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My Adventures in French (TAC15) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4007 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 113 of 163 15 December 2014 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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One year ago today, was my first post on HTAL - which was my post in this log. I want say Thanks to
all the people who have stopped by my log and took the time to share their sage advice, leave a note of motivation, shared a kind word or a bit of humor. Looking back, I can see a tremendous improvement in my French, particularly when I started following/using methods recommended by many on the HTAL forum. However, I still have a long way to go!! ;). Here's a quick update: Six Week Challenge Total Hours/Minutes Logged: 119h11 #3 in Target Language Hours; #10 overall. I've accomplished both of my goals during this challenge: 1) Complete Assimil Using French: I plan to make another quick run (or two) through Assimil Using French as it is just so loaded, and I was a space-cadet during the middle lessons 2) Complete Pimsleur III. I've started Pimsleur IV. I'm only on Leçon 3, but I really like it so far - better than the previous Pimsleur volumes. ;) Super Challenge (Double) Reading: Goal EOM Dec: 80 Current: 77 Completed Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan. I found this to be a fairly straight-forward read for an intermediate level, and I also netted some interesting vocab for the SC December Challenge. Here's a review from Goodreads (ShovelMonkey1) that captures my thoughts on this book quite well: "So what to say about Cecile and her incessant scheming? Apparently a summer on the Med, smoking and drinking on daddy's dollar (or franc) is not enough for well bred young ladies these days. Where swimming, sunbathing and generally being a bright young thing were once enough, Cecile ups the ante and decides that a more diverting way to spend the summer is to plot the downfall of her fathers current relationship and in between times, try to loose her virginity to the likeable but none too bright older man with the boat. A girl with undoubtedly cruel intentions (and probably a battered and dog-eared copy of Les Liasons Dangereuse by Laclos tucked under her mattress). Unfortunately all the drinking, smoking and generally being louche don't actually cancel out a moral conscience and before she knows it her frankly childish meddlings are moving at a pace she can no longer control and she veers between desperate guilt and ambivalence as events unfold. Ultimately the characters offer you very little to love about them - Cecile is naieve and manipulative, Anne is a control freak in a Chanel twin-piece and dear old daddy is an aging play boy with a slightly disturbing penchant for girls much closer to his daughters age than his own....Youthful or not,it is a great read, and I liked it a lot. It's tightly controlled and well put together; a master class in how to be a moody teen..." Here is a fairly recent (Feb 28, 2014) Guardian article written as a retrospective 60 years after the publication of Bonjour Tristesse. Guardian Article Here Completed Maigret Chez le Ministre by Georges Simenon. Maigret is a French police detective— actually a commissaire or commissioner of the Paris "Brigade Criminelle". Maigret finds himself in the middle of an unsavory political scandal to help a conscientious politician. At the end, however, it becomes politics as usual, even though the thieves are caught. I found the ending quite sad, although realistic, and was convinced that I had missed something, and re-read the last chapter. Sadly, I did not... A good read, and perfect for an intermediate level. I plan to read more Simenon as I like policiers in general. Currently Reading: Le Petit Prince: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 I wanted a short "Christmas" read in French for the holiday season, but instead decided to read this children's classic. French Stories/Contes Français: A Dual-Language Book edited by Wallace Fowlie -- L'Hôte Albert Camus (finished) -- Le Passe-muraille Marcel Aymé 1943 Films Goal EOM Dec: 80 Current: 79 LOL (Laughing Out Loud) A French friend had mentioned they enjoyed this movie,and recommended it to me. I watched without any subtitles which was probably a mistake. I understood probably 50%-60%, but because it was a film with teenagers and slang, fast speech, etc, I missed a fair amount. This will not go down as one of my favorites. LOL is about a teenage girl named Lola whose life is split between her studies in a prestigious Parisian high school, her secret diary, her friends, boyfriends, her divorced parents, drugs, and sexuality. For her performance in the film, Sophie Marceau won the Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Actress in 2008. Christa Theret received a César Award Nomination for Most Promising Actress in 2010. Fait Pas Ci, Fait Pas Ça See previous entries 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5476 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 114 of 163 31 December 2014 at 5:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Mohave,
I actually thought you were a part of our second French team this year, but you were on team Triomphe. Anyway that makes no difference to what I wanted to say which was.. I think you ought to congratulate yourself and having a very productive year of study. Well done! I hope 2015 goes just as well if not better! You're on the path to achieving what you set out to do, keep it up! PM 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 115 of 163 31 December 2014 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read your summary when you posted it, but I was too busy to reply at the time. It's nice to see you've met your goals this year, and made some good progress.
