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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 249 of 1317 18 October 2012 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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My emotional experience of learning a language, by CEFR level.
Trying to reach A1. Good days: Whoo! Assimil rocks! French actually makes some vague sense. I can do this! Bad days: Must. Study. Today. Cannot. Break. The. Chain. Trying to reach A2. Good days: Actually, French spelling and pronunciation seem fairly logical now. Whoa. Bad days: Will this Assimil course ever end? Trying to reach B1. Good days: I just read a 450-page book. In French. I am INVINCIBLE! Bad days: OK, I just read that sentence 5 times and it still makes absolutely no sense. Trying to reach B2. Good days: Did I just explain the pros and cons of single sex schools in French? That's, like… wow. Bad days: WTF? I could, like, talk yesterday. Did I just manage to break my French? Worse days: Is this going to take a million years? Am I doing this wrong? Am I too old? Trying to reach C1. Good days: I can do almost anything I want in French (except understand difficult audio). Bad days: …But I do everything badly. It's going to years before I can do it well. Natives are so good it's scary. 13 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4691 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 250 of 1317 18 October 2012 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nice. I'm in step 3 there right now, and I definitely can relate to everything in your list up to that point...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5169 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 251 of 1317 18 October 2012 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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If at your level you say you're still trying to reach C1, then fluent French doesn't exist =D
A native said I was B2, maybe even C1, but considering your personal trajectory, I might be leaving B1 towards B2 right now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 252 of 1317 19 October 2012 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
I certainly don't want anyone to think my French is amazing! The first panel of this Itchy Feet comic is pretty much how I feel most days—my French is basically a rough sketch, laboriously drawn, while the natives around me draw effortlessly and elegantly. Or to use another metaphor, native French is like a rather nice Roquefort, and my French is Easy Cheese in a spray can. The good news is that I can do quite a lot with my French, as long as I don't mind doing it badly. Sometimes, for a few brief shining moments, I'm actually borderline competent. There was a great metaphor in Assimil Using French: 1. At first, you build your language upwards, until you reach a level when you can use it. 2. Then, you build your language outwards, learning to use it in more and more situations. This corresponds nicely to A1/A2 and B1/B2, respectively. But let me add another stage: 3. Eventually, you start filling in thousands of nooks and crannies (while still building outward). B1 and B2 really are fantastic levels—you can already do tons of useful stuff. But if you really fall in love with your language, then they're just the beginning. So I figure it's important to enjoy the process, and to not worry too much about the ups and downs. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5265 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 253 of 1317 19 October 2012 at 4:23am | IP Logged | ||
The poet laureate of the islands wasn't singing about language learning but he may as well have been. Great post, emk! Well said. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4768 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 254 of 1317 19 October 2012 at 5:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Great post, emk. I have had some great days down at my A2 level, but I had some real bomb outs recently, a couple of situations where I tried to actually use my Spanish for something important and failed. I'm a bit discouraged right now, but I'm more determined than ever to push through to B1.
You're an inspiration :) steve 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4660 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 255 of 1317 19 October 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
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One more level for you, emk:
Trying to reach C2: Good days: wow, I didn't notice that I have just spent a week abroad, speaking only in target language, discussing everything from my family to rocket science. Bad days: Never mind that yesterday we discussed rocket science. Today, lets talk about something easy :) Worse days: Did I say I speak this language? Shame on me! Where is the textbook for beginners? And the grammar book? Somebody please help me! ^This^ happens sometimes. You able to understand, you are still able to speak about almost everything, but you suddenly revert to the sweating and silently swearing stage :) The next day or next hour, the switch in your head flips and you are back to speaking fluently and effortlessly. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 256 of 1317 19 October 2012 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Nice metaphor, emk. Given that my French is ever so steadily increasing towards B2 (TV
shows are becoming more understandable and less of a nuisance), I can certainly relate to your post, haha... I wish Russian would stop being stuck at B1 though. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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