|
 |
Hablez-vous le frangnol? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5391 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 1 of 4 05 April 2010 at 6:02am | IP Logged |
|
Time to get serious. And stop lurking around without posting my regimen.
Okay. Deep breath. Here we go. I'm currently working on Spanish and French. For the last four months I've been reviving my rusty high school Spanish with encouraging results, but now want to go beyond reviving and launch into C1 territory. I always loved Spanish, just neglected it while getting an English BA and then was too preoccupied with working full time to give it attention. But no longer! Ya basta! I have no background with French at all. French is a language I never thought I'd learn, but I've found it interesting as I've studied it, and I'm very interested in traveling in North and West Africa at some point. Maybe France too. Plus, Quebec is right next door to my neck of the woods, and I love a lot of French literature and cinema. Daily (at least 6/7 days) minimums: 30 minutes of shadowing Assimil French with Ease 30 minutes of reading and reviewing Assimil Using Spanish (no audio, as my reading accent is pretty correct and the store didn't have any CDs on hand). I'm a news junkie, so reading at least 1 news article per day from El Pais's Latin American section and Afrik.com, a neat French-language newsfeed for Maghreb and Sub-Saharan news. Vaguely related: 15 minutes of calligraphy/handwriting exercises, because my penmanship is atrocious and I want to make flashcards that don't look like mierda. Also hoping this will later build dexterity for Arabic, Russian, and Chinese writing. Weekly goals: -A few casual French in Action lessons. -I find Destinos a bit too easy at this point, so I'm trying to watch one Spanish DVD every week with Spanish subtitles on. -Reading native or bilingual texts when I get a chance. -Doing Pimsleur when walking, cleaning the house, working out, etc. -I also am trying to figure out weekly language exchanges for each with mixed success so far. Trying to find a few "regulars" to work with since the international students tend to come and go every few months. Long termish goals: -Figure out and plan a weeklong jaunt to Quebec to try luck this summer. Aim for taking a B2 test around this time next year. -Study for the B2 or C1 cert in Spanish for the fall. Get confident enough to find a few local Spanish speaking establishments and develop relationships. And the others. . . Now, of course, in my terrible wanderlust I have other things on my mind. My 10-15 year goal is to achieve a level of proficiency (B2/C1+) in all six U.N. languages, and also fit in a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics or ESL. I'm going to be a busy guy. This, of course, means I also have Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian staring at me in the distance, being all foreign and scary. In order to keep my wanderlust satiated I've decided to put "token" attempts in place to at least get some minimal exposure to the languages. These are optional and are not allowed to take time away from any of the goals above. -I currently do 15 minute sessions with "Teach Yourself Arabic Script." I basically want to familiarize myself with the script, learn how to distinguish individual letters out of the "long line of scribbles" and maybe start on some basic phoneme practice and vocab building a few months down the line. -When I've finished my calligraphy book, as a reward I'll start similar 15 minute sessions on Chinese characters. I might go the "Remembering the Hanzi" route and not even bother with pinyin and tones. Just learn one character a day, write it a bunch (and maybe artistically with brushes and everything) and its meaning. So when I really take Mandarin on in a few years I'll have a big head start and no irrational fear of characters. -I'm content to let Russian sit in the corner and swig vodka for a while. When I feel like dabbling I'll dabble. I've heard the Cyrillic alphabet is relatively simple to learn, so that could maybe be a fun side project, but not for quite some time. Anyway, that's the skinny for now. Onward! Edited by robsolete on 05 April 2010 at 6:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5709 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 4 07 April 2010 at 2:37am | IP Logged |
|
Oooh!!
I tried to delve into French a while back on my own but, I didn't get very far as before I started Spanish classes in school and (try to) learn Japanese on my own. I found the French accent very tough. I'm not giving up, just postponing it. I was beginning to think that I was the only one around this board who wants to or does study French with Africa in mind :). I lived in Senegal for 13 months when I was a kid and I have 4 brothers who are living and studying in that part of the world now. I want to learn French for Africa too. I study Spanish in school but I hope to learn French also at some point, I'm going to try FSI because my accent is nothing short of horrific. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5391 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 3 of 4 07 April 2010 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
|
(edited out of existence in the spirit of new beginnings). Edited by robsolete on 04 January 2011 at 12:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5709 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 4 08 April 2010 at 1:43am | IP Logged |
|
Off to a great start!
My personal advice: Dont get in the habit of doubling up because you miss a day. Better to just maintain the status que of one-a-day and work to not let it happen again. Better to make up missed work when you have time, rather than just try and 'force' the work because you're 'behind schedule'. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
