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Pesahson’s TAC 2012 - French

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15 messages over 2 pages: 1
pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 9 of 15
28 February 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged 
Dear diary...

I really suck at updating this thing regularly, but here it goes...

6WC started in February. The first week I didn't do much. Since the second week I'm getting on with it! I listen, read, watch, I try to get as much input as possible. Here are the things I've been using.

- On France24 I discovered clips of movie and book reviews. They are about 5 minutes long, all talking at natural speed. I watch them every couple of days, going through the archive of this shows. It's something I'm already interested in and I understand a lot.

- On YT I found an animated series I used to watch as a kid. Il etait une fois...la vie. There are also two similar shows. It etait une fois...l'homme and l'espace. That's something I'm gonna be enjoying in the next couple of days.

- On LingQ I found that Steve Kaufman, the creator, uploaded his book The Linguist. You can read and listen to it as well. I download the mp3 and listen to it a couple of time while walking to and from work. He writes about how he learned all the languages he speaks so it's really interesting.

- I took of the shelf my copy of Les Mille et Une Nuits I. I read it slowly and it's great fun. It's storytelling at its finest. Also every day I've been reading Le Petit Nicolas. The stories are very simple but it's always some input and they're really funny.

So that's it basically. I hope I'll keep going like that, because the last month was really successful for me.
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blackdahlia
Pro Member
United States
Joined 4727 days ago

64 posts - 66 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 10 of 15
29 February 2012 at 6:20pm | IP Logged 
I'm glad you updated your log. I'm going to check out those sites and shows.
1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 11 of 15
11 March 2012 at 10:45am | IP Logged 
Ok. This week was more of the same. I really enjoy listening to Steve Kaufman's book. I've been listening to a couple of chapters a day (they're between 2 minutes and 7 minutes long). I would download a couple of them, as to have a 20 minutes chunk, and put it on replay while I was walking to and from work, etc. I would listen to the same thing about 6-7 times a day then. It's really something because I get bored with stuff easily.

Also, I visited my local french bookstore. I bought "L'art de la simplicite". I just wanted something that wouldn't be too hard for me, so I didn't go for literature. I hope it's going to be an enjoyable book.
1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 12 of 15
05 May 2012 at 1:57pm | IP Logged 
Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I updated this blog. Thankfully, it doesn't mean that I hasn't been doing anything!

I realised that my local library has some interesting books in their French language section. There's not much of stuff, but one can find something interesting. I borrowed a couple of children's books. To my surprise, some vocabulary was completely alien to me. I like it that they are short. It motivates me more to read them. In their new arrivals section they had Katiba by Jean Christophe Rufin. I remember him talking about this book with Francois Busnel on La Grande Librairie a year or so ago. The chapters are pretty short, about 3 or 4 pages each. I had a thought about how to read it as to make the best of it. I'm going to read the chapter once, then again, this time writing a list of words I want to translate, look them up, and read the chapter again, with a glossary. And only after this, reading the next chapter.

Thankfully, the new 6WC started. It always motivates me.
1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 13 of 15
30 May 2012 at 10:43am | IP Logged 
The 6WC is going quite good. I really hope in the top 20 until the end of it. Some hours these people log in are crazy!! but I'll be happy to keep the pace I've had until this point.

In my local library there has been some new arrivals in the French section. I'm really surprised by that and of course happy. I finished Katiba and yesterday I found N'esperez pas vous debarrasser des livres. It's like a long interview between Jean-Claude Carriere and Umberto Eco shaped into a book, which really appeals to me. I already started reading it yesterday in a coffee house and I like it a lot. I've been doing more reading then listening during this challenge and I'm very happy about that.

Apart from input, I've been doing some oldschool grammar learning. I'm just going through the verb system trying to make sure I have it covered (only the forms I'm gonna need in output, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna figure out passe simple, etc just be reading fiction).
1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 14 of 15
07 June 2012 at 3:48pm | IP Logged 
This week was a bit slower for me but still I think I managed to get an hour at least of French every day. I got a new book from the library. Les Rosas de la solitude by Jacqueline de Romilly. I've never heard of her but it just caught my attention. I'm still reading Eco's and Carriere's book though. It's really interesting. Two intelligent guys having a conversation about books, art, modern times and life in general. It's a real pleasure to read. I've been doing quizzes on About French website. They are great to make you aware of your shortcomings and certain aspects of the grammar. The best part is that lessons explaining mistakes you've made are just a hyperlink away.
1 person has voted this message useful



pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5726 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 15 of 15
02 July 2012 at 7:27pm | IP Logged 
I managed to finish Eco's and Carriere's book. I'm surprised I understood as much as I
did. It is in a form of an interview and I reread many passages over and over. I'd
recommend it on its literary value alone to anyone with vague interest in literature.
Eco and Carriere are bookcollectors and their knowledge is astonishing.

I've been doing mostly reading for the past month. I'm interested in fables and fairy
tales. Thankfully, there are a lot of those on the internet so it wasn't hard to get
reading material. I also found "Contes d'Asie" in my local library.

I joined sharedtalk and I actually had a couple of chats in French. Thankfully, one of
the people I chatted with wasn't shy to correct my mistakes and I had the chance to
notice what I've been doing wrong. I realised I don't yet have good "editing" skills
with French, meaning, I fail to recognise some simple mistakes which I know how to
correct once they're pointed out to me.


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