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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Scratch Groupie United States Joined 5240 days ago 45 posts - 57 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 9 of 46 01 July 2011 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
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It would definitely be a good idea to get a program like Assimil. LR can do a good amount of work helping you become familiar with the sound of the language, but there is one glaring problem in trying to do it with French. French has a set of literary tenses, conjugations which are not used in spoken French and are used for writing. It doesn't mean you won't learn anything about French verbs in LR, you will get spoken conjugations in dialogues of course.
But considering that you're going to a place where you'll hear spoken French and you'll be talking yourself, you'll want something to study that'll teach you how it is spoken in everyday life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 46 02 July 2011 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, I hear you on that. That's why I picked up Michel Thomas in the first place, so I could figure out how basic conjugating works. Thankfully, I have a bit of background in Spanish, and French is extremely similar when conjugating. So far I've been doing pretty well when hearing the literary past tenses and figuring out the stem, and how I might say it in other tenses. I probably will take your advice and listen to some Assimil though.
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| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 46 08 July 2011 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
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I finished Harry Potter 2. It was harder to follow along, though partly because I had never read the book before, so I had to focus a lot more on reading than just glancing at a sentence and concentrating on the audio. I'll re-read this book again now. My LR hours are up to 49.
I also started Assimil. I did the first three lessons so far. I'm not exactly sure how I want to go about doing it. What I did on the first three was listen to them a couple times without looking at the text. Then listen while looking at the French. Then listen while looking at the English. Repeat until I understand stuff. I have no idea how other people are going about this. Additionally, I started French in Action. I don't have any of the materials besides the videos. So far I've just watched the first two videos. Basically I'm just planning on supplementing learning from various sources to get a more well-rounded experience. Plus when I see or hear words in multiple places it's easier to remember. Edited by LeadZeppelin on 09 July 2011 at 11:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 46 15 July 2011 at 8:46am | IP Logged |
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Well then! I just finished my second reading of Harry Potter 2 L1-L2. I was very surprised at the difference between the first and second readings. This last run I felt like I was able to understand way more than I ever have on previous readings. I was able to understand all of some of the longer sentences for example, not just the three word sentences. Another indication that felt really great was understanding the audio when the audio deviated from the English prose. For instance, at one point a character said something like, "Remember it!" Instead of saying remember it in French, what the audio said (in French) was, "don't forget it!" And I easily picked up on that without any trouble. This happened all over the book and it made me excited to continue reading, as it made me feel like I was definitely making progress.
My Harry Potter LR hours are now at 58. I've probably studied French around 100 hours at this point, but I don't like tracking hours much except for the audio / video stuff where it's really easy to. I've also finished up to lesson 8 of Assimil and video 8 of French in Action. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 46 28 July 2011 at 7:09am | IP Logged |
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Boy, do I feel bad about this update!
I haven't studied French nearly as much as usual. This happened for two reasons: first I had a huge research literature review to do, which I spent three packed days writing (though I did study a little bit each day). Then I had four days in a row where I didn't study, just because I was so busy hanging out with friends, getting drunk, or driving all over the country trying to fulfill visa requirements. Okay, so I finally finished Harry Potter 2 for the third time. I'm going to move onto Harry Potter 3 now (mainly cause I want a new story!). Regarding Assimil and French in Action, I think I've only done one of each since the last update. This is due to the fact that I just installed Windows on my computer (previously using Linux), and those files are on my external HDD, which is formatted with a Linux journaling system, so I can't access them right now. I need to fix my boot loader first, which isn't difficult, it's just annoying and I haven't set out the time to do it yet. I need to though. I also started re-listening to Michel Thomas introductory course. I finished the first two of eight CDs. Since this is the second time I'm listening to them, I'm going to move onto the advanced once I finish the eigtth disc. I'm getting ready to move in a week and a half (back to my parents' place for a few weeks). Hopefully that doesn't disrupt my studies too much. As far as school goes, the only thing I have left is a final. Tonight I went to a local park, setup my hammock and LRed to finish up HP and listened to a Michel Thomas CD as well. Seriously, hammocks are the best ever. I really recommend others try this too. There's so many advantages: 1. It gets you out of your house! 2. Fresh air 3. Parks rule 4. Hammocks are super comfy 5. No distractions like a computer when a chapter ends 6. Might even meet someone, tonight even though I had headphones in someone came up and started talking to me about my hammock. I'm used to this, as I slackline (youtube it if you don't know!) in the same park. Anywho, think I'm gonna start in on HP3 now! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 46 12 August 2011 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
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So I haven't studied as much as I wanted to, AGAIN, but like I said I saw it coming. I had a final, and I had to move everything I own back to my parents' house, and I had to say my goodbyes to almost everyone I know. Now I'm back living at my parents' house for now. Actually...
