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Team EN - TAC 2010 - Goal French Fluency

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Adrean
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
France
adrean83.wordpress.c
Joined 5979 days ago

348 posts - 411 votes 
Speaks: FrenchC1

 
 Message 9 of 119
22 January 2010 at 5:20pm | IP Logged 
Much much preperation for the upcoming test being done. There has been a vast improvement with my speaking skills compared with just a few months ago. This is partially due to class and regular skype calls with a French speaker. Also I think an ever growing vocabulary always helps when you need to pull a word from somewhere during a conversation. Having a French speaker who is more then ready to correct you is always an advantage and helps you a great deal especially in regards to pronunciation. Mostly it's just a lot of hard work.

How is it that after 3 years of study I don't know the verb or noun 'to spell' in french. I knew right from the beginning Comment ca s'ecrit? which means how does it write itself, but it is only recently I've discovered the verb épeler and orthographier and I'm having a little trouble pointing out the difference between these two verbs. But that is really nit-picking and I'm sure that soon it will become clear.

Liam my Team E team mate (who doesn't post nearly enough) recommended to me in a PM a French pop group which I really enjoy now. The clips are really out there and interesting so I will put up a few links for you to enjoy. The band is 'les Rita mutsouko'. On the subject of TEAM E(!!) where are you NichtGut???

Les Amants
Marcia Baila
Hip Kit



Anki: 10 Hours
TV: 6 Hours
Movies: 0 Hours
Listening-Reading: 10 Hours
Text Book Study/Grammar study: 13 Hours
Skype conversations: 7 Hours
Class: 12 Hours
1 person has voted this message useful



Adrean
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
France
adrean83.wordpress.c
Joined 5979 days ago

348 posts - 411 votes 
Speaks: FrenchC1

 
 Message 10 of 119
29 January 2010 at 1:23am | IP Logged 
I realise how dull it may seem to jot down what one has done and I apologise in advance. It's not possible to come up with a ground breaking new technique for language learning each post and I assure you it won't happen in this post, so feel free to press back on your internet browser now. I'm sure that there are more constructive things that you could be doing.

Actually that may not be completely true. I did stumble across this week a wonderful new resource on the internet. Unfortunately you have to pay for it. Basically it's a video with English and french subtitles running at the same time, you can slow it down, pause it, click on words you don't etc.etc.etc. Actually this video explains it very well. It for me is a fantastic resource and ties in perfectly with the kind of study I like to do and the kind of study I find most beneficial. As I pointed out earlier it's necessary to pay for this resource but if they continue to add videos I may subscribe

It's only one week away from my test. I've been slogging at work for the past 10 days and study time is at a premium. I decided that I would spend at a minimum 3 hours with French and I've kept a small record which I'm putting here for no apparent reason other then to show off.

Sunday 24th
Skype conversation - 1 hour
Fluent French audio - 30 minutes
Tout le monde veut prendre sa place - 40 minutes
L-R - 30 minutes
Anki - 30 minutes

Monday
FFA - 1 Hour
TLMVPSP - 40 minutes
Anki - 20 minutes
Yable - 10 minutes
Verb Mate - 15 minutes 80% score
French Verb Online - 20 minutes
L-R - 30 minutes

Tuesday
Anki - 15
FFA - 30
Textbook - 1 hour
L-R - 40
TLMVPSP - 20

Wednesday
FFA - 30
Anki - 20
Skype - 1 hour
L-R - 40

Thursday
Class - 2 hours
FFA - 30
TLMVPSP - 40
L-R - 30


Anki: 11.5 Hours
TV: 8.5 Hours
Movies: 0 Hours
Listening-Reading: 12.5 Hours
Text Book Study/Grammar study: 15.5 Hours
Skype conversations: 9 Hours
Class: 14 Hours
Fluent French Audio: 3 hours
1 person has voted this message useful



lorsque
Groupie
Canada
Joined 5250 days ago

64 posts - 67 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 11 of 119
30 January 2010 at 3:42pm | IP Logged 
Hi Adrean,

I would like to recommend the Bescherelle books.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/images/2890458083/ref=dp_ima ge_0?ie=UTF8&n=916520&s=books

This one is in English but you get French to English of all 12, 000 verbs plus it teaches you all the models of conjugation.   I hope this helps.
1 person has voted this message useful



Adrean
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
France
adrean83.wordpress.c
Joined 5979 days ago

348 posts - 411 votes 
Speaks: FrenchC1

 
 Message 12 of 119
01 February 2010 at 11:45am | IP Logged 
lorsque wrote:
Hi Adrean,

I would like to recommend the Bescherelle books.


Thanks for the recommendation! I have been looking for a good book on verbs. I've mostly seen the 501 most commons verb books. I'll try and find this book in the shops and have a flick through before buying.

-------------------------------------------------

I have now my DELF B1 written test this Thursday and my oral test this Friday. No I'm not seeing the dentist.

