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Moving to France | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PinkCordelia Diglot Newbie Wales Joined 4814 days ago 31 posts - 77 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Welsh | Message 1 of 6 05 October 2011 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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After 33 years of on/off French learning, I'm finally living here ... on a boat ... and
without a job. Can I finally crack it? Background: Studied French aged 11-16, tried to carry on 16-18 but realised I was going to do badly - partly a poor foundation and partly a lack of study skills. Picked up Italian from scratch at Uni and, with a year abroad, managed to occasionally pass as a native after 3 years. I've been returning to French ever since - but only made progress when I began self-study (no surprise there I now realise). Strengths: Can read well (e.g. Zola not a problem with a dictionary), have a reasonable vocab from reading (but not particularly colloquial), can *in theory* conjugate all those verbs. I have a lot of time on my hands. Weaknesses: LISTENING!!!!!!!! No structured interaction - e.g. no job. I'm here with my English speaking boyfriend. And, let's face it, I have a fairly antisocial personality :) Plans: Complete Pimsleur - nearly there. Keep reading but with more audiobooks. I have the Friends box set - will mp3 it all and listen, listen, listen. Find some French people - don't know how ... Plan to do a month's course in the Spring leading to one of the DEFL-type exams - hope to pass at B1 or B2 level. Edited by PinkCordelia on 05 October 2011 at 3:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 6 23 December 2011 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the Romantics! I think you're our only team member on the ground ... maybe
we should send you ashore with language challenges! What part of France are you in? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mepisevaerg Newbie United States Joined 4714 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 3 of 6 02 January 2012 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi PinkCordelia! I'm also on the Romantics, and I'm studying French, Spanish, German and Mandarin this year.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PinkCordelia Diglot Newbie Wales Joined 4814 days ago 31 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Welsh | Message 4 of 6 03 January 2012 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Kanewai and Mepisevaerg. Finally getting my act together after the Christmas break.
Language study is going well, it's internet access I have trouble with. I am indeed on the ground/in the field in the linguistic motherland - not too much pressure there then!! I think though that we also have a team member in Luxembourg and of course some Canadians so I'm not the only live agent. Kanewai, I'm currently in very rainy and windswept Brittany (on the most sticky out north westerly bit if French geography's not your strong point). Though we will be heading southwards as soon as the Spring reaches these parts. You set any language challenges you like, though I don't guarantee to try them all ... Mepisevaerg, I'm impressed with your long list of languages. I'm finding juggling two (currently French and Italian) hard enough and I used to speak the latter fluently. Am looking forward to seeing how everyone progresses - 362 days to go. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 5 of 6 03 January 2012 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was thinking you were on the Med coast! So I thought we'd send you ashore to the Nice
Flower Market ... I hear it's amazing ... and bring back quelque fleurs. I don't know much about Brittany. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5212 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 6 26 January 2012 at 2:41am | IP Logged | ||
The boat (or is it a houseboat?) bit sounds truly "romantic", and I'm envious of you doing in France, to boot! It's been mentioned before on some of the threads, and you may already know about it and have decided that it's not right for you, but have you tried joining Couchsurfing? http://www.couchsurfing.org It's a hospitality exchange website, through which people offer to host travelers (and in turn are hosted by others when they themselves travel). There's an option for offering just "coffee and a drink" if you don't have space to (or otherwise can't) host anyone (some members live in college dorms, for example). I've used it (both hosting and as a guest), and specify in my profile that I particularly welcome Francophones. You don't have to agree to host anyone whom you're not comfortable with. I find that, if I write my own CS profile carefully (e.g. books I enjoy, favourite films, and the like), it increases my chances of getting prospective guests who share my interests, and are sympatico. A number of towns/cities also have active, locally-organized, Couchsurfing groups, where members (whether visiting or living in town) meet for social gatherings - often at a pub, but also sometimes for other activities. (Last autumn, one member planned an apple-picking harvest.) Or perhaps there's a nearby weekly/fortnightly Meetup group you might be interested in...? http://www.meetup.com/cities/fr/?all=1 If there isn't one with your area of interest (language exchange, sailing, travel, whatever...), you also have the option of starting one. The Meetup site charges local organizers a fee, but organizers typically offset that by asking for (and notifying attendees in advance of this) a small donation (of a couple of dollars or so) from each attendee. Several of us in The Romantics have attended / are attending Language Meetups, and found them useful. To a certain degree, it depends on the makeup of the individual group. But if you're by nature "antisocial" this may of course not be suitable for you. Perhaps post an ad for a language exchange partner? Or does your community have a "newcomers welcome group" of some sort? - Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Couchsurfing. Best of luck in your French language endeavours! Songlines, posting from officially bilingual Canada; but living in a part sans good French bread. Edited by songlines on 26 January 2012 at 3:01am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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