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My French Log [TAC 2015] | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tomgosse Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3994 days ago 90 posts - 143 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 17 of 60 22 November 2014 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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My favourite French music station is: Paris Chanson. It plays mostly classic chansons from the forties and fifties. Artists such as Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, etc.
Another good station is Radio Yé Yé. It plays mostly French pop music from the sixties. France Gall, Françoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, etc. Edited by tomgosse on 22 November 2014 at 9:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3756 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 18 of 60 23 November 2014 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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No French study today (other than listening to this album on youtube whilst typing this up: Stromae -- Racine Carrée (full album)... EDIT: this link is better, because it isn't a playlist. In other words, there aren't ads every three minutes: Full Album). As Woody Allen said, 90% of life is just turning up, so writing this log entry will be my ‘turning up’ today…
Wow, thank you for yet more links!! I find it amazing that you’re all able to focus on learning a language yourselves whilst also spending so much time helping those like myself… merci beaucoup! You are all certainly very passionate about language learning, as I am also at the moment. In fact, I am strongly considering studying a language at university. I (hopefully) start next year in March… I currently plan to do an Arts degree majoring in Philosophy, but who knows, my passion at the moment is languages… then again, studying a language at uni may make me not enjoy learning languages, so who knows... I wouldn’t study, say, Spanish or French at uni because I think it’d be a particularly effective way to learn the language, it’d just be because it means I would actually have an excuse to spend large amounts of time studying a language! Also, today it reached 44 degrees where I was: it’s not even summer yet here! I’m pretty sure that a record for the hottest day ever in November must have been set… and I was painting for 10 hours in this heat! Nah, it didn’t seem that hot, not inside anyway. Tomorrow will probably be my last day painting. Anyhow, this is all just waffle… ah yes, Stromae is probably the only French artist I know haha, my pen pal suggested I listen to him a while back, he’s not bad I reckon. I wouldn’t listen to that kind of music in English (I would listen to rock, or more ‘alternative’ stuff… although I do listen to a lot of classical music as well, I’m a little unusual haha), but in French it’s pretty cool :P I will check out all the other links in the next couple of days… your idea of learning French through studying the lyrics of French songs is genius! In your French log (I must read at least the first few pages later on… I assume it’s fine if I put the link to it here, tell me otherwise... French: Wandering Towards C1) I went to a random page and saw a comment which went something along the lines of “write a book once you reach C2 like Benny Lewis did! Your log already has all the information on it!” I will definitely pre-order your book :) Speaking of which, a few weeks ago I tried out Benny’s free Language Hacker challenge (or whatever it’s called). It really opened up my eyes to what it means to ‘speak’ a language. I am yet to do the final video of me speaking French, but when I do it I will put the link to it here. (btw, I checked out your Spanish log (well, ‘experiment’), and I see what you mean by extreme!). Thanks for the info on the Quebec accent… my auntie has this crazy idea (like all of her ideas) that her family and ours would travel to New York City and then up through the countryside, crossing into Quebec, Canada. She has a blended family, and the children of her husband did a similar trip, so she feels as though her own children should also get a trip. So if this trip ever happens then that’d be one more reason for me to learn French! Finally, this Saturday I leave for Nouvelle Zélande (New Zealand). It’s my ‘end of high school’ celebration. I am going along with a friend who happens to speak a bit of French (I emphasise the ‘a bit’; pretty shameful considering he studied it at school and in Saturday school classes for a number of years, as well as having spent his first two years of school life in France). We’re going on a four day bike ride there, along with doing other activities. Now I’ll have to work out how on earth I am going to incorporate French study into this 10 day trip, but you all have provided more than enough ideas for me. If I didn’t have your ideas then I probably would’ve just brought some handwritten notes, not that there’s anything wrong with those… Only around 70 days remain… p.s – still no reply from my pen pal… it’s been a few weeks now Edited by liam.pike1 on 28 November 2014 at 2:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jimjam Newbie Australia Joined 3988 days ago 19 posts - 22 votes Studies: Japanese, German | Message 19 of 60 24 November 2014 at 6:44am | IP Logged | ||
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That sounds like a pretty fun schoolies trip, much better than the traditional bali or
gold coast. You could always just stock your ipod with french podcasts and music and have a 10 day listening immersion. Bike riding for 4 days should give you a lot of time to listen. I'll actually be going to wollongong university next year to study languages, majoring in japanese, and minoring in french and chinese. I have already done a semester at another university and i enjoyed the experience. You could always pick a language to study that you have an interest in, but dont mind if you learn at a slower pace. Its nice to have a structured learning schedule, and having people to learn the language with, and there is always someone to practice speaking with. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4911 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 20 of 60 26 November 2014 at 8:40am | IP Logged | ||
If you're into rock, I have a few suggestions for music in French: BB Brunes-- their first album is a bit like 80s post-punk, but they have become a bit more pop-rock over their 3 albums. Téléphone-- considered the "greatest French rock group" (at least by one comment on Youtube!), they were active from 1976 to around 1986(?), but their songs still sound good. Je sais pas quoi faire Un autre monde Jean-Louis Aubert-- was the singer and guitarist of Téléphone, and still very much active. He's been my favourite French artist for a while now. Parle moi Maintenant je reviens Sur la route (with my other favourite French singer, Raphael Haroche). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3756 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 21 of 60 28 November 2014 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all,
