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6WC - August - French Discussion

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24 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
MrFrenchFox
Newbie
United States
Joined 4855 days ago

18 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 17 of 24
11 August 2011 at 1:38am | IP Logged 
Thanks Jeffers.
I understand about the audio, how can we read to them when we can't pronounce everything
correctly?
I have toddlers, so French In Action may be above them, as well as Assimil.
I will check out the Songs in French for Children and the Ladybird books.
Someone also just told me about Little Pim, depending on your children's ages.
This is a dvd set by Pimsleur for the little ones.
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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4909 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 18 of 24
11 August 2011 at 1:54am | IP Logged 
Your mention of Little Pims reminds me of another musical tool I used a long time ago for German, and now have gotten for French: Lyric Language. It consists of a bunch of songs sung bilingually, on a wide variety of topics. Back when I used it for German, I put all the words into my flashcard software, and the total vocabulary was around 450 words. That's pretty impressive for a kids programme, but it actually works. The music is a bit cheesy, but my younger kids (7 & 10) like it, and they are picking up a lot of the language.

I have also used School Run French podcasts, 6 of which are available for free (there are only 10 in total).
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dleewo
Groupie
United States
Joined 5818 days ago

95 posts - 131 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 19 of 24
11 August 2011 at 3:37am | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:

I don't understand how the front runners can be doing 5-6 hours a day! Especially druckfehler, as he/she works full time! Just awesome!


I saw he had tweeted Junesun to change his status from full-time....I guess he made a mistake when registering.

If you look as his tweets, he's actually in school for 3-4 hrs a day and that's how he can log 5-6 hrs a day

Derek
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Abdalan
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
abdalan.wordpress.co
Joined 5046 days ago

120 posts - 194 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English
Studies: German

 
 Message 20 of 24
11 August 2011 at 2:36pm | IP Logged 
dleewo wrote:
Jeffers wrote:

I don't understand how the front runners can be doing 5-6 hours a day! Especially
druckfehler, as he/she works full time! Just awesome!


I saw he had tweeted Junesun to change his status from full-time....I guess he made a
mistake when registering.

If you look as his tweets, he's actually in school for 3-4 hrs a day and that's how he
can log 5-6 hrs a day

Derek




I must confess that it’s very hard, in any activity where there’s need of
concentration, to put lots of time in, daily, for several days. (Un)fortunately the
time applied in language learning is counted by hours (even minutes), not by months or
years.

For sure, many times our expectations are far above than perseverance and we forget the
rule of thumb: study frequently and for shorter periods of time is better than to study
infrequently for extended periods of time.

My little experience says that to spend 5 hours in language learning you have to set
apart 8-10 hours of your day. (Are you able to spend 5 hours with an earplug, in front
a screen or book without a break and not losing focus? For how many days?)

I’m practicing LR: the amount of concentration is high as the information comes from
triple input (L1, R1, R2). So I decided to count the time by minutes this way:
If I go to the toilets, I stop the time; if my wife starts a little chat, I stop the
time; If my cell phone calls, I stop again; when the narrator stops speaking I stop my
chronometer once more…
…so the margin of error of the time I’m counting is < 1 minute for sure.


Edited by Abdalan on 13 August 2011 at 2:00pm

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songlines
Pro Member
Canada
flickr.com/photos/cp
Joined 5209 days ago

729 posts - 1056 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 21 of 24
16 August 2011 at 5:14am | IP Logged 
Abdalan wrote:

For sure, many times our expectations are far above than perseverance and we forget the rule of thumb: study frequently and for shorter periods of time is better than to study infrequently for extended periods of time.



Good advice, Abdalan. Worst of all is the method I all too often use: studying infrequently, for shorter periods of time...!



Edited by songlines on 16 August 2011 at 5:19am

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MrFrenchFox
Newbie
United States
Joined 4855 days ago

18 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 22 of 24
16 August 2011 at 5:20am | IP Logged 
That's funny songlines. I have been there, and I am trying to stay away from it. I just had to replace the garbage
disposal on the weekend and had a ton of other excuses for not spending time with French. Now, I am back on the
wagon? Or off? I saw a Seinfeld episode about that phrase and I can't remember how it is supposed to go now.
Oh well.
I have been using Pimsleur and I had to redo the 5th lesson a couple of times. It seems like they just threw a bunch
of new stuff in there really quick and I wasn't ready for it. I got frustrated and now I am just practicing it.
I read somewhere that there is an accent in Southern France that is very musical. How would one research this and
find samples of natives speaking from a specific region?
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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4909 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 23 of 24
25 August 2011 at 7:26pm | IP Logged 
So, how are people doing? I'm really enjoying the challenge, and making good progress. The best resources I have used are:
  • French in Action (mostly the videos)
  • Assimil New French with Ease
  • Frenchpod101 Absolute Beginners' Course
  • Music: Guillaume Grand and Rafael
  • Fast French


If I had the full FIA material at the beginning, I could have gotten away with using almost nothing else. With the audio and workbooks it is so comprehensive. But I still need something which explains the grammar in English. I am very happy with all of the resources listed above. Each one is effective in its own way, and they complement each other very well.

I've also made a lot of vocabulary cards, mostly from Fast French, but also from FIA and Assimil.
1 person has voted this message useful



kagemusha
Newbie
United States
Joined 4924 days ago

35 posts - 42 votes
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 24 of 24
26 August 2011 at 2:00am | IP Logged 
I am doing OK. My Dad passed away in July so I have been very busy with family affairs.

I have been using FIA too. I listen to Pimsleur during my commute and Assimil at home.

Is anyone using a chat site like SharedTalk?


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