I leave for Belgium in exactly two weeks! I feel like I'm totally ready for Europe but not exactly ready to speak French, haha. Well, my progress is: I finished Michel Thomas basic again. I finished LR of Harry Potter 3. Did a few Assimil. I need to ramp up how much Assimil I'm doing though. I feel like I'm progressing, slowly and slowly. Sometimes when I was reading Harry Potter I would just close my eyes and listen instead of follow along with the English. This worked surprisingly well sometimes. Since I've never read the book before, I really didn't know what was coming up, and I could make out things better than I thought I would be able to. Next I'm going to do Michel Thomas advanced. It's only four discs. Maybe one per day. Also start re-reading Harry Potter 3. As well as do maybe three or so Assimil's a day. I suppose it's not going to matter toooo much, since I'm headed to Belgium soon. When I arrive in Belgium I will be attending a two week / 60 hour French class. I'm pretty sure they test us on the first day to see what level we should be in. This should be another great addition to my studies, and it will actually be my first real French class. Until next time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 46 22 August 2011 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
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Well, last night I finished up Harry Potter 3 LR for the second time. That's another 11 hours of LR, bringing my total LR hours to about 91... wow!
I finished Michel Thomas advanced. I thought it was extremely dense and will definitely need another listen. It is pretty crazy how it teaches you almost 20 tenses/moods/ways to say something. I'm up to the 15th French in Action video. I've been watching each video twice before moving on to the next one. I don't really have the other materials, so a lot of the dialogue is going over my head, but I'm definitely learning things from each video, plus they're entertaining. I've done Assimil up to lesson 33. I started an intensive reading of Harry Potter 1, with no audio, but trying to figure out every word and how the sentence structures work. That takes me a long time to do though, but I know I need to do stuff like that. I've been writing a couple people in Belgium in French, and that has definitely been a learning experience. I can spend hours writing an email that still has a ton of grammar mistakes. Frustrating and humbling. I leave for Belgium this Friday! I can't believe it's finally time to go! I've never tried to have a conversation with anyone in French. I have no idea what to expect... I'm afraid I'm not going to understand anything anyone says and I'm not going to be able to come up with anything to say either. Hopefully it's not THAT bad, and hopefully I start to pick it up quickly. Edited by LeadZeppelin on 22 August 2011 at 8:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5026 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 46 01 February 2012 at 8:39pm | IP Logged |
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So, I've been in Belgium for five months and I haven't updated this logbook at all.
