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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 121 of 439 26 February 2013 at 5:44pm | IP Logged |
My French program...
French Without Toil - I'm marching forward with a new dialogue every day. Today I'm on lesson 125 of 140. The end of the first "extensive" wave is in sight. On the 2nd wave, I'm revising lesson 66. I did start a third wave as lesson 119 suggested. On wave 3, I'm on lesson 6, et tout est facile.
New French with Ease is still going well. Today I'm on lesson 60 of 113. On wave two, I'm on lesson 11.
Using French is getting into the deeper water on CD 3. The lessons and dialogues are longer. Still, everything is good this second pass through. I continue to move forward one lesson each day, and read and listen to the previous lesson for review. Twice a week I review the previous 7 lessons. My vision for a wave 3 has become listen/read CD 4, then CDs 3+4, then CDs, 2+3+4, then CDs 1-4. I.E., the 3rd pass will be more intensive than extensive. E.G., skip most of the notes, just read, listen and understand, and pick up the pace so I'm doing more than one "new" lesson per day.
Business French still waits in the wings. Once the extensive wave 3 starts with Using French, I'll put this baby back in the rotation.
Other Stuff I did another 1/2 hour listen/reading a familiar book et ma compréhension était excellent.
Edited by luke on 04 March 2013 at 1:22am
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 122 of 439 06 March 2013 at 5:53pm | IP Logged |
French Without Toil - I'm approaching la but de les des leçons. Today I did lesson 133 of 140 and reviewed the previous 6. On wave 2, I reviewed lesson 71-77. On wave 3, lessons 8-14. On wave 3, tout est encore facile.
New French with Ease c'est encore facile. Today I'm on lesson 68 of 113. On wave two, lesson 18.
Using French I'm on CD 4. Aujourd'hui, j'ai fait leçon 58 pendant que je faisais ma toilette. Il est beaucoup plus facile la deuxième fois dans le cours.
Business French m'attend.
Other Stuff I did another an hour of two listen/reading un bon livre et ma compréhension était excellent. Aussi je regarde des vidéos en français sur le problème de la langue. Maintenant j'écoute Le Petit Prince et il est presque sans effort.
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 123 of 439 12 March 2013 at 12:52pm | IP Logged |
French Without Toil - Notre leçon d'adieu, numero 139 de 140. Je serai heureux d'avoir seulement deux vagues de poursuivre. Pour la deuxième vague, j'ai révisé les leçons 78-83, et pour vague 3, leçons 16-20.
New French with Ease Aujourd'hui fut leçons 69-73 et 22-24 de 113.
Using French Aujourd'hui, leçons 61-65 de 70. I am very much looking forward to going through this course extensively, rather than intensively.
Business French J'ai voyagé cette semaine et écouter / lire leçons 1-14.
D'autre choses Il ya une télévision dans la chambre qui joue TV5Monde et France 24. Je comprends mieux qu'il ya un an quand j'ai visité cet hôtel, mais pas autant que je comprendrai l'année prochaine lorsque je me rends à nouveau.
Edited by luke on 12 March 2013 at 12:52pm
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 124 of 439 14 March 2013 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
My laptop ate my post. Let me be a bit more careful and less talkative.
Since I'm almost through with the 2nd intensive pass through Using French, I'm planning my next phase for that course and have a brilliant idea... Listen/Read through it quickly, not repeating any lessons. The next day, listen to the lesson in the car for review and memory reinforcement.
I'm imagining that wave can be followed up with simple background listening to get the dialogues into my head like a song you can't forget.
Neither of these phases is too demanding, and that will be helpful in preventing burnout. I'm thinking I'll hold Business French out of the daily rotation until I get Using French completely into background mode after this next pass.
It has been daunting at times having 3 waves of French Without Toil going along with 2 waves of New French with Ease, and a wave of Using French. And that's just the French. I've also got Esperanto, Spanish, and English in the hopper. I want to let another wave or two of French wind down before really cranking up Business French, which will once again have a daily dose, which is good for progress, but tiring after some months of study.
So now I'm thinking that after the L/R wave of Using French winds down, I can <drum roll> not start a new course immediately and let perhaps another wave or two or three of the other two courses wind down as well. Then I would have either just listen/read or background only waves going.
Edited by luke on 14 March 2013 at 2:48pm
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 125 of 439 15 March 2013 at 1:06am | IP Logged |
Update on my ideas for the next few waves of Using French (and potentially those of the other courses). I'll just lay out the whole thing here, past, present future:
Assimil Waves:
Phase 0 waves) Listen/read the course quickly, several (10, 20, 30 etc) lessons per day. Goal is to get a handle on the structure of the course and a gist of the contents. E.G., the course has some introductory lessons, then follows a traveller through France for many, many lessons, then leaves the traveller and has some semi unrelated followup dialogues. Or, in the case of Using French, Intro, Zodiac, Boyfriend/Girlfriend situation that is returned to for a half dozen or more lessons, some "travel" in France, some author biographies, literature extracts, lessons about language per se, conclusion.
Wave 0 may be repeated until one gets the gist of the structure of the course.
Phase 1 waves) Normal passive Assimil waves. One or two may suffice for an easy language course, three if the course is long or the course suggests a third wave. Wave 2 or 3 could be active if you have the mental energy and the time. Attention is given to the notes. Daily one covers several lessons, but only 1 new one per day.
Goal: understand the course and most of its fine points.