I've been meaning to update this log for the last few days, but I've been up till midnight sending emails to various Kiwis, updating the travel itinerary whenever new information comes in, as well as emailing back and forth with the mother of the boy whom I am travelling with. It wouldn't have been so much work for me if my mate wasn't the most useless, lazy person in the world. Anyway, here's a quick update of where I'm at. Starting Monday of this week I decided that the best use of my time for learning French would be to expand my vocabulary, since I don't have massive slabs of time to do the FSI course. After having only done the first 6 lessons of the FSI course, I feel confident at learning lots of new words. Many words I already have a good idea of how they'd sound in French, despite not having heard them. However, here is a website where one can hear words read out in many different languages: Forvo. I haven't used this much, but it seems great. I have been testing out my paper dictionary which I borrowed from the library; I find having to search for a word makes me remember it better. So this is what I've been doing, in step: 1. Write down 18 words in English (so far all nouns). Why 18? Just because that's how many fit neatly on a page where the lines have already been marked out, with a line left blank between each word, one word per line. I've been choosing words which I can use. For example, because on Monday I was painting, I chose words like 'paint', 'wall', and 'ceiling'. So whenever I needed to say or think the word 'paint', I would instead say the French word, 'peinture' (with the article in front of the word, so 'la peinture'). 2. Find out what the English word is in French. So I look up the word in the dictionary (Word Reference is a great online one). Example, I look up 'wall': 'plafond'. Then I write down on my piece of paper (with the list of words) next to the word 'wall', 'plafond'. (If there are multiple meanings of words then I'll specify which one I'm referring to). When there is a word like 'L'air', where one cannot tell whether it is a masculine or feminine word, I write in brackets either a 'm' or 'f' after the word. For example: Air... L'air (m). 3. I then look up the word in French, and then using the phonetic pronunciation guide I work out how the French word sounds (this is when I use the paper dictionary). So, I look up 'plafond'. It then has the symbols as to how it's pronounced next to the word. The guide at the front tells me what sounds these symbols make. So then I know how the word sounds. If the word's pronunciation is going to really trick me then I'll write my own English pronunciation of the word in pencil next to where I wrote the French word (so far I haven't had to do this). Only some words I've looked up like this, mainly once which look a little tricky. Why only some? Time restraints. This whole exercise looks as though it should only take 5 minutes, but doing everything takes a good hour. I've maybe only had a couple of days where I've had this amount of time in one go. This whole week has been hectic though, getting ready for Nouvelle Zélande and all. 4. Make very simply sentences with the words. Just like 'où est la peinture?', or 'le plafond est là-bas'. This is simply to give some sort of context to the words. If possible, I point to the actual objects when I say these sentences. If not, I visualise them. This step should only take half a minute. I know practically no verbs, so this step doesn't require any real knowledge of French at all. 5. Try and go through the list of words as often as possible. On Monday I would look through them every time I needed to refill the container which held the paint for the roller. Also, challenge oneself: can I name the words in French when I cover up the French words, or (more importantly) can I understand what the French words mean when I say them? 6. (From here on I haven't actually done any of this stuff, but this is what I planned to do). At the end of the day, on the back of the page where the words were written or wherever (actually, it's probably better to do this on some scrap paper), write out the words again. Look at the column of English words and write out the French translation. Then write out a simply sentence for each word. This step is to consolidate all the words, if they haven't already become embedded in my brain from having looked at them numerous times throughout the day. 7. Make flash cards. Write the English word on one side, and the French word on the other side. Keep all 18 of today's words in a pile, not mixed in with other piles (once I make them). This is so for the first week or so, I can just focus on solidifying these 18 words in my memory, before then adding them to a pile of all the words which I've so far got (when this happens, early days so far). This step doesn't need to happen that night. Realistically, this step would probably be left for the weekend. In total doing all of this would take a good hour and a half I reckon, probably even more with all the flashcards. When I start doing the FSI (and starting Assimil soon, I'm yet to try it) I may cut down on the number of words per day. I am documenting all this not because I think it's a perfect method which you should all follow, but because I want to record everything of significance that I do: what methods I tried out, what different steps I tried ext. This way I can easily come back and see what I previously did, and how I can improve on this. In other words, I'm writing this down so I don't forget anything, just in case I happen to strike gold with a method which works well for me. 18 words a day equals 90 a week. In a month, 360. Pretty good if I can keep this up. Although, yesterday and today I haven't done any of this. I meant to make a couple of hundred flash cards to take to NZ, but I haven't done this and I will probably go to Queenstown without any (I leave tomorrow, Saturday, at 7:00am). On a humorous note, on Wednesday I went fishing all day on Sydney Harbour with two mates. Because I didn't have time to get all of my 18 words that morning, I took my notes and my dictionary along. In between some casts I wrote down the remaining words and looked over the words (I didn't catch anything though haha, my mate caught a fish right near the end of the day). What I ave been doing is listening to French music all the time. There's some good stuff, and there's some not so good stuff, but it's all good because it's French. I'm sure that this has helped me gain a little bit of an 'ear' for French. Radio Yé Yé is particularly enjoyable for me to listen to. I'd like to write some more, but I better get some sleep. I'll let you all know how NZ went when I return in 10 days! :D Au revoir 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 22 of 60 28 November 2014 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Je tiens à vous signaler que "plafond" veut dire "ceiling." Un "wall" est "un mur" si on parle des murs d'une maison ou "une muraille" si on parle des grands murs fortifiés.
