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Marco’s Odyssey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 17 of 56 31 January 2011 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
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Odyssey Log Day: Twelve Day: Monday, 31/01/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Eleven Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: Yes IP1: Yes IP2: Yes SP-Mem: Yes Mini Challenge: Yes French: Yes Today I: F1: Did two more units of Pimsleur. Again, like yesterday I listened to do the second one twice. (Pimsleur 1: 20/30). My player is running out of battery power so, I mightn't be able to do Pim tomorrow. F2: Briefly listened to a little bit of podcast. F3: Only a quick read of an article on LeMonde.fr Thoughts: * Again just a quick post. Hope to continue with mini-challenge despite disruption. I'm keeping notes on paper at the moment. * I'm on a big push for IP2 at the moment. * I've a lot on my mind, reflecting a lot on my life, how I live, where I'm going, how I think etc. Why I want to study French, whether I'll see it through, everything really. I'm keeping my thoughts in a diary. * I'm happy that I'm continuing with this log, mini-challenge, and French, even in the face of difficulties which give me a great excuse to 'take a break' ie quit. Tomorrow: Continue the Mini challenge in spite of disruptions. Marco 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 18 of 56 01 February 2011 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
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Odyssey Log Day: Thirteen Day: Tuesday, 01/02/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Twelve Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: Yes IP1: Yes IP2: Yes SP-Mem: Yes Mini Challenge: Yes French: Yes Today I: F1: The battery on my player has lasted another day so I was able to do two more units of Pimsleur. Yet again, like yesterday, I listened to the second one twice. I was walking on busy streets so there were plenty of distractions. (Pimsleur 1: 22/30). F2: Listened to a podcast. F3: Read an article on LeMonde.fr Thoughts: * I'm enjoying the Pimsleur course. It's better than I expected. * I should be getting back to my usual routine in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to that. It's been difficult the last few days to fulfill my commitment to work on each project every day. * I want to re-examine my French Study. See if I can tweak what I'm doing. I might add a fourth (F4) module to the French plan and cut back to one Pimsleur a day. * The last few days have given me plenty of food for thought. I'm breaking up my projects into mini-projects. I've made a little bit of progress on IP1 - I've come up with a strategy which I hope will work. I'll start implementing it by the end of the week. I've a lot to do on IP2 but I think I have an over view of it now. I feel less stressed and guilty about doing French study now that IP1 and IP2 are coming into line. I'd even say that that I'm starting to enjoy it. * It must be the influence of this forum, but I've had a craving to start another language now for the last few weeks. I must resist this temptation until my new work routines are firmly established and I'm making sufficient and consistent progress on all my projects. Tomorrow: Continue the Mini challenge despite of disruptions. Review the weeks special goals. From last weeks weekly review... I need to get a calendar, I don't want to have to rely on memory. Edited by marco.of.europa on 01 February 2011 at 8:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 19 of 56 02 February 2011 at 11:19pm | IP Logged |
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Odyssey Log Day: Fourteen Day: Wednesday, 02/02/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Thirteen Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: - IP1: No IP2: No SP-Mem: No Mini Challenge: No French: Yes Today I: F1: Two more units of Pimsleur. (Pimsleur 1: 24/30). F2: Wat ched TF1 for 40 mins. F3: Rea d an article on le monde. Added to my vocab book. Thoughts: * Impatience and Frustration: I'm so damned impatient. It's only day 13 of learning French in this log, yet I feel I'm not making any progress. It's unbelievable. I have to really force myself to recognise that I'm making progress and that I should stay the course. I think the impatience stems from the fact that I allow myself to daydream about being good in French and this heightens my expectations to an unrealistic level. Then when reality sinks in I become disappointed and frustrated. * I've also noticed that I'm very averse to making mistakes yet mistakes are one of the best ways that I learn. More frustration. All needless too. I need to adjust my