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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 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 33 of 116 27 June 2013 at 9:33pm | IP Logged |
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Long time no see....
Life, the relocation, renovation works and tons of bureaucratic stuff kept me from being active in the forum as well as active with my French. So, my new life is becoming real now. Just today, I drove with a rental transporter full of stuff to my future home, and on Sunday night I'll load my car and finally leave for Belgium and my new work. The first farewells are exchanged, and I am getting a bit nervous and sad and a bit less excited than before. I guess that's quite normal. I assume this anxiety, combined with a minor Anki burnout, is another cause for my current lack of motivation to continue with my French studies. I've therefore done more in English lately. English is so much more accessible, and while I am having difficulties to concentrate on French radio during renovation works, I feel comfortable when it comes to BBC podcasts. I've also watched tons of Eureka (in English) in the past three weeks, and have purchased the most recent season of Doctor Who. (I was so pleased to learn that the "new Who" is being dubbed and broadcasted in French and Wallonian TV, and that dubbed DVDs are available as well. However, it somehow felt weird to think of watching Doctor Who in French - especially as I adore the "Britishness" of this series. So the DVDs were finally purchased in English only.) I, however, had some minor happy moments with French conversation, when I succeeded in opening a bank account and doing some first money transactions, as well as today, when I picked up the key for my home and even had a tiny chat. I also did some intense reflection on using my French at work. I came to the conclusion that I am going to avoid to speak any French there in the near future. Let me explain why: When working with colleagues and business partners with very weak English skills, I often tended to mistake this for lack of competence. Of course, this is nonsense. But even after a few years, I had to keep reminding myself not to mix up bad communication skills with lacking expertise. I don't want anyone to question my competence. I think speaking French during coffee breaks and lunch is fine, but I'll try to avoid to speak French during work, until I feel settled. For me, as someone who really loves to speak in a new language, this really was a head-, not heart-driven decision. And to be honest, I don't know if I'll succeed with that strategy... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 34 of 116 28 June 2013 at 1:09am | IP Logged |
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So many good news!
I wish you all the best in your new home and new job. And it's great to hear of your progress in French. You did a wonderful chunk of work. If I were you, I wouldn't throw away all the linguistic dreams. One more and superhard language may still be possible. If you don't have time earlier, than one day in your retirement instead of knitting :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 35 of 116 30 June 2013 at 10:43am | IP Logged |
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Thank you, Cavesa!
And you are right about retirement age - I am not so good at knitting anyway, so just waiting a bit longer instead of giving up my dreams completely is a nice idea :-) As today is my relocation day, and I won't be online until mid of July (wow, I think this'll be the first time since 2008: being offline for nearly two weeks...), it's time for my June wrap-up.... FRENCH 1) Words: 435 words learnt in June; total 37.94 % This is a lot less than May, but of course it took quite some time to repeat the vocabulary learnt in the past weeks. I also still believe that cutting on the vocabulary is a fine idea. I am quite happy with this achievement. 2) Phrases: 127 phrases learnt in June, total 6.00 % 3) Text book/exercise material pages: 94 pages in June, total 6.93 % As intended, I tried to intensify my grammar exercises in June. In twelve months I really would like to have gotten rid of this point. I am currently transcripting all unknown grammar rules to Anki, but have to admit that the repetition is quite tiring.... 4) Reading: 189 pages read in June, total 1.00 % Beside "Inferno", I studied some websites of Wallonian newspapers. 5) Listening: 927 minutes, 7.29 % in total Primarily "Fringe", but also some Wallonian radio ("La Première"), and some Youtube clips. 6) Writing: 451 words, 0.16 % in total 7) Conversation: 21 min; 0.46 % ENGLISH 1) Listening: 1345 min; 4.48 % in total basically Eureka and BBC radio 1) Reading:142 pages; 1.42 % in total some bits of a crime novel, the Guardian and some work-related stuff No targets for July. I'll just discover and enjoy. Progress will come eventually. That's it for now - see you again in two weeks! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5022 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 36 of 116 01 July 2013 at 1:32am | IP Logged |
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What city are you going to be living in? I lived in Liège last year. It's a great place and the people there are so kind! I
hope you like it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 37 of 116 15 August 2013 at 1:40pm | IP Logged |
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"...See you again in two weeks!" This is how I ended my last post. However, getting internet at my new home turned out to be somewhat complex...But now I'm back again!
So, what to tell about my first weeks? Work is fine, my new home is fine, everything I had hoped for. Nice colleagues, good start. Due to the lack of internet, I'm still a bit delayed with regard to many administrative things. And private issues slow down my relocation activities and keep me extremely busy. If I had been honest to myself, I would have seen this coming. But today, there's a bank holiday in Belgium, so plenty of time to cool down... What really suffers is my language training. I find speaking French extremely painful and avoid as much as possible to do this at work. And when I speak French outside work, it sounds like A1 level to me - and obviously to my interlocutors as well, as they often happily switch to English... :-( I keep watching video: Beside having completed season 1 of Fringe, I happily discovered that France 4 broadcasts Dr Who each night. So at least my "Half Super Challenge" will most likely be completed. Already made 40 %! Hi LeadZeppelin, sorry for my late answer! I live in Hainaut, in the countryside. And I totally agree with you! Also here, the people are so kind and open! Promising to return to the forum more frequently, with my life becoming more and more routine and "manageable", I'll leave for now. A detailed update of my achievements will follow end of August, including July then. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 38 of 116 21 August 2013 at 10:24pm | IP Logged |
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I'm happy to report that today I could finally receive a debit card and learnt how to do online banking at my new Belgian bank. After our 45 min conversation both the bank clerk and I needed some break :-) I learnt a lot, though: I started the meeting well prepared, with a list of French banking vocabulary (le virement, l'extrait de compte, le guichet automatique etc.) in front of me, sort of a cheat sheet, actually. And I really had to smile, as people actually would pay a lot of money for such an intense conversation lesson...How extremely lucky I am!!
