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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 243 21 August 2011 at 8:00pm | IP Logged |
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In addition to the usual flashcards-during-lunchbreak stints, I had 90 minutes of news viewing, and 30 of Découverte. Half of the news was un-captioned, as for some reason my VCR hadn't recorded the captions, but I managed to mostly follow along.
More notably, I also watched A Christmas Tale, (Un conte de Noël) by Arnaud Desplechin. No captions, but I made an effort to ignore the subtitles unless really needed. A remarkable film, about a dysfunctional family which is brought together at Christmas time when the matriach, who's been diagnosed with cancer, needs to find a bone marrow donor. It's not the "downer" one might expect from the plot summary, but neither is it a "feel good" Christmas comedy. It's a perplexing, sometimes beautiful, sometimes moving, mixture which holds together against all odds. The interesting, complex, and occasionally infuriating characters are all superbly acted; the "bigger" names known to Anglo audiences are perhaps Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric, but even the smaller roles are pitch perfect. Cruelty, anger, sorrow, and mental instability play a role in the family dynamics; but so do love, generosity, and grace. More than just a "story", Un conte de Noël - as the title implies - has the feel of a fable: admittedly one that's a tad warped, but nevertheless with its moments of haunting and even sublime beauty. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 243 22 August 2011 at 8:06pm | IP Logged |
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Once again picked up my neglected Assimil; am also transfering some of the text to my iPod, in the form of flashcards. The process of typing them up helps me remember them; I'll have it handy even if I don't have the Assimil book itself; and the flashcard work helps to reinforce the learning process. As a "false beginner", I have a tendency to think, "Oh I know this..." when I come across something in Assimil, then later - when testing myself - realize that I don't actually know it.
Am also continuing my news-viewing (from both Canada and France), and the other flashcards. It's a nice mini-boost when I come across, on the news, words that I've previously learnt. There have been a number of small recent examples, but the first time I consciously noted it was with "le nid de guêpes": I hadn't ever imagined that I'd ever come across the phrase for "wasp's/hornet's nest" (updated to add: it made its way into my flashcards set via a Tintin story), but I was tickled when I stumbled across a French news clip on it - about people having to get rid of them, often from vacation homes that had been vacant for several months. Edited by songlines on 22 August 2011 at 9:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 19 of 243 27 August 2011 at 8:13am | IP Logged |
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Borrowed a library copy of The French They Never Taught You, which was recommended elsewhere on these forums. Much of the material is currently too advanced for me (and I knew it might be, as the Introduction makes clear that it's "for the teacher or advanced student"), but it's a fascinating read nonetheless.
And, dipping into it, I nevertheless find some valuable pointers, e.g.: #39. D'Afrique / De l'Afrique Un parfum d'Afrique. Functions as an adjective. (What kind of perfume?) Le climat de l'Afrique. Indicates belonging. So useful; I'd previously never known which form to use, and when! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 243 28 August 2011 at 8:02am | IP Logged |
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Doubled my news-viewing tonight, with an extra online stint (France 24). Hence no captions for that part. The accompanying articles are on the same subject/story as the footage, but they're by no means transcripts of the broadcasts.
Listening to it took quite a bit of concentration (especially with voice-overs), and a certain amount for refreshing and replaying, but I'm (reasonably) happy with the result in terms of comprehension. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 243 28 August 2011 at 9:53pm | IP Logged |
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Assimil-ed for an hour. The RFI français facile site seems to be down. (For the audio, anyway.) I'm getting a "file not found" type error message. Are other people having the same problems? Tried reading the news out loud, but [she deadpans] it just wasn't the same.
Not related to French, but... One of our newspapers had a full two-page article on a conference interpreter. I've added it to the Career Interpreting thread that LeCorbeau started. Unfortunately that's right at the bottom of "Active Topics" display, but I hope folks will read and enjoy it; it's quite an interesting article. And, after all, how often are there news stories in the mainstream press about conference interpretation? Here's my post, with a link to the article: Globe and Mail article on a conference interpreter. Edited by songlines on 29 August 2011 at 4:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 243 30 August 2011 at 7:23am | IP Logged |
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In answer to a tweeted query from Jeff Lehman about which French language news sources I use.