attitude. * I'm noticing that my mood can swing quite far within each day. This log is capturing only a snapshot of how I feel throughout the day. Sometimes I'm optimistic at other times despondent. It's amazing how quickly my mood can change and often with no ostensible reason for the change. I'm beginning to suspect that energy levels (ie (a) rested vs tired and (b) nutrition) have a stronger influence on my mood than I would like to believe. I always thought I was somehow stronger, more resilient. I guess that was just a conceit. * I'm back home today: I'm hoping that my normal routine will take the edge off the impatience and frustration I've been feeling and restore a sense of balance. French study is much easier; I can speak aloud to Pimsleur again, watch TF1 and take down vocab from Le Monde. * I only did French today. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do any work on my other projects. But then again, I spent half the day traveling. I expect I'll do better tomorrow. * I had a lot of time for reflection over the last few days, or rather it would be more accurate to say that the change of environment proved to be a catalyst to a change in the pattern of my thinking. I've taken quite a lot of notes and over the next few days I will have to sift through them and begin to implement my ideas. * Milestones: Re French: * Reflections on other Projects. * Reflections on my work methods, on how I learn, my attitudes toward myself - * Reflections on taking on another language in addition to French - I really want to, the urge is incredibly strong, however I think it would be madness given the frustration and impatience I currently feel with regard to my French study, and the fact that I am still at an early stage of working on all my projects consistently. * Overall, I'm happy that I've stuck closely to my plan so far and that I've maintained this daily log. I'm still on course, even if that course is uncharted! Edited by marco.of.europa on 02 February 2011 at 11:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 20 of 56 04 February 2011 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
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* Uploaded 04/02/2011
Odyssey Log Day: Fifteen Day: Thursday, 03/02/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Fourteen Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: - IP1: Yes IP2: Yes SP-Mem: No Mini Challenge: No French: Yes Today I: F1: I did only one unit of Pimsleur. (Pimsleur 1: 25/30). F2: I watched 25 minutes of TF1. F3: Read two articles on le monde's website. But I didn't add any vocab to my vocab book. F4: Assimil 1/113 Edited by marco.of.europa on 05 February 2011 at 12:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 21 of 56 05 February 2011 at 12:09am | IP Logged |
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Odyssey Log Day: Sixteen Day: Friday, 04/02/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Fifteen Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: - IP1: No IP2: No SP-Mem: No Mini Challenge: No French: Yes Today I: F1: Completed another three units of Pimsleur (I felt I had to make up for the one I missed yesterday. (Pimsleur 28/30). F2: Watched TF1 for 25 mins. F3: Read another article on the Le Monde website. I added to my vocab book. I also re-read the two articles from yesterday and took down vocab. F4: Assimil (2/113) Thoughts: * I wasted today. I broke my rule about making a start on a project before breakfast and then that was it for the rest the day. I didn't do any work on IP1 or IP2. I only started on French at 8 pm. I was bloody tired and cranky. Still I feel a little better now for rescuing something of the day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 22 of 56 06 February 2011 at 1:37am | IP Logged |
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Odyssey Log Day: Seventeen Day: Saturday, 05/02/2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Sixteen Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: Y IP1: Y IP2: Y SP-Mem: N Mini Challenge: Y (substantive compliance) French: Oui Today I: F1: Two more units (the last two) of Pimsleur I. (Pimsleur I 30/30). F2: Listened to podcast for 27 mins. - Found it quite difficult. F3: Read another article on le monde. I added to my vocab book. F4: Assimil (3/113) Thoughts: General/Today * I did better today. I still allowed myself to get distracted, and thus a lot of wasted time, however I got some good work done on IP1 and IP2. * Assimil - I've been flicking through the book - I'm very impressed by it. I like that there is a second more advanced book too; 'Using French'. I hope that these two books will help me to reach my goal. * Assimil - I'm still not sure how to use it. I've been reading through