luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 225 of 439 30 May 2014 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
I finished up lesson 40 of 40 this morning in Assimil Business French. That feels good. It's been tougher to keep on task with it this last week or two. Now, all I have left for this trip through are the follow-up refresher waves, which will only take 5 - 15 minutes a day, rather than 45-60, so that's a big load off.
What to do with all my new spare time?
Well, my plan has evolved to thinking in terms of a primary study goal, and supplementary materials. A few days ago I started putting together an idea for the rest of the year.
Here is the order of "primary materials" I came up with:
Assimil Business French (now complete and winding down).
Du Contrat Social - Jean Jacques Rousseau's classic. There is a good recording at http://audiocite.net/.
FSI Dialogue writing and Tape 2 Magic
Candide by Voltaire
FSI 7-12
Madame Bovary
I may even split those Primary goals up into weekly segments just to keep things changing and exciting. That would be more back and forth between FSI and Literature.
For the Literature/Great Books, I'm thinking an extensive attack like:
Read/Listen (French/English)
Listen/Read (French/English)
Listen (French)
Second string - note, these are sequential, not simultaneous.
Business French (trailing wave - 5 minutes/day)
French Without Toil - back to front (start with lesson 140, and work towards beginning)
WC
New French With Ease back to front
Using French back to front
Additional supplements (mostly done in the car)
Listen and Speak recordings (good articulation - more touristy vocabulary - short recordings)
Learn French in your Car - Kind of a grammar by listening approach. This got too boring last time I tried. We'll see how it goes this time.
RFI French Facile Radio
I listened to Du Contrat Social and Candide in the car for preview listen only waves. That just finished up. My comprehension wasn't at all what I want it to be. I understood the gist.
Edited by luke on 30 May 2014 at 10:17pm
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 226 of 439 31 May 2014 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
You're doing well Luke, actually really well. Business French I haven't even looked at
let alone Using French. Keep up the good work. As for your plan... well as long as you
keep learning!
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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 227 of 439 31 May 2014 at 2:51am | IP Logged |
PeterMollenburg wrote:
You're doing well Luke, actually really well. Business French I haven't even looked at let alone Using French. Keep up the good work. As for your plan... well as long as you keep learning! |
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Thanks Peter. You've been very helpful along the way.
Just a couple hours ago my wife suggested we go to San Juan Puerto Rico for a few days. That makes me feel like I should ramp my Spanish way up and let my French wind way down, so that will throw a monkey wrench (or spanner) into the French study plan for a while.
Long term, I don't think this will be bad. I've not studied Spanish intensely for a few years, so it will be good to dust off all the cobwebs for a few months.
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PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1
| Message 228 of 439 31 May 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged |
luke wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
You're doing well Luke, actually really well.
Business French I haven't even looked at let alone Using French. Keep up the good work.
As for your plan... well as long as you keep learning! |
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Thanks Peter. You've been very helpful along the way.
Just a couple hours ago my wife suggested we go to San Juan Puerto Rico for a few days.
That makes me feel like I should ramp my Spanish way up and let my French wind way
down, so that will throw a monkey wrench (or spanner) into the French study plan for a
while.
Long term, I don't think this will be bad. I've not studied Spanish intensely for a few
years, so it will be good to dust off all the cobwebs for a few months. |
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I feel the same about my Spanish lately. I'd vote that it's not worth it. If I were in
your position I'd enjoy your break in San Juan which is a few days in length and stick
to the big picture of improving your French. You can get back to your Spanish later. In
my experience (I went through the same wanderlust yesterday) best to keep your eyes on
the prize until the time is really right to pick your Spanish back up
2 persons have voted this message useful
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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 229 of 439 31 May 2014 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
PeterMollenburg wrote:
luke wrote:
Just a couple hours ago my wife suggested we go to San Juan Puerto Rico for a few days. That makes me feel like I should ramp my Spanish way up and let my French wind way down for a while.
Long term, I don't think this will be bad. I've not studied Spanish intensely for a few years, so it will be good to dust off all the cobwebs for a few months. |
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I feel the same about my Spanish lately. I'd vote that it's not worth it. If I were in
your position I'd enjoy your break in San Juan which is a few days in length and stick
to the big picture of improving your French. You can get back to your Spanish later. In my experience (I went through the same wanderlust yesterday) best to keep your eyes on the prize until the time is really right to pick your Spanish back up |
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The lord giveth, the lord taketh away. My wife's decided that although airfare was cheap, accommodations aren't, so she's scrapping the trip to San Juan.
I think I will turn up Spanish a little more, but still keep it pretty low key. A few FSI drills in the car and perhaps an audiobook now and then while working out.
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EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4573 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes Studies: English*, German
| Message 230 of 439 31 May 2014 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
luke wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
luke wrote:
Just a couple hours ago my wife suggested we go to San
Juan Puerto Rico for a few days. That makes me feel like I should ramp my Spanish way up and let my French wind
way down for a while.
Long term, I don't think this will be bad. I've not studied Spanish intensely for a few years, so it will be good to dust
off all the cobwebs for a few months. |
|
|
I feel the same about my Spanish lately. I'd vote that it's not worth it. If I were in
your position I'd enjoy your break in San Juan which is a few days in length and stick
to the big picture of improving your French. You can get back to your Spanish later. In my experience (I went
through the same wanderlust yesterday) best to keep your eyes on the prize until the time is really right to pick your
Spanish back up |
|
|
The lord giveth, the lord taketh away. My wife's decided that although airfare was cheap, accommodations aren't, so
she's scrapping the trip to San Juan.
I think I will turn up Spanish a little more, but still keep it pretty low key. A few FSI drills in the car and perhaps an
audiobook now and then while working out. |
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|
I haven't had chance to go through all the thread, but how's your French progressing?
1 person has voted this message useful
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songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5207 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map
| Message 231 of 439 01 June 2014 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
luke wrote:
The lord giveth, the lord taketh away. My wife's decided that although airfare was cheap, accommodations
aren't, so she's scrapping the trip to San Juan.
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Or, in this case, the lady giveth, the lady taketh away...
(Sorry - couldn't resist.)
And hearty congratulations on finishing Business French! - I have a copy sitting (as yet untouched) on my
bookshelf.
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napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5014 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written)
| Message 232 of 439 01 June 2014 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
I don't know why but I've been wanting to start Spanish as well. Strange, isn't it? :)
Hearty congratulations on your progress with the Assimil Books.
(Like most things,) Assimil is easy to start. Finishing is what's difficult.
I should know. I gave up on New French with Ease when I was half way into the book. The other two books are still on my shelf. Untouched. :)
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