GREAT log Kevin. Ha. Okay, so when I arrived, I found out that my French was absolutely horrible. I took a two week French class when I first arrived and I tested into A1+ (just one above the people who didn't know anything, basically). That was humbling to say the least. After those two weeks there was another test for the semester long French class in which I tested into A2. A little better. Still not great, but I had only been studying for about 3 months at that point, and almost all of it was by myself. At this point I've been studying for about 7.5 months. I'm probably about B1. Some things are better than others. Every day I can feel it getting better. My French has been very incremental, especially my oral comprehension. 1. I arrived and for quite awhile could understand no spoken French. 2. I could understand a few things that were directed at me, when people spoke slow and enunciated well. I couldn't understand anything between two natives talking together. 3. I could start understanding a few words when natives talked together, but nowhere near enough to put together the gist of the conversation. 4. I could understand much more when natives spoke together and could often understand their stories. So that's about where I am now. I feel totally comfortable walking into stores, restaurants, talking to people on the train, anything like that. And I think a lot of times I fool people and they don't even know I'm not a native (though maybe not, ha). It's harder for me to have full conversations. Here's what I've done these past five months: 1. When I first arrived, I found a Belgium and moved in with him. I figured that living with a native would help a lot. I practice with him sometimes. Other times we talk in English. His English is better than my French for sure. 2. Dating the natives. I've had a couple girlfriends (and several flings, ha) who I get to constantly ask, "comment on dit ça en français?" Though again, both girlfriends have been totally fluent in English, so we almost always talked in English. 3. I took two French classes, already mentioned. One two week intensive class, another normal class that lasted the semester. These were useful for forcing me to listen and talk in French all the time I was there. 4. Harry Potter. I quit my old method of LR. I started reading intensively Harry Potter 4, making sure I looked up every word I didn't know. I finished all 600+ pages of it and by the end I was sometimes finishing 1-2 pages in a row without ever using the dictionary. Also, every time I walk around the city I would listen to it in French. I got to the point where I could listen to a new chapter that I had never looked at the French or English and understand the majority of what was said, and definitely the plot points. That felt really cool, because I was listening to a book written in another language and just enjoying it for what it was--a story, regardless what language. 5. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. I've started reading this book recently. The two tomes together total around 1600 pages, so it might take a bit, but I'm reading pretty rapidly now. Plus, in a few weeks I'm leaving Belgium and am just traveling around Europe. I'll have a ton of spare time on trains, buses, just sitting around a city park, etc. 6. Movies, TV shows. I've been watching some movies in French, mostly re-dubbed stuff, starting with Disney type movies. Also I've downloaded some TV shows that I enjoy, like Seinfeld, in French. 7. I bought Schaum's Outline of French Grammar one or two weeks ago. I've been doing the exercises diligently. I also plan to take this with me on my travels around Europe. Already I can tell my grammar is much better, which gives me a lot of confidence. 8. Most of my friends were Belgiums, not exchange students, which was quite odd I found out. Most people on exchange stick with other exchange students. I really made a point to hang out with the locals. It gave me many opportunities to listen to them speak. -- My thoughts so far: I think the first 2.5 months before I came to Belgium weren't done very well. I did way to much LR, listening to Harry Potter and just not realizing how much I really wasn't understanding. When I was just hearing this gibberish I wasn't learning anything. I should have done more intensive reading with it so I could at least try to make out more of the words. Once I started intensively reading Harry Potter 4 it was like an instant mark of when my French started rapidly improving. And I really haven't studied all THAT much. I've done so much partying since I've been here, sometimes I would go weeks without doing much French at all. Other times I was much more studious. Overall I'm probably B1, but it's kind of hard to tell. I got my grades back for my French class, and I got 16/20, which was the grade needed to be B1 level (otherwise you would be assigned A2+ next semester). But I also didn't do quite a bit of the online homework for the class, which was a separate thing altogether and a bit hard to explain. So had I just done that other homework I guess I would have scored higher. So perhaps I'm closer to B1+, but I have no idea. It would be cool to take a test and see. My reading ability is much better than my speaking or oral. Since I've now spent a lot of time reading books, I can do that pretty damn easily. My oral comprehension for the audio books is also pretty damn good, but conversation is a bit different obviously. Some people I can understand most of what they say. Other people I struggle to understand two words (ENUNCIATE FOR THE LOVE!!). So that's what I've learned so far. For how long I've been studying I think it's pretty good progress. I'm still psyched to improve. I will master this language I swear! And maybe try learning Spanish or Italian later. But much later, I want to stay focused on French for now. :) Edited by LeadZeppelin on 01 February 2012 at 8:43pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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