And I unfortunately learnt to say: "On m'a volé les plaques d'immatriculation". This way I learnt that the police - even at such a small town like mine - are indeed able to speak English! In addition, I paid a visit to the local library. Looking forward to joining the next Super Challenge (that is hopefully to come) properly, even though I doubt that this tiny library would be able to provide me with 100 interesting books...But I quite like the idea of "I'm done with this library. Where's the next one?" :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 39 of 116 01 September 2013 at 3:24pm | IP Logged |
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It's time for the summary of my achievements throughout July and August. But first of all, I've hit the 50 % mark of my "half super challenge"! I know, compared to the huge achievements other posters this is really nothing, but I'm celebrating :-)
I'm reducing the overview to French studies. I did log some English stuff (completed the crime novel, watched a Doctor Who season and some other stuff), but currently, it's French what matters to me: 1) Words:50 words learnt in June; total 38.67 % Compared to what I did in May and June, 50 words seem like nothing. In fact: Yes, for a proper language training it IS really nothing. But I know that there really was not a lot of energy left for any active language studies. And the vocabulary waiting for repetition in Anki is immense, so I am fully aware that this is all I could expect. And it doesn't need saying (however, I do so :-)) that in addition, I learnt a lot of additional words just due to my immersion situation. 2) Phrases: none 3) Text book/exercise material pages: none 4) Reading: 105 pages of Inferno, adding up to 1.35 % in total Now this is a bit sad. From what I have yet read so far (about 36 % of the book), it is great, but obviously not great enough to stick to it. My real problem with reading in general is a logistic one, I guess. I usually read just before bedtime, to slow down and relax. That's working fine with French (saying it's really entertaining to read, but not taking any energy anymore). But as soon as I want to look up a word now and then, I either have to open the laptop or to consult my dictionnary. And that's just annoying. I don't have this problem with the videos, as I watch them on my laptop anyway. I should consider to get an ebook reader, as many people seem to have done so here. In the past weeks, however, I either decided not to read at all, or to read something else, or to continue with Inferno without looking up any words. The latter is fine, too; I understand the story, and I guess I also learn French this way, but for me it's a bit dissapointing not to be able to access the book completely.[ 5) Listening: 2327 minutes, 15.05 % in total I am nearly done with the second season of Fringe, and continue to watch my daily portion of Doctor Who at France4. With now more than 75 hours of listening experience...yes, my comprehension has definitely improved. I started with, let's say, 5 % of comprehension, and could push me up to about 25 % lately. This includes not only dubbed television series, but also everyday conversations of my colleagues. This 25 % figure, however, is just a weird try to put something in numbers that underlies extreme variations. Sometimes, I understand the discussions of my colleagues so well that I join in (in English, though). Sometimes (mostly), I don't even have a clue what they are talking about. Some people are very easy to understand, others....not. It's the same with TV. Sometimes I get along, sometimes it's just noise. I continue to watch video with subtitles wherever possible, and have again purchased a pile of DVDs. As soon as the subtitles are added, I understand solid 95 % of the meaning, and the remaining 5 % can be looked up easily. 25 % of total comprehension is still not really satisfying. But I am quite relieved to see at least some progress here. [6) Writing: 226 words, 0.24 % in total 7) Conversation: 176 min; 1.35 % Not that much talking in two months, only when I was forced to do so. To be honest, I had expected to switch automatically to French as soon as the exposure was sufficiently high. I had experienced that in foreign language environments in the past (also with French, actually!) A bit surprised that this wasn't the case. I guess that currently things are still a bit too much for me, the relocation including both logistic and organisational challenges, the new job, some still ongoing Germany-related projects. Especially at work, surrounded by native speakers, I am somehow blocked. It's easier in face-to-face conversation with other people. That would be just fine...but this way I hardly get any opportunity to have this becoming a routine job for my brain. I have therefore started to talk to my dog in French... :-) And when things have settled a bit, and I still do not dare to open my mouth, I'll consider some Skype-tandems or Italki lessons. After the past summaries, I drew some conclusions and did some planning for the coming weeks. I won't do this today. During the next three months, I will have to complete a university course moduls for some professional training, which will require all my brain and energy. Therefore, there won't be so much language-related progress until end of the year... My rather non-challenging goals for the remaining months of 2013 are therefore as follows: 1) Complete the Half Super Challenge (i.e. watch additional 75 hours of TV series) 2) Continue with SRS of all the vocabulary that I have already learned during the last months 3) finish "Inferno" I think this is not too much - Extensive video watching is more entertainment than a learning process, and points 2 and 3 can nicely be completed during Christmas vacation if I really fail to do so before. (EDIT: correction of bad grammar :-)) Edited by Suzie on 02 September 2013 at 7:11am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 40 of 116 02 September 2013 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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I finished the second season of Fringe yesterday! That's already three complete seasons of TV series watched in French with subtitles. Compared to Grey's Anatomy, I found Fringe more accessible. Of course, it's partly due to the fact that my overall listening skills have improved over time, but I also believe it is due to the more "formal" speach, less slang. Based on that assumption, looking on my new pile of DVDs, I think I will continue with some crime series for the time being. Learning a language by just watching your favourite TV series is so much fun!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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