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TAC 2009 - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 121 of 177 24 June 2009 at 10:32am | IP Logged |
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French
I'm still focusing strongly on French using Assimil and the FSI Basic course. The Assimil is mostly revision, as I'm redoing the earlier units including the exercises. In a couple of weeks, I should be back to where I last left off. The last time I studied French, during TAC 2008, I was using Assimil as my primary resource. This worked well for understanding spoken French, but I found it difficult to produce French in a fluid manner. I'd also completed the original Michel Thomas courses, but didn't bother with the newer Vocabulary course. This time I've decided to utilise the FSI course heavily in my studies. I'm certainly not using the course as it was originally intended. I don't sit down to do the drills while staring at the transcripts. Instead, I read the unit quickly covering the vocabulary and the grammar notes. After this, I'll listen to each tape while walking two to three times. This means I'm concentrating on the spoken language, and answering the prompts without any written references. Unlike Platiquemos, there's no English on the audio, so I'm pretty much immersed in French. One of my biggest concerns with the FSI course is the lack of the tu-form when teaching verbs. This obviously makes sense for a 1960's diplomat negotiating with De Gaulle's government, but less so for a casual traveller fifty years later. I'm also slightly worried that the vocabulary itself is out of date. The course uses the phrase, "coins fenêtres" for windows seats on a train, but my French speaking partner didn't recognise this phrase. Is this still used ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 122 of 177 25 June 2009 at 12:47am | IP Logged |
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I have checked this question, and it seems that the French railways recognize seats near the window and seats at the aisle (or corridor), and you can reserve these seats. But apperently they don't really call these seats anything (just as you don't have a special name for seat nr. 27 in a waggon). I found the phrase "compartiment côté fenêtre" once, and on other homepages you can find "place côté fenêtre" or just "place fenêtre", but according to Google all these expressions are rare. However as Jar-Ptitsa was quick to point out in my own log, the French also speak about "sièges côté fenêtre" or "sièges côté couloir", but according to the latest Google counts even these expressions are rare. Edited by Iversen on 25 June 2009 at 10:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 123 of 177 25 June 2009 at 11:00am | IP Logged |
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French
Thanks Iversen, and the rest of the folks on his thread for looking into this term. I was surprised by the huge number of ways this concept was expressed. It also caused me concern, as it seems the FSI French might be using older idioms and expressions, that have subsequently been replaced. To alleviate some of my concerns about FSI, I purchased Living Language Ultimate French Beginners-Intermediate. My main concern was the lack of 'tu', but this should also help identify dated French terminology. Regardless of language course, I'm always wary of very colloquial and slang terms. These can either become dated, or worse, change there meaning or register. The example that springs to mind is the famous difference between 'coger' in Spain and Latin America. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 124 of 177 25 June 2009 at 11:53am | IP Logged |
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Other languages
After I'd done some work with the Living Language French course, a strange wanderlust overcame me, and I dabbled in a number of languages. This was partially due to the fact I'd wandered into my local language specialist bookshop to pick up that course, and couldn't help look at all the wonderful new products on release. Living Language have released a number of new Spoken World courses, and Ginny's crew at Hodder have a whole set of new Michel Thomas courses. I started my wanderlist listening to the free introductory hour of the Michel Thomas Method Greek course at http://www.michelthomas.co.uk. I really liked the start of this course, and may use it when I return to Greek. I've used the Oxford Take Off in Greek, but this didn't help with fluid sentence construction. After the Greek wandering, I drifted north and ended up listening to the start of the FSI Basic Bulgarian course. I had this burning curiosity about Bulgarian, and how close it sounds to Russian. From my initial dip, I've realised they sound very similar, with the standard greetings almost identical. The course is transliterated and also printed in cyrillic. I found the transliterated text hard to follow, but the cyrillic seemed very easy. Obviously, my previous Russian studies helped, but Bulgarian seem more phonetic and less prone to stress changes. Feeling guilty, I used Google books to look into the contents of Modern Russian 1, while listening to the first tape a couple of times. I really like this course, and hope I can get my hands on the book. The very first dialogues use the past tense, and some of the cases. Finally, I listened to various Spanish audio resources, and watched a French in Action video. I couldn't access the series as it's blocked for all non-American users. I might try bypassing this restriction at a later date. Just before going to bed, I listened to some of Le Petit Prince. I must make more time for this charming little book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 125 of 177 26 June 2009 at 11:24am | IP Logged |
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French
Since last learning French, my Spanish has progressed a lot, and I can't help mapping one language onto the other. I started thinking about the prepositions and how they contract. E.g. SP: a + el = al equivalent to FR: a + le = au SP: de + el = del equivalent to FR: de + le = du SP: unos, unas equivalent to FR: des However, I've also realised some subtle differences in other areas, such as the use of have in certain idiomatic expressions. E.g. These are similar, Tengo frío = J'ai froid - I'm cold. (literally I have cold) Tengo hambre = J'ai faim - I'm hungry. Tengo suerte = J'ai de la chance - I'm lucky but Tengo prisa <> Je suis pressé - I'm in a hurry I've been tempted to add some L-R to my French learning, however I've some concerns. Would I end up using the past historic in conversation ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 127 of 177 26 June 2009 at 12:02pm | IP Logged |
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Turaisiawase, tu es une ange aussi. Peut-être, je commencerai comme L’étranger.
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