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Inhaling Belgium | ||
Tags: Belgium | Super Challenge | Living abroad | Dutch | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4227 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 113 of 116 15 January 2015 at 6:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi PM, thanks for stopping by! Indeed I am tending to drown in self-pity...however, when comparing to what YOU are achieving (with an infant and shift work!) - I am...just speechless....WOW.
The year has started nicely. Partly because I am already taking a huge bulk of this year's annual vacation in January...:-) I have watched a complete season of Grey's Anatomy and started a new book (Preston Child: Cauchemar génétique). In addition, I did some mini-lessons and have learned 100 new words. The Super Challenge fits nicely into my daily routine, since it is leisure rather than work. As long as the house renewal is still on my plate, I have decided to be happy and satisfied with this. When all this is done, intense activities (course work, tutored conversations, Lang-8 purges) will then hopefully give the final push to my French, to make me "fully operational". One day :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 114 of 116 15 January 2015 at 7:45am | IP Logged | ||
Glad to hear you're off to a good start! Where in Belgium are you? I keep asking this of participants overseas as I'm always curious and I know Belgium a little in your case. Btw to provide some clarity.. I'm a shift worker but 9 out of ten times i work in the afternoon through to evening (sometimes I don't start work until 3.30pm). I purposely request this so that I can study during the morning. I cannot study very well at all in the afternoon/evening if I work a morning shift as my willpower and intellectual focus reduces by around 70%. I despise studying later in the day (although watching sth in French, audio during commute home or some light reading are all ok- coursework in the evening=a major push just to start it). My wife is great with our daughter and she's still off work. She will return soonish, so my study hours might take a dive. Currently I'm able to spend time with my daughter in the middle of the day, but I have certainly felt guilty on more than a few occasions of not being involved enough due to my French obsession occurring later in day as ive gone to sleep too late the night before , so I've got to be mindful and balance things well as she's only this young once :) and I will get there with my French eventually. Perhaps over-sharing there... Thanks heaps for the compliments :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4227 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 115 of 116 17 January 2015 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi PM, I can totally relate to the importance to adapt to one's individual biorhythm (I a similar to you - thinking works better in the morning than in the afternoon or evening, but when it comes to physical activity, I am not really a morning person. My brain activity peaking during office time - that is great for my employer, less great so for my after-work French studies :-)
And I do agree that it is always difficult to manage family time, work and personal interests. A few years ago I did face a similar problem - not with a fast-growing child, but with my father (Somehow noone had come over and offered him the Philosopher’s Stone to grant eternal life). At that time, I had a very travel-intense and demanding full-time job, and I studied during nights to get the job of my dreams one day. I took a very daring and risky decision, which was critized by most of my friends - I quit my job and spent one wonderful year with my father and my studies. Looking back, this was the perfect thing to do, but only in that very situation of mine (no other duties, some savings, and great inner certainty). What I wanted to say was more or less: I understand you. I live nearby Charleroi, which is a relatively poor previous mining region, but the landscape is awesome – I adore the canals and cannot wait until summer to have lovely daily walks there with my dog. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 116 of 116 20 January 2015 at 7:06am | IP Logged | ||
Salut Suzie, Merci beaucoup pour avoir partagé ta situation avec moi. Ça m'a fait plaisir de lire que tu as fait ce que tu voulais malgré les pensées des autres personnes. Il semble que es très contente de ta décision que tu avais pris à cette période. Je connais un peu Charleroi. Ma femme et moi on y est allé deux fois. Une fois pour aller à l'aéroport près de Charleroi pour voler à un autre pays en Europe (je ne me souviens pas où exactement maintenant que je le pense, mais je crois que c'était Portugal.. soit Portugal ou Norvège). L'autre fois c'était pour retourner. À cette période-là nous étions en train de profiter un peu de la vie en Europe puisque nous habitions à Maastricht aux Pays-Bas près de la frontière belgique et près de la frontière allemande aussi. J'ai encore deux grands billets de train que j'ai gardé du voyage entre Maastricht et Charleroi et le voyage de retour aussi. Et maintenant quand j'utilise French in Action j'utilise ces grands billets comme marque-pages dans mes livres de FIA parce qu'ils sont très bons d'utiliser quand j'ai besoin de couvrir quelque chose (j'avais déjà écrit beaucoup de réponses dans ces livres il y a beaucoup de temps parce que c'était le cours que j'avais utilisé quand j'ai d'abord essayer d'apprendre le français il y a presque vingt ans !). Pour nous Charleroi avait l'air un peu pauvre ou industriel comme tu l'as décrite, mais assez intéressante quand même. Pusique nous étions de passage à l'aéroport de Charleroi, nous avions aussi pris un bus pour voyager entre la gare et l'aéroport et pour cette raison nous avons vu un peu de la ville. Mais pas beaucoup en réalité. Comme d'habitude j'aimerais bien explorer plus naturellement. J'espère que tes études vont bien :) PM ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------ Hi Suzie Thank you very much for sharing your situation with me. I'm happy to read that you did what you wanted despite what others think. It seems that you're very happy with the decision you had made at the time. I know Charleroi a little. My wife and I went there a couple of times. Once to go to the airport near Charleroi to fly to another country in Europe (I don't remember where exactly now that I think about it, but I believe it was Portugal.. Either Portugal or Norway). The other time was to return. At that time we were busy taking advantage of life in Europe since we lived in Maastricht in the Netherlands near the Belgian border and near the German border as well. I still have two large train tickets that I kept from the journey between Maastricht and Charleroi and the return trip. And now when I use French in Action I use these large tickets as bookmarks in my FIA books, as they are very good to use when I need to cover something up (I had already written a lot of answers in these books a long time ago as it was the course that I had used when I first tried to learn French nearly 20 years ago!) For us Charleroi seemed a little poor and industrial as you described it, but somewhat interesting nonetheless. Since we were passing through the airport near Charleroi, we also took a bus to travel between the station and the airport and for that reason we saw a little of the city. But not a lot in reality. As usual I'd like to explore more of course. Hope your studies are going well :) PM 1 person has voted this message useful |
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