The first two sources are my current mainstays. The rest follow in alphabetical order. Radio-Canada. www.radio-canada.ca/audio-video This is the French language division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I prefer to watch the main 10 p.m. national news, broadcast on the TV itself if at all possible, so that I can switch on the closed captions. It gets videotaped so that I can re-wind tricky parts, catch unclear vocab, etc. – Or just so that I can watch it at a more convenient time if I’m not home for the live broadcast. However, if that's not possible... Le Téléjournal Ontario. National news, Ontario edition. Le Téléjournal Colombie-Britannique. National news, BC edition. Both of these are the full (usually hour-long) editions, broadcast daily in their respective provinces. (As an aside, we don’t have TV licence fees here in Canada, so the CBC’s funded by ads and tax dollars – the latter funding unfortunately at a much lower rate than you lucky folks in the UK. Still, they do a decent enough job with the news.) RFI. Le journal en français facile. http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/statiques/accueil_apprendre.asp An almost-daily ten-minute snippet. – Love the transcripts! Only problem is that reports from journalists “in the field” aren’t transcribed. [sigh] The first time I listened to it, I was horrified at how quickly they spoke. This is meant to be “façile”??! C'est la vie. Word of the Week. http://www.cbc.ca/cestlavie/word/ Updated to add: I almost forgot about this charming programme. As the title implies, it focuses on a different French word or phrase each week, often arising from the news or human-interest story preceding the "Word" segment. The introduction and explanations are themselves in English, and French speakers from around the country are heard using the French word/phrase in various contexts and usages. Light but informative. There's a transcript for the vocab section of each episode. A good choice for beginners. (The "home" programme, C'est la vie, is an English language programme about life in French-speaking Canada.) Euranet.eu: European Radio Network, available in French , as well as 18 other languages. Not all fully transcripted as such, but the printed description/ intro will sometimes include a fair bit of the text of the audio. In cases where the audio is only a shorter clip, this may then be the full transcript. (Click on the title of the articles to get this printed text.) Euronews. http://fr.euronews.net Transcripts, plus English language versions. (Change the language using the drop-down menu at the top of the page.) Sometimes the English and French language versions of a story may not match. Or the full audio may not be transcribed. But on the whole, the various versions/editions seem to be reasonably faithful reflections of each other. France Televisions. http://info.francetelevisions.fr/video-info/player_html/ Home to the various France 1, 2, 3, etc. channels. Like the BBC, funded by licence fees. I never quite understood the difference between the different stations, but Wikipedia’s set me straight. France 24. http://www.france24.com/fr/emissions A recent discovery for me, thanks to another HtLal member’s recommendation. I tried a couple of Caroline de Camaret’s European reports (on Croatia), and really enjoyed them; She speaks really clearly, and pitches the language at more or less the right level for me. The voiceovers were a bit more of a challenge; but interviews less so, due to a number of happy circumstances: a number of the interviewees spoke French as a second (or other) language, so didn’t go at the breakneck pace that seems typical for France-based speakers; and at least one of the interviewees had his interview translated (in voice-over) from English. Best of all, I think, is getting an European perspective on the news. The mainstream broadcast media here is certainly far less likely to have anything on Croatia, for example. Wikipedia says France 24 is “aimed at the overseas market, similar to BBC World News, and DW-TV”, and I can see that. I’ll definitely start using this one more frequently. The main ".com" page offers “French” and “English” language options, but the two sets of stories etc. are not the same. France 24 tried automatic transcription of their broadcasts last year, but that experiment – alas – seems to now be over. La Guingette. http://www.laguinguette.com/ and http://www.alistairmills.com/French/LaGuinguette/index.html A news magazine, really. No longer being produced (that is, there aren’t any new “articles”). But there’s still plenty of archived material still available. Audio with transcripts, and English translations. The first few lines of text somehow don’t show on the screen (is it only my screen?), but that’s a very minor quibble. Radio-Canada International. http://www.rcinet.ca/francais/ The international (shortwave radio) broadcasting division of the CBC. The stories in English, Chinese, etc. are not the same as the ones in French, but I assume they all give a Canadian perspective (and accent) to the news. I don’t usually listen to this (I tend not to listen to radio at all, preferring a medium where there’s at least the possibility of lip-reading), but the speakers seem to be generally remarkably clear. I should try adding it to my regular rotation. TFO. http://www.tfo.org/ Ontario French language station, funded in part by member donations (as PBS is). I don’t get this on my TV; and don't usually watch it online either. But I offer the link for those who might like to try it. Télévision Suisse Romande. www.tsr.ch. French-language Swiss channel. TV5. http://www.tv5.org/ TV5 WebTV. http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/webtv/index.php From France. Main TV5 page has link to several sections, including the daily news (Le Journal), spoken at a fast clip. “Langue française” section is the home of “Merci Professeur!”, in which Bernard Cerquiglini traces the history of various French words and expressions. “Documentaire” offers one free documentary a month (other docs are available for a fee of a few Euros.) This month’s doc is on the gardens of Florida. “WebTV” page has an extensive collection of archived clips, typically of the newsmagazine variety. They vary in difficulty, but I’ll sometimes dip into something cultural, like a series on the chateaux of France – even if can’t follow the dialogue, I can still admire (or perhaps not, in one kitschy instance) the art and architecture. Updated to add a few more links. Edited by songlines on 16 October 2011 at 9:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4909 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 23 of 243 30 August 2011 at 5:49pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you for posting such a detailed collection of online media for French! I have already been using Le journal en français facile, and like you I was horrified by the speed of it. But as I have only been learning French since June, I am simply in the word recognition stage. I will be exploring the rest very soon!
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| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5209 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 243 31 August 2011 at 5:40am | IP Logged |
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You're welcome; - and enjoy!
I've just updated it with a link to C'est la vie's Word of the Week: Little five-minute broadcasts in English, which in fact turn out to be a nice way of extending your French vocabulary. Edited by songlines on 31 August 2011 at 6:59am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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