the forums here, I guess I'll have to experiment. Reflections * I need to make a push on IP2. I've broken it into 23 sections, and 4 areas of work (A-D). I must finish IP2 by the end of March. Therefore the deadline is 31st March 2011. This can't be pushed back. * Earlier on today I was thinking that if my French studies were going well and if IP2 had been completed successfully then in the second week of April I might start an additional language. However after listening to that podcast today I'm no longer so sure. I don't think I'll have made enough progress in French by then... mais peut-être... IP2 - The Big Push! : Deadline: 31/3/2011 : Days remaining: 54 - (one week later I hope to start an additional language!) A. 1/23 Tomorrow is the second weekly review. I plan to post my milestones and goals for 2011 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 23 of 56 07 February 2011 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
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For week: Sunday 30th January to Saturday 5th February 2011 inclusive. Review No.: Two Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Progress Current Challenge: 17/20 Note: Again I'm doing this review too late in the day. I'm tired now. Whereas I was fresh and optimistic this morning, I feel stale now so I'm not getting the most of this review exercise. Reflections on Week: It's been quite a good week. My French study has been consistent. Unfortunately I can not say the same for my other projects: IP1, IP2 and Sp-Mem. This is a problem as I am still concerned that I may only be studying French as a means to procrastinate on working on those other projects. I have to make a better effort in those projects and reassure myself that my interest in French is genuine. Again I've been thinking that I would like to take up another language. First I have to see if I can stick with French and my other projects. I'm concerned that this desire to start another language might just be an attempt to procrastinate to the second degree! I've decided that IP2 will be a good judge of my character. In the past I've been quite poor at working to a schedule. I have a tendency to leave everything to the last minute. IF this time I can work on IP2 continuously up to the 31st March, and don't have to cram in work at the last minute I will consider myself mature enough to add another language to my studies. Actually I'm thinking more along the lines of one and a half languages, but more of that below. I'm thinking about German and Japanese. * German: I did some basic German at school 13 years ago. Along with French it's always bugged me that I didn't get more from it / really learn it. In the spirit of learning French and of drawing a line under that part of my past and moving on I would really like to also learn German. My goal for German would be modest. I will be starting from scratch as I studied far less German than French and it was so long ago. I also didn't do anything to retain it. Accordingly my timeframe is much longer than for French. I would be happy if I was at B1 level before mid 2013. * I'm also a little curious about Japanese. It must be the (bad) influence of this forum! I will try to rein in my enthusiasm however and be a little (but just a little) realistic. I have many commitments. I would like to make a start and set a foundation for future study. I think I would be happy if I just learned the three Japanese writing systems. I've read very good things about Heisig, and from what I've read of his approach it makes sense to me. * Whereas I see French and German as languages that I could actually use, I see Japanese very differently. I think I'd be happy just to learn the kanji and nothing more at this point on the basis that I find them relaxing to look at and draw (I've experimented with a few). Essentially my efforts with Japanese would be more of a relaxing hobby than proper language study. But should I ever decide to fully take on Japanese, then at least I'd have a head start. * Anyway, I'll make my decision in April. It really all depends on how well I do at working consistently on IP2 and French. If I'm left looking like a "poisson d'avril" come April 1st then I won't go ahead with them. It may be injudicious to add another language (or two) when I'm still struggling with the first, but what the hell. In the past I think I've expected to fail at the tasks I've set myself, and my prophesies have been self-fulfilling. This must change. Accordingly I have decided that I will proceed on the basis that I will meet my targets and that I will be able to start on German and the Kanji in April. In this spirit I've decided to have a little fun with today's daily log. I need to think about goals for the year: 