Il me semble que vous avez une vraie passion pour le français. Je suis sûr que si vous continuez ainsi vous arriverez à le parler très bien. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5534 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 60 28 November 2014 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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That sounds like a very fun exercise!
Here are some painting links in French for your amusement: YouTube videos in French about painting A beginner painting lesson Podcasts about painting and sculpture More French painting courses Some painting humor from Topito Don't worry if you can't understand this stuff yet! That's where courses are really useful: They give you just enough boost to get you started in the beginning, when everything's still confusing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3756 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 24 of 60 09 December 2014 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I'm back! (I actually arrived back yesterday). New Zealand was simply amazing... I miss the place already! I'd love to write tonnes on my experience, but it is quite late now and I need to get up at 5:30 tomorrow to go to this Sydney University thing, some promotional thing for students starting uni next year... I will mention here though that I kept a travel journal while I was in Nouvelle Zélande, but it's only 20 pages long and I still haven't finished writing about Day 2! However, I will fill the rest in shortly, and then I will rewrite my journal and show this version to anyone who wants to read about my adventure in NZ :) I'll put a link to this here when it's finished (I'll have to work out how I'd do this, though). Language learning has helped me in many ways, including giving me the discipline to keep a journal in the first place! So there you go...
I did have two language-learning-related experiences in NZ, though. The first was at a Mexican restaurant. I said 'gracias' as the waiter presented me my meal. He smiled and replied 'de nada'. We later got talking in Spanish, but I was just so slow and I eventually gave up (which I shouldn't have). We then got talking in English, and it was a very rewarding conversation. He told me of his experience learning English, and gave me suggestions at how to best go about learning and practising my Spanish. My second 'experience' was the fact that the guy who was sharing my hostel room was a French-speaker from New Caledonia. He didn't speak English very well, and he was going to English classes over here. I used some French phrases and words with him, and just talking to him was nice. It made me appreciate how easy us English-speakers have it! It also motivated me (even more) to learn French... I can be idealistic at times, and my idealism mainly surrounds my views of languages; I believe that, in an ideal world, people will know English, French, Spanish, and German. So I feel it my duty to learn French, and to do my little bit to try and help change the situation where the only 'other' language that people learn is English (well, you know what I mean). Overall, in Queenstown there are probably almost as many non-native English speakers there as there are English speakers, so I got to hear lots of foreign languages (and lots of foreign English accents)! (ok, so I did write tonnes) In regards to language learning, I will continue doing what I was doing before I left for NZ. It seems to all be working well, although I've hardly had any time to test this properly. Now, though, I should have more time to rigorously study French. In saying this, I realise that the trick is to make the most of one's time, and to practise French whilst one does other activities which must be done (work, school, travel, walking the dogs ext.). I'm working on this with all your help, I promise! Tonight I just looked over all my vocab lists. Tomorrow I will do something language related... in Sydney is the largest book store in Australia (I believe) which is called Abbey's Bookshop. Next to it is Galaxy Bookshop, and (most importantly) upstairs is the Language Book Centre. I must admit, I've never actually been here before. But tomorrow, whilst I'm in the city, I'll visit these places! I'll let you know if I buy anything (I'm telling myself now that I won't though, haha), but chances are I'll see a product that I like the look of and then will just look it up on Amazon and find that it's half the price there as compared to what it's being sold for at the Language Book Centre. For example, the French Assimil is $200 at the LBC, but only cost me $80 on Amazon (bloody yanks taking advantage of us Aussies). I'll let you know of any developments soon! Liam p.s - only around 55 days to go... Thank you tastyonions for the correction (and for the French practise!). I did mean that 'plafond' was ceiling, but I dunno I just mixed it up (I did write that post at midnight haha) Wow emk, how'd you know that I love French art!? Probably my most 'emotional' link to the French culture is through the paintings of the Impressionists... I remember as I boy seeing all the famous paintings at a travelling exhibition that came to the Art Gallery of NSW. It was the first time that I was totally engrossed by art. Some of my fondest memories of high school come from Visual Arts class, especially studying the French Impressionist painters... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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