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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5530 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 657 of 1317 21 August 2013 at 12:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you for your sharing your very interesting experiences, and welcome to HTLAL! It really seems like 6 months is the magic number for many young kids in immersion. There was certainly a bit of pessimism in my post, but it was the sort of pessimism that falls firmly into the category of "a nice problem to have." I watch Le trône de fer in French for fun, read 250-page books in a day, and—on my very best days—I can awkwardly explain things like Keynesian economics. I've signed up for an online statistics course from L'École Polytechnique this fall to help stretch my skills a bit. If you drop me in the middle of Montreal, I take it as a given that I do anything I need to do in French. (This is all pretty typical for somebody who's between B2 and C1 on the CEFRL scale.) So when gripe about my difficulties reaching true C1 speaking skills without having a true French-speaking peer group, I certainly don't intend to discourage anybody from learning a new language! Rather, I'm trying to be honest about my frustrations and my successes, and to keep an accurate record of what it feels like from month to month. ... On an unrelated note, I've been hanging out on Fitocracy lately, trying to undo some of the physical consequences of learning French. It's a very friendly and supportive community, sort of like HTLAL but for getting in shape. And I just challenged a French speaker to a friendly fitness competition. Dites-moi « merde » ! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 658 of 1317 21 August 2013 at 1:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, most Europeans don't need to speak native like English. Especially when they are using it 99% of the time with other non natives. Funny experience: my father with really bad English (like really, really bad) skills could understand much more in Greece because he and the Greeks we met spoke the same horrible English. It is an extreme but it just shows how it works. I have even noticed my English getting worse when using it a lot with other non natives. I usually speak better than most at the beginning (even though nothing like a native) but, after quite a short time, I regress to their level. I totally understand why in some coutnries, 99% of learners get stuck at the usable, or even bearly usable, level.
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 659 of 1317 21 August 2013 at 6:23am | IP Logged | |||||
I was thinking much the same last week, mon pote! It's been far too long since I logged any real cardio or weight training, and consequently, the once respectable figure of a language learner who courted my lovely wife has been replaced with a "one pack" desk jockey who stares back at me like a stranger in the mirror each morning. So with this image in mind, I'll be exercising a good deal more from next Monday onwards in the hope of making some changes beyond the desk and classroom as well, and hope to see you on both forums making healthy gains in body and mind. ;) Edited by Teango on 21 August 2013 at 8:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5530 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 660 of 1317 25 August 2013 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just finished my fitness challenge with the French swimmer that I met online. Much fun was had by all, and I had a chance to give and receive a bit of friendly trash-talk. It turns out the social networks are a good place to interact: I'm limited to a few hundred characters, which encourages me to use short conversational idioms and work on my cultural references. Not that I don't do that already, but it's sort of intrinsic to the medium.
I also finished season 1 of the Le trône de fer, which is quite good (if dark, violent and full of gratuitous nudity). The translation and dubbing are solid, and the individual episodes range from comprehensible to a nice challenge. Highly recommended for B2 and up, provided you don't mind the kind of adult content that appears in HBO shows. The subs aren't exact, but the few times I tried them, they were pretty useful. One of the nice things about getting so much comprehensible input is that I've really started to build an intuition for the French language. More and more often, I find myself guessing an appropriate collocation or idiom and getting a reasonable answer without knowing why. My reading will shortly fall behind the Super Challenge pace, but I'm not really feeling inspired right now. French TV is where my heart is at the moment. And now that Le trône de fer is done, I think it's time to start season 1 of Les revenants. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 661 of 1317 25 August 2013 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
Tu n'as pas encore lu le livre, n'est-ce pas? Je crois que la gratuité dans le livre soit encore plus grand que dans l'émission. Par exemple, une fois dans le livre, vers le début, Catelyn s'est levé de son lit, et est marché devant Maester Luwin sans aucun vêtement. Dans ce cas, le fait qu'elle ne portait pas de vêtements a eu aucun importance. Quand j'ai lu cela, j'ai pensé que George Martin avait écrit cette scène en espérant que cela serait fait dans un film. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5530 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 662 of 1317 25 August 2013 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
J'ai lu deux ou trois livres de The Game of Thrones il y a quelques années, mais j'ai décidé que je préférais attendre la fin de la série. Je ne supporte pas des séries sans fin ni but, comme celle de Robert Jordan. Soit chaque livre doit être une histoire complète (comme dans les livres d'Ian Fleming), soit il doit y avoir un « arc narratif » pour la série (comme dans Harry Potter). Mais ce n'est qu'un gout personnel ; Martin est un écrivain de talent. Une fois il aura fini la série, je la lirai avec plaisir. (*) Je crois que -> indicatif, je ne crois que -> subjonctif, Crois-je que ? -> subjonctif. Edited by emk on 25 August 2013 at 10:23pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4531 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 663 of 1317 25 August 2013 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
The first two seasons are out in German now I'll have to try to see them. Talking of HBO shows, I don't know if Breaking Bad would be your thing, but I really enjoyed the German dubbed version.
That's really great. Congratulations. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 664 of 1317 25 August 2013 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
I read up through half of book 3 (in German and/or Dutch) before coming to the same conclusion (except that I don't necessarily believe he will ever finish). Merci pour l'explication! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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