2011 - Goals: French: Primary Goals for the year. -- Complete Pim I,II,III. -- Complete Assimil -- Daily immersion A - minimum 20 mins podcast / TV -- Daily immersion B - read an article in Le Monde and note vocab. Secondary Goals for the year -- (To be determined) IP2 -- Work consistently to 31st March. -- Don't be left feeling like a fool on the 1st of April. Accomplishments: In the week I did x14 units of Pimsleur, and completed the first course. I've begun to become more accustomed to daily study, and I'm starting to feel less resistance to it. I've started using Assimil (albeit probably not very effectively) I'm still here, I'm still studying French, I'm still maintaining this log. Concerns: Again I still haven't set out a path to achieve my goal (French C2). I will need one if I am ever to get there. I don't even have a general timeframe. I still haven't researched the DALF. Special goals from the past week: Read up on the rules/guidelines on gender of nouns. {I didn't do this} Find x3 new sources for French podcasts. &nb sp; {I didn't do this} Maintain momentum - daily work. & nbsp; & nbsp; {I did this} Begin implementation of 'Weekly schedule': Thursday download podcasts - {I did this} Special goals for next week: Research the DALF. Be more consistent with my other projects. Plans / Aims / To do: Research: The DALF - what exactly have I got myself into. French newspaper websites and tidy up my bookmarks. French radio/podcast websites and tidy up my bookmarks. [started] Other audio courses: FSI & Assimil. French study books; Teach Yourself, Hugo French grammar books, vocabulary books. Internet resources for French learning. Services which can put me into contact with native speakers (Tandem???) and set a deadline for when you will sign up for such a service. Flashcards - I've never really used these but I hear they're effective. I suppose I have to make my own (probably better for learning). I guess I could make them on my computer and view them on my phone? use for phrases/expressions? Correct pronunciation of phrase? I could do with a French dictionary for my phone. One that doesn't need to connect to the mobile internet (data charges). Develop/Revise Study Plan Sketch out a the path to ultimate goal (French C2) 'DALF Plan'. (Post same in log?) What do I need to know? What skills/competencies do I need? Begin to write this log in French. Revise MT Adv. Course. Implement a 'Weekly Schedule': Set aside a particular day for looking for French websites, another for reading forums, another for fetching podcasts, and one for researching. Sunday: Weekly Review day. Mon: - Tues: - Wed: - Thurs: Podcast day. Friday: - Saturday: - Milestones: Completion of 'Initial Twenty Day Challenge'. ( Wed 9th February ) Completion of Pimsleur II. Assimil - Unit 28 (a quarter of the course) Assimil - Unit 56 (half of the course) Assimil - Unit 84 (three quarters of the course) Assimil - Unit 113 (completion of the course) Completed Milestones: Completion of Pimsleur I. (5 February) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| marco.of.europa Groupie Ireland Joined 5049 days ago 46 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 24 of 56 07 February 2011 at 12:19am | IP Logged |
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Le jour de l'odyssée: Dix-huit Le jour: Dimanche, le 6 février, 2011 Current Challenge: Initial Twenty Day Challenge, Day: Dix-sept Initial Twenty Day Challenge.: oui IP1: non IP2: oui SP-Mem: non Mini Challenge: comme ci comme ça Le français: Oui Aujourd'hui: F1: J'ai écouté a la première unité du Pimsleur II. (Pimsleur II 1/30). F2: J'ai regardé le 20 Hrs sur TF1 pour 32 min. F3: J'ai lu un article de 'Le monde', et aussi j'ai écrit les nouveaux mots dans mon carnet. F4: Assimil, je l'ai fait encore une fois. (4/113) IP2 - La grande campagne! Oui Le délai: 31/3/2011 : Les jours restant: 53. A. 2/23 Mes pensées: Hier nuit, je n'ai pas pu m'endormir parce que j'étais trop emballé à l'idée de commencer à écrire ce journal en français. Aujourd'hui je me sens plus fort! Le français: Je redoublerai mes efforts à apprendre le français. L'allemand: Attention! Je vous donne le bon préavis. J’ai prévu de vous surmonter! Je le commencerai en 70 jours. Le japanais: J'ai décidé d’étudier votre beau kanji. J'apprendrai leurs secrets. Je les commencerai en 70 jours. En anglais Okay! I've started to write part of this log in French. At the moment I'm heavily reliant on the dictionary and grammar texts but I hope I'll improve with practice. As per my weekly review post I've set down a marker for starting the other two languages. It all depends on how the next 53 days go. Fingers crossed! M 1 person has voted this message useful |
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