About the Maigret: I've read a few Maigret stories in shortened "readers". I think I'll pick up some full stories this year. It's nice to see you've joined the French team for next year. Good luck, and I'll be seeing you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4007 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 116 of 163 01 January 2015 at 1:52am | IP Logged | ||
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PM and Jeffers - Thanks as always for stopping by my log and the kind words! I really enjoyed following your
logs and progress - it was great motivation! I'm looking to being on the French team with the both of you in 2015 and seeing your continued progression in French! On the Maigret, I think I have one more in my stash of books that I brought back from Belgium, and I am looking forward to reading it. I wish I had brought more home as they were pretty easy to find used for 1€ or 2€ in used bookstores! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4007 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 117 of 163 01 January 2015 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Je vous souhaite une bonne année et une bonne santé ! Here's a FAVE French YouTube video
welcoming in the new year! Bonne et Heureuse Année - Les Enfastastiques 2014 Assessment and 2015 Goals
2014 Assessment: I've made steady progress during the year. I think I can reasonably state that my skills are at varying degrees in the B1 continum with reading at the highest (thanks to the Super Challenge!), and speaking/writing the weakest. I am able to read native French literature, although I didn't tackle any major classics in 2014. While I did go to the theatre to watch French films without subtitles while in Belgium and had a good understanding in two of three films, I am not comfortable watching movies or TV series without subtitles. Courses Completed: French Without Toil (Active and Passive) Using French (one time through) Pimsleur I, II, and III French In Action (thru Leçon 35) Double Super Challenge Reading EOY Goal: 80 Actual: 79.4 Watching EOY Goal: 80 Actual: 79.9 2015 Goals 1. Successfully complete Double Super Challenge 2. Improve vocabulary (including slang and idioms) and grammar 3. Read several of the "Grand" French Classics and authors: Les Miserables, Les Liasions Dangereuses, etc and a couple works by contemporary French authors 4. Listening: I would like to be able to listen to most radio broadcasts and watch most TV shows without subtitles/transcripts. 5. Speaking: I want to improve my speech: pronunciation, grammar, automaticity, and to gain more natural French speech patterns (I think I have too many Anglecisms in my speech) and have more fluid conversations. 6. Start Spanish during the 2nd half of 2015! [ 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4047 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 118 of 163 02 January 2015 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, good luck man! :)
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 119 of 163 03 January 2015 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's an official Bienvenue à Team Français 2015! I hope the coming year is good for you and your studies!
I've wondered about your resources. You're using Assimil French without Toil? Have you tried New French with Ease and just prefer FWT? I have FWT and "obtained" the audio, but I haven't used it very much. I've listened to the audio for the first 25 or so lessons. One thing I liked is that there is a bit of audio work on verbs, and there are occasionally songs. I recently bought a used copy of the textbook printed in 1980, for just a few pounds, so I'm thinking strongly about using it when I finish Hugo French in 3 Months. But I don't know... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4007 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 120 of 163 03 January 2015 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Tristano for stopping by! I've seen your posts on the forum, but really never followed your progress.
I'm looking forward to being on the same team as you this year and following your progress! ---------------------- Thanks Jeffers! I'm looking forward to being on the same team as you and to a prosperous year of French for both of us! On FWT.... Before becoming a member of HTAL, I read several posts of members here who noted they thought Assimil French Without Toil was a stronger program than Assimil New French With Ease. I thought at the time that since FWT was published in 1940, that it was in the public domaine, and I downloaded the PDF and mp3s. I found out midway through the course in a post on HTLAL that Assimil was claiming they still had copyright. Therefore, I purchased the book reasonably on eBay. Not having done NFWE I can't comment on it, but I can tell you I LOVED FWT - it's a charming course! Having said that, if I were to do it again, I probably would complete NFWE first and then go through FWT. Here's some thoughts on FWT: -- FWT has 140 Lessons (vs ~113 lessons in NFWE) -- FWT is known for a steep learning curve, which the last ~30 lessons I found difficult, and thought about stopping the course. In fact, I think the end of FWT is on par with the ending difficulty in Using French -- Great focus on learning verb tenses -- Passé Simple used extensively - this is the primary reason why I think beginners should do NFWE first to learn passé composé and imparfait, however, I had no problems reading literature after FWT -- One or two lessons has humor that is not politically correct -- Every seventh lesson has a song -- which was a great way to learn French culture -- I think that NFWE probably contains more recent idioms, slang and more "current" French that I probably missed out on. -- After the first lessons, grammar explanations are in French I've thought about going back and doing NFWE, but at this point, it's not on my plate. I completed the first run-through of Using French, and I plan to incorporate a second quick run-through. I will probably do the last half of FWT again. Also, I tried to order Assimil Business French from Language Quest and found out it was discontinued. Sadly, prices on Amazon and eBay are now outrageous! However, this morning, I did find and order a reasonably priced copy so I'll put that on the schedule this year. Edited to add in point about grammar explanations are in French. Edited by Mohave on 13 January 2015 at 2:41pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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