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OneEye’s TAC2 - French/Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 1 of 7 02 May 2008 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
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Ok, looks like I'm in on this challenge. I just started learning French a few days ago. I was actually looking in a used bookstore for German materials because I need to learn German as part of my master's degree. But I found Assimil's New French With Ease for $30 and couldn't pass it up. The book is in pristine shape. It looks like the former owner didn't even open it. I have a while before I need to know German (haven't started grad school yet), and I've been interested in learning French, so I figured why not do French first now that I have this great course?
So I'll be using the Assimil course and French In Action. I have the textbook for FIA, which I picked up for $10 at the same bookstore. I may also do a bit of listening-reading, but not just yet. I have some material ready for that (Around the World in 80 Days, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). I'll be gathering more materials as I go along, but at first my main sources will be the two courses I mentioned. In a way, for me, this is a sort of test run for Assimil. If this goes well, I'll be investing in more of their courses for my other languages. Anyway, I'll also be continuing my Chinese study. I was sort of doing All Chinese All The Time for a while (see the link to my blog to the left), but I've had to shift my priorities around to make time for other hobbies that I'm not willing to give up, not to mention other languages. So my Chinese study will be primarily ChinesePod lessons, the DeFrancis books, and PlecoDict flashcards, with movies and music supplementing. If Assimil goes well I may end up buying their Chinese course. I just got a promotion at work, so my schedule will be changing (for the better). It may take a week or two to get used to it but it should free up some study time in the mornings before the store gets busy. I'll usually do flashcards during this time since it will be easy to carry my Palm onto the sales floor. I have an hour break in the afternoon, so I can listen to ChinesePod on my iPod then. On the way to and from work (20 minutes each way) I'll be shadowing Assimil lessons in the car. And in the evenings I can watch FIA and do any other sort of studying I feel necessary. Other materials I have and may use as supplements are: grammars in both languages, dictionaries in both languages (several for Chinese), Practical Chinese Reader, Beginner's and Intermediate Chinese by Yong Ho, the China Panorama VCD series, Zhang Pengpeng's books, FSI for both languages, and Reading & Writing Chinese by William McNaughton. I'm sure my collection will grow. Spanish is on a back burner and has been for a while. I plan on resuming it one day, but not until after French and German. I mentioned learning Latin recently but it will also have to wait. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 2 of 7 02 May 2008 at 9:39pm | IP Logged |
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I may as well keep track of my other endeavors in this thread, too. I try to be a balanced person, staying in good physical and mental shape, so I see all of these things as inter-connected. I won't go too much in detail in my posts about some of these things, but I will talk about them a bit.
I recently embarked upon a "Great Books" journey, and I'm planning on reading through most of the St. John's College reading list over the next several years, and once my Chinese is at a high enough level, I also want to starrt reading some of the Chinese classics. I know some of these will require me to learn 文言文 (literary or classical Chinese), but that's also in my long-term plans. And alongside the St. John's list, I'll be reading some of the "great books" of music. My major in college was Film Scoring, and I plan on getting a Master's in musicology (or maybe eventually a PhD). Before I go to grad school next fall ('09), I want to brush up on my skills, because I've gotten rusty. As far as the physical side of things, I'm very into lifting weights. Not the whole "bodybuilding" thing, but heavy strength and performance training. I'm lifting 3-4 days per week and running 2-3 times per week. Sometimes it's an easy jog, sometimes it's all out sprints, sometimes I do the rowing machine instead. I won't go in detail in my posts because out of all my projects, this is the one least likely to interest the crowd on this board, or even be understood by many here. It's pretty off-topic, so I'll restrict it to highlights. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 3 of 7 03 May 2008 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
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Side note: I'm going to Walt Disney World with my wife in a couple weeks. Epcot is our favorite park, so we're going there twice. I'll be trying a few phrases on the employees in France and maybe short conversations in China. I have a feeling the people in China will appreciate it more. There probably aren't too many white Americans in their young 20s that come in and speak Chinese. Should be fun.
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 4 of 7 04 May 2008 at 11:10am | IP Logged |
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Yesterday I noticed I'm having a hard time with pronunciation. When there are several several 'r' sounds in a row my tongue gets tangled up. So I thought about trying the FSI French Phonology course, but then noticed it's supposed to take 3 months of full-time study. I don't want to spend that much time right now on pronunciation. So I'm going to do a few lessons of Pimsleur instead. Hopefully that will help. I did lesson 1 yesterday in the car.
I also listened to 3 Elementary ChinesePod lessons on my break. I'm somewhere in between Elementary and Intermediate on their scale. I can catch the meaning of about 80% of the Intermediate lessons, but don't know all the words. I use the elementary lessons to boost my vocab and help with grammatical constructs, and the intermediate ones to help with listening comprehension. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 5 of 7 05 May 2008 at 1:24am | IP Logged |
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I had inventory at work today so I didn't have as much time as usual. I did listen to 2 ChinesePod lessons but that's about it. Should be much better tomorrow.
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 6 of 7 06 May 2008 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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Watched a French In Action video during lunch. Planning on doing some more study before bed. I'm off the next 2 days so I should have plenty of study time.
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6793 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 7 of 7 10 May 2008 at 12:54am | IP Logged |
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OK, I'm stepping out of this. It isn't a priority for me to blog about this each day. I'll still be studying French and Mandarin, but I won't be participating in the TAC. If anyone is interested I'll be updating my Chinese blog whenever I get the urge, and my new blog will be getting some attention when I return from my vacation.
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