) I sure hope to do it one day though.
I'm going away for a couple of days. I'll be without Internet so I might as well update my log now.
I'm sticking firmly to listening to Tout Autre Chose everyday. Also, I'm reading and listening to "La reine dans le palais des courants d'air". Listening to audiobooks is almost like a vacation after hearing real-time spoken French on the radio. I guess it's good then to combine the two and not miss out on the normal, every day kind of speech.
I have gotten a bit lazy thought because I haven't really done any writing nor grammar. And I know I benefit a lot from that. Thankfully, the 6WC is starting soon. It boosted my motivation last time and hopefully it will be no different this time.
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