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Swift’s Log - French and Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Swift Senior Member Ireland Joined 4610 days ago 137 posts - 191 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Russian | Message 73 of 91 02 December 2013 at 1:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Language studies are going fairly well. Not much progress in Russian (I did the first ten lessons of Assimil in September but that's all). I did very well in my end of school exams, so getting into uni in France shouldn't be a problem (I think).
I'm spending pretty much all of my free time on French these days, so I'm not even really playing video games anymore. Speaking on Skype for 1-2 hours a day, reading at 20-50 pages of a novel (Harry Potter, mostly), writing on Lang-8, learning words. The usual, basically. I like keeping a little language blog like this, but even when I am working every day, I don't feel like I have much of interest to share. Plus, I'm usually tired enough at the end of a day that I just want to watch a film or a series in French. En fait, je n'ai même pas envie d'écrire ce message en anglais. Depuis quelque temps, l'anglais n'est qu'une langue que j'utilise pour communiquer avec mes amis et ma famille. Et pour aider les français avec qui je parle sur Skype, bien sûr. J'essaie de faire une immersion, en gros. J'ai commencé à préparer mon dossier pour proposer ma candidature à des universités françaises, mais je n'ai pas encore décidé dans quelles fac je veux m'inscrire. Je n'ai que trois choix, et ils doivent tous porter sur la même mention. Bien évidemment, je dois aussi passer le DELF B2 pour vérifier mon niveau de français. Je ne pense pas que ce sera trop difficile. En revanche, j'étudierai pour le DELF comme pour n'importe quel autre examen. J'ai parfois l'impression de frôler le niveau C1 en français. Qui sait, je l'ai peut-être déjà atteint. Mais en tout cas, je ne veux pas être arrogant, parce que j'ai toujours énormément de travail à faire. Pour la plupart, je travaille sur ma pronociation quand je parle en français sur Skype. Globalement, j'ai une bonne pronociation, mais je veux travailler sur les tous petits détails. Mon but est d'avoir d'ici un an un accent proche de celui d'un français natif. Je ne sais pas si c'est possible, mais je vais tenter le coup. Si j'échoue, qu'importe, parce que je sais que j'ai déjà bien progressé après cinq semaines de conversations. Je n'aurai peut-être pas un niveau parfait, entre guillemets, mais j'aurai un très bon niveau (si je continue, bien sûr) ! Edited by Swift on 02 December 2013 at 1:33am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5058 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 74 of 91 04 December 2013 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
And you actually believe that they are non-essential? You are a victim of this book then. What is written about pronunciation in this book is complete nonsense. Edited by Марк on 04 December 2013 at 8:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Swift Senior Member Ireland Joined 4610 days ago 137 posts - 191 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Russian | Message 75 of 91 05 December 2013 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
Fair enough, I appreciate the opinion of a native speaker. We all have to start somewhere though, and I think that beginner books are filled with at least some false statements and oversimplifications. Could you expand a little more on what you mean? Is the information flat out wrong, does it oversimplify things, etc. ? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 76 of 91 06 December 2013 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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You let the bear out of his cage. Mark's pet peeve is basically everything concerning
pronunciation, particularly concerning Russian. For what it's worth, the pronunciation directives indicated by the soft and hard sign are pretty important - although the hard sign itself is a bit rare and not used that often. The soft sign on the other hand is everywhere. I recommend learning to pronounce them (treat every consonant followed by a soft sign as a separate phoneme from the dry consonant, except in the cases where it doesn't really change the pronunciation). Edited by tarvos on 06 December 2013 at 12:50am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5058 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 77 of 91 06 December 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
It is the opposite a learner needs. Yes, it's flat wrong because it does not even approximately explain the system of Russian sounds and basic pronunciation rules. I will explain it in detail later. But, for example, the distinction between soft and hard consonants is the most important phonological distinction in the Russian language, not a "detail of the small differences between the way Moscow Russian is pronounced and the way it is written". Many people found me useful on this forum. I'm upset that tarvos is trying to diminish what I'm writing. To say that I'm just a crazy person, who confuses learners with unimportant things. Edited by Марк on 06 December 2013 at 8:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 78 of 91 06 December 2013 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Come on, a soft sign and hard sign distinction is not a matter of life and death in Russian. No, it's not correct in terms of its representation, and I said as much. But it doesn't kill anybody if they forget to palatalise instead of iotate. Be realistic. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5058 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 79 of 91 06 December 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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And what is a matter of life and death in Russian?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 80 of 91 06 December 2013 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Nothing, as far as I am concerned. That just reinforces my point. Don't take yourself that seriously. There is a line between insignificant and worth being vitriolic about. It's huge and you're on one end of it, Penguin Course on the other. There's a middle ground there. Edited by tarvos on 06 December 2013 at 9:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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