Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 73 of 116 02 February 2014 at 3:10pm | IP Logged |
Thanks so much, Agantik, this is really helpful...I am somewhat relieved.
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pandorasighs Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4112 days ago 15 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish
| Message 74 of 116 05 February 2014 at 12:36pm | IP Logged |
Hi Suzie
I look forward to following your progress! My main language is German at the moment - I'm aiming to achieve a stong C1, but I hope to resume my French studies in March (I'm approximately a B1 for reading and grammar, but must be an A1 for speaking skills). I also aim to start learning Dutch this year, so I think your blog will be very inspiring for me.
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 75 of 116 09 February 2014 at 11:14am | IP Logged |
Hi Pandorasighs,thanks for visiting my log, and good luck with your language studies! Sounds as if our French is roughly on the same level as mine. Just in the past weeks my speaking skills felt A1-ish to me, too :-(
My 6WC and February itself had a somewhat slow start, but at least I did more than nothing. Spent quite some time in front of the TV, and I am surprised about the differences in comprehension - sometimes things go naturally, I follow the dialogues without even noticing that they're in French. And sometimes I am just staring at the screen, not understanding any single word of what is said. I keep reminding myself that my French has really improved throughout the past year, but I am sometimes a bit dissapointed on its slow progress.
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VivianJ5 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4263 days ago 81 posts - 133 votes Speaks: English*, French
| Message 76 of 116 09 February 2014 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
Suzie, this is about where I am with Dutch: sometimes I feel like I understand most of what's being said on TV (I'm
somewhere around A1, with occasional bursts of A2 understanding), and then come parts where I can't even catch
the words being said, let alone understand them...
I'm returning to some basic courses, to retrain my ear for some of the more repetitive phrases. It's a bit boring, but
until I can "get" the basic stuff, moving on to more advanced material is just an exercise in frustration.
Read some Mary Higgins Clark in French: I loved feeling like I was understanding so much, which was a nice change
from the Balzac and Moliere I learned in school!
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 77 of 116 09 February 2014 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
Thank you, VivianJ5! In fact, a Mary Higgins Clark novel is just waiting in my book shelf! And I have already read one in Dutch a while ago, for the very same reasons.
It's a good advice to return to basic stuff. I agree that one should not overcharge oneself with too difficult stuff. Personally, I hope that a good mix of entertainment and challenging material that requires me to look up some words on the one hand, and of more boring and monotonous exercises and language material, imprinting the grammar and vocabulary into my brain, on the other hand, will do it.
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 78 of 116 01 March 2014 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
It's time for the monthly update.....
French
Although I had registered for the 6 week challenge, I didn't do a lot in February. Saying - only very few active vocabulary or grammar studies. I had already feared that I wouldn't have that much time and energy to study, but I couldn't even meet my very low expectations....
I did, however, watch a lot TV in the past four weeks, 995 minutes in total. Since May last year, I thus have had more than 10'000 minutes of listening practice, one third of my original goal.
When watching TV, I still prefer dubbed US series with familiar content. I have now added "The Voice Belgique" to my watching list, which is surprisingly easy to understand, and also fun.
I also had some successful conversations and finally see my speaking skills improve little by little.
Dutch
Not that much to report here either - but I continued to read "De Tweeling", with 150 pages left.
No targets for March, as I have still a lot of non-language-related activities planned in my free time. I am starting to realise that 2014 may not be the perfect year for me to study..... :-(
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Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5567 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish
| Message 79 of 116 02 March 2014 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
Hoi Suzie! Hoe gaat alles met je Nederlands? Alles goed in Belgie? Is het voorjaar daar al in de lucht te voelen? Hoop
alles gaat goed.
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Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4230 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch
| Message 80 of 116 05 March 2014 at 9:52pm | IP Logged |
Hoi Vos! Wat leuk te hier te ontmoeten!
Voorjaar - 'tis niet alleen in de lucht, maar al in de planten! De krokussen bloeien, en even de rozen in mijn tuin krijgen al knoppen. Wat een gek weer - we hebben deze winter alleen twee dagen met ijs en sneeuw gehad. Ik ben een beetje teleurgesteld...ik hou van sneeuw....
I am usually not the sort of person that distributes links to YT videos with talking cats....but this one is really great...I have watched it over and over again in the past days....and I learned a lot of French by doing so!!
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