Phase 2 waves) Back to listen/reading the course. Quickly move through the course again, focusing on the spoken and written language. Ignore the notes unless something is difficult to understand or one feels drawn to them. This is what I'm coming up on with Using French. I guess this could be repeated if necessary, but I don't think it will be for me for this course this time. Listen (and shadow if possible) the lessons the following day without the book.
Goal - review and get a feel for how much you've learned since the wave 0 experience.
Phase 3 waves) Listen in the background, letting the whole course repeat. This may be repeated several times punctuated with other background listening if lifestyle permits. The goal here is just to unconsciously memorize the audio through repeated listening.
Phase 4 wave) Back to intensive study, in that one looks at the notes and tries to pick up the finer details. Review the following day. One lesson per day pace. One week later, listen to lesson (in the car perhaps, shadowing it if possible). Goal: Hopefully this is a joyful experience knowing you've really got the course down now.
Edited by luke on 15 March 2013 at 1:22am
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 126 of 439 20 March 2013 at 7:20pm | IP Logged |
French Without Toil - I finished the first wave (lesson 140 of 140). On wave 2, I reviewed lesson 85-91. On wave 3, lessons 22-28. Normally I don't cover that many lessons, but I had some extra time today.
New French with Ease c'est encore facile. Today I listen/read lessons 75-81 of 113. On wave two, lessons 27-32.
Using French I finished listen/reading CD 4 and have looped back to CD 3, which will be followed by CD 4 again. I'm deep into CD 3. This listen/reading approach with one pass per lesson gets me through the lessons quickly and seems to help me notice new things that slipped through the cracks when I was giving more focus to a single lesson.
Business French I quickly went through lessons 1-20 on a business trip. Now I'm doing a single pass on the remaining lessons and I'm on 23 of 40. By "single pass", I mean that I only listen/read the lesson once that day. I have added the audio for this course to my mp3 stick, so I'm listening to it in my car as well. There, I'm up to about lesson 7.
The fast pace I'm employing for Using French does ramp up interest in the course once again. I think alternating between intensive and extensive passes will be helpful.
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 127 of 439 01 April 2013 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
French Without Toil - I finished the first wave (lesson 140 of 140) a couple weeks ago. Today on wave 2, I reviewed lesson 94-103. On wave 3, lessons 31-40. I don't cover 10 lessons everyday, but when I have the time, I find it helpful.
New French with Ease c'est toujours facile. Today I listen/read lessons 84-93 of 113. On wave two, lessons 35-44.
Using French I'm on a Listen/Reading phase here. I've listen read CDs 4, 3, 4, 2, and 3 during this phase. I plan to follow this up with one or more Listen/Reading passes through the book from start to finish.
Business French I quickly went through lessons 1-20 on a business trip, but the last few weeks I have been focusing more on the L/R wave in Using French, than on Business French. I am listening to lessons in my car. Comprehension is pretty good. I'm around lesson 14 in the car (listen only).
All of these Assimil courses together are still a lot of work each day. I'm really looking forward to the close of the extra waves in NFWE and FWT. Two waves at a time in each of those books almost doubles the studies time for that course, although whenever I'm short on time, I take most of the study time away from the early lesson waves. So I'm letting Business French get a few study cycles. As those NFEW, FWT waves wind down, I'll let Business French get more attention.
Edited by luke on 06 April 2013 at 10:22pm
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 128 of 439 11 April 2013 at 9:06pm | IP Logged |
French Without Toil - I finished the first wave (lesson 140 of 140) a few weeks ago and that's a load off. Today on wave 2, I reviewed lesson 104-113. On wave 3, lessons 41-50. I don't cover 10 lessons everyday, but when I have the time, I find it helpful. I am so looking forward to only having to tend to wave 3 in just about 30 days. Yippee!
New French with Ease c'est toujours facile. Today I listen/read lessons 94-103 of 113. On wave two, lessons 45-54. This course is really so much easier than French Without Toil. I won't be done after these two waves, but I will have the bulk of the course under my belt.
Basic French Grammar by Resnick snuck back in the lineup. I'm about 1/2 way through it again. It's pretty fast going. Not always clear how much this helps, but I do notice that it seems easier than the last pass through, which was a few months ago.
Learn French in Your Car This little beastie snuck back into lineup as well. I did lesson 5 of about 113 today. I'm looking at this as a slow measured approach to the grammar with a bit of vocabulary and translation drills to boot. My goal here is about 1 lesson per day. I listened to this course about 6 months ago, and although the beginning was pretty easy, part way through it got more difficult and didn't seem to be an effective learning method for a beginner. Now, as a grammar review, I'm hoping it is a helpful supplement.
Using French I'm still on a Listen/Reading phase here. It dropped off the playlist for a week or so while I focused on Resnick's Basic French Grammar, but I've burned through the first couple CDs again. I've listen/read CDs 4, 4, 3, 4, 3, 2, and 4, 3, 2, 1 during this phase. Now I'm on the 1, 2, 3, 4 phase. Listen/Reading until I decide to start a slow 1 lesson per day trudge again.
Business French This course is still just getting some action in the car. I'm around lesson 20 of 40.
It feels nice to branch out a little, even if it is primarily to books and courses I've used before. This time, it's different. I'm planning to revisit several courses this way. In the learning phase, each seems to offer something a little different. From a philosophical point of view, I'm pretty much in the comprehensible input camp, but I'd just as soon build a base before I wander off too far into native materials. With a good, solid base, I think the language can be reconstituted in short order even if it is ignored for a long time. I did that with Spanish, and although it isn't recommended, I certainly didn't forget everything. I credit my diligence with various courses to my staying power.
Edited by luke on 11 April 2013 at 9:08pm
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