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Fabrizio’s Spanish, French & Japanese Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes  Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 41 of 49 22 May 2011 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Ciao a te getreallanguage! Thanks a lot for your comment ;)
I'm going to South Africa in a few days, I don't think I'll be here around for a while, BUT I'd be more than glad to Skype with you sometimes! My Spanish is still pretty rusty, - by the way, your Italian is very good indeed, I just saw some of the videos you've posted on your youtube channel - it would certainly be of great help if we could practice together every now and then ;) Let's keep in touch and thanks again :) I'll keep you all posted, of course! Edited by Fabrizio on 22 May 2011 at 10:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 42 of 49 29 May 2011 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi there,
I'm happy to let you know guys that I've added to my list a new language: French! The main reason why I eventually opted for it - if you remember, I had been hesitating between few other languages for a little while - is that I'm planning to move to Belgium soon in order to keep studying there for my master degree. For this and few other reasons, I'm now tackling the language and hopefully, by the end of the September, I'll be reached sort of intermediate level. The following list includes the main resources I'm going to use: - Pimsluer French 1 - 2 - 3; - Assimil, Il francese senza sforzo. I'm planning to go through one single lesson of each everyday for the next 4 months and, of course, to add to this (poor) schedule movies, podcasts, etc. I've decided not to put too much emphasis on quantity at this stage, but rather to work hard on the basic aspects of the language. Moreover, I'm still working on my Spanish - I still want to get to a C1 level by mid November - and it's not about "mantaining" the language, but rather "actively studying" it. So, to sum up, what am I planning to achieve, what are my personal goals? - (Spanish) DELE C1 certification by November; - (French) DELF B1 cerfication by November. And what about my dear beloved Japanese? Japanese still remains the most beautiful language I've ever studied in my entire life and I feel so bad everytime I think of how much I neglect it. I seriously don't want to give up on it, but this time too I had to leave it behind because of some other urgencies. I'm going on holidays to Cape Town in 10 days, I don't think I should start working again on my Japanese now... I definitely need to make up my mind first. I'll be writing in details about my French study background soon ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 43 of 49 30 May 2011 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone :)
- French: A quick update to let you know guys I'm on lesson number 5 of both the Assimil and the Pimsleur courses. Thus far everything went pretty smooth, except for the pronunciation which I honestly found a bit tricky - nothing really impossible though. I'm listening to the dialogues quite often during the day, and I've planned a sort of schedule to put into practice Luca's method of "back and forth" translation. For the moment that's all, but I'll make sure that I add more differentiate activities to my daily study routine soon. As for my knowledge background, I studied some French back to junior school for about 3 years; I honestly don't remember anything but very simple sentences which I cannot even write properly now. I can certainly consider myself an absolute beginner of the language, but I cannot hide the fact that, as it was for Spanish, in this case too my native language seems to be going very helpful. I'm planning to go through a DELF B1 sample test by the end of the week as I need to get a sort of point of reference in order to check my progress ;) - Spanish: Despite the great amount of Spanish movies, podcasts etc. I consume everyday, I think I still need to work my way through a language course. I've not the faintest idea of which one I should go for, I don't hide you guys I'm a bit in trouble here. Does anybody know something about "Teach Yourself Perfect your Spanish" course? Any other suggestions? I'm going to work hard on my vocabulary too, I definitely need to turn into active those thousands of words I only know "passively". To this purpose "Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary" is the book I eventually opted for, no Anki thanks - at least for the moment. As for my "dear" French, in this case too I'm going to take a whole certification sample test by the end of the week, wish me luck :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 44 of 49 02 June 2011 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone,
A brief post to update you guys :) Everything is fine here, I keep working my way through both courses and I’m really enjoying the whole process! I wonder where all my personal resentment against French came from… I can’t even blame my teacher at school who was, as far as I remember, really nice to all her students! It must be something “cultural” I guess… Italians and French aren’t exactly what I’d call “best friends” after all eheheh (hello cliché) :) By the way, I think my pronunciation is improving a lot! This “strategy” of using Pimsleur along with Assimil is indeed working good for me ;) As for my Spanish, I simply keep watching movies and listening to tons of podcasts for the moment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 45 of 49 07 June 2011 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Golly gosh, this Pimsleur course is boring to death. How can a it be so slow?! C'mon...
It's good for pronounciation practice, but it doesn't really teach you a lot, does it?! I wonder if it's worth my time... The Assimil course, on the other hand, is simply awesome! I'm currently on lesson number 13, I can't wait to go through the next one tomorrow :D As I've already told you guys, I'm using the "back and forth" translation technique, it's working good for me. My Spanish movies & podcasts immersion goes on as usual. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5191 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 46 of 49 08 June 2011 at 8:37am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, last year when I studied Italian, the Pimsleur course absolutely put me to sleep. I didn't even consider Pimsleur for one moment when I took up Spanish this year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 47 of 49 24 July 2011 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi there,
It’s been a while since last time I updated my log, but I got some good news here! Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pleased to let you know that I just got my DELE B2 final result and, brace yourselves… I passed it! - Group 1 (Reading + Writing): 32.25/ 35 points - Group 2 (Grammar and Vocabulary): 16.33/ 20 points - Group 3 (Listening + Speaking): 37.25/ 45 points Final result: 85.83/ 100 points Call me idiot, but I’m really proud of myself! And now it’s time to get the DELE C1 one, November is getting closer :) As for my French, I unfortunately had to interrupt the study for a few days, but I’m already back on track! I’m now on lesson 36 (passive wave), everything is fine ;) More updates soon! Edited by Fabrizio on 24 July 2011 at 5:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 48 of 49 26 July 2011 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone,
I'm not sure if I've already mentioned it before in any of my previous posts, but I'm going to sit a French language entry test on September 4th in order to get into this university I'm now applying to. I cannot unfortunately say what level I'll be required to have (this "detail" isn't unfortunately specified on the official university web site), but I know for sure that the exam itself consists in a 3 hours writing section (an article/ essay to be summarized will be given to the candidates) and a 10 minutes interview about the topic discussed in the papers previously provided. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pass such a kind of entry test, but of course I'll try my best to be successful. To this end, I've decided to focus more on my French studies now and, from August on, I'll be dedicating 3/4 hours a day to this language. As you certainly know if you follow my log, I'm currently working my way through the Assimil "Il francese senza sforzo" course and I'm pretty happy about the results I'm getting. However, despite all the possible enthusiasm I've got for this book, working on it 1 hour a day isn't certainly enough to "rapidly" improve my language skills. Here is the plan: I'll keep working on it, but I'm going to add to my daily routine the following activities: - 1 hour of active listening (movies, TV series, news, etc); - 1 hour of building sentences using the vocabulary I've learnt thus far and any possible new words; - 1 hour reading random articles from newspapers etc; - "some time" speaking to myself/ via Skype with someone. I set my goal to 100 hours of active study within September 1st; I'll make sure that I keep track of the hours as precisely as possible, obviously. Wish me luck. Edited by Fabrizio on 26 July 2011 at 6:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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