I'm feeling at the moment very comfortable and confident for the test. I think I've done enough study and preperation to do very well, save for a small part of the oral exam which I have yet to prepare for but there is plenty of time to do that. In preperation for the exam I completed two practice tests from this website. I did the tests following strictly the guidelines - this means if it says to play the recording then pause 1 minute to answer the questions and then play again the recording, that is what I did. I actually went off to the library to do the tests so there was no distractions. I could correct the first two parts of each exam myself and I was very happy with my results. 1st test - 21/25 22/25, 2nd test - 22/25 23/25. I only need 50% or more to pass the test :-)

Unfortunately I could not correct the essay section myself, but I was very pleased with what I wrote. Obviously I couldn't do the oral part of the practice exam myself, unless I was completely mad. In doing these practice exams I've kind of developed a method to complete the test, which mostly involves putting down my answers on a seperate paper piece so I can do the editing when I transfer it to the test paper.

I've also done practice on skype for the first two parts of the oral exam. The first part is to talk about yourself. Easy! The second part is to play a part in a role play. I had two attempts at this on Skype. I tried being a dissastisfied customer who has paid 50% extra to a plumber even though they had signed a contract. The second was to be someone who had lacked all confidence in himself before going to an interview, the examiner would play the part of the consoling friend.....I had been dreading this part of the exam but in practicing them I realised that when you put yourself into the situation you'll really suprise yourself how well you do. So no more worrying for me.

Yesterday I had to meet a young couple from Normandy. We spoke a little in French. We disscussed briefly when to tutoyer or when to vousvoyer and a lot was cleared up for me.

Friday 29th
Listening-Reading - 30
Fluent French Audio - 30

Saturday 30th
FFA - 1 hour
Two Tests - 2.5 hours
Textbook work - 1 hour
Tout le monde veut prendre sa place - 40
Ankie - 1 hour
Skype - 1

Sunday 31st
Textbook work - 1 hour
L-R - 30 minutes
FFA - 30 minutes
Talking with French people - 15 minutes

Anki: 12.5 Hours
TV: 9.25 Hours
Movies: 0 Hours
Listening-Reading: 13.5 Hours
Text Book Study/Grammar study: 20 Hours
Skype conversations: 10 Hours
Class: 14 Hours
Fluent French Audio: 5 hours

Edited by Adrean on 01 February 2010 at 9:03pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



Liamohalloran
Diglot
Newbie
Australia
Joined 5258 days ago

12 posts - 13 votes
Speaks: English*, French

 
 Message 14 of 119
01 February 2010 at 1:04pm | IP Logged 
Adrean good luck with your examination, I'm sure you will ace it, but I'm worried about the wet stain down the front of your pants when you get asked to do your oral section.

Just kidding, but maybe if you go above and beyond you can be awarded a B2 level, i'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way but wouldn't it be great if you got a letter 'Adrean we were so impressed by your result we have awarded you a B2 level rather then a B1.'

Happy studies
1 person has voted this message useful



Adrean
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
France
adrean83.wordpress.c
Joined 5979 days ago

348 posts - 411 votes 
Speaks: FrenchC1

 
 Message 15 of 119
06 February 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged 
Hi it is a very relieved Adrean who is writing today. I have completed the B1 Delf test.

How did I go? Well I think overall I did very well. I did well in certain areas that I thought could have been my weaknesses and poorly in areas that I thought were my strengths.

The Bad - I did not do as well as I thought I would during the listening exercises. In particular with the 3rd example. I understood what he was saying but couldn't link it to the questions asked. I was totally stressed out as this was the first section of the first part of the exam.

The Good - Well the second day was the oral exam. I really put a lot of effort into this section of study but I believe that it was still a weakness, BUT a big but, when I got into the room with the examiner something just clicked and the words came very easily. It helped that the examiner was very bubbly and wanted to express her own thoughts, so it wasn't, strictly speaking, very exam like. I did much better then I thought I would especially with regards to the task where I had to speak for a few minutes on a subject unaided. I was shocked during the preperation time that I couldn't look at my notes, but with the constant practice tests I did I could recall what was necessary. God bless those who didn't prepare!

The i'm not so sure - I think overall my written essay was very good. I know my use of grammer and spelling was mostly correct. However, I'm not so sure I will do so well because I avoided using the more difficult grammer components like the subjuntive or the conditional tense etc.etc. So I could do either really well or really poorly.

What I expect? I will hope to get 80 out of 100. I will be happy with this result. There is a chance I may get 70 depending on the results of my essay and my oral exam. I will be very dissapointed with this.

There is a wealth of resources out there for completing the DELF tests. Like books and some texts online. What I was looking for and couldn't find before the test was a personal temoinage. This was especiallly frustrating because you always have so many questions before doing something like this. So for anyone planning to do the test don't hesistate to ask me any questions.

Overall I'm sure that I passed easily. No doubt there. And now I have something now which proves I'm at a certain level in French. I'm at the level B1.

I put a link to some practice tests in a previous here is another good link for more practice tests. Unfortunately the answers are not included.


------------------------------------------------------

Moving on from the test...

I'm gonna take my study very lightly for the time being. Just lots of Tele, Movies and L-Ring. The things I like to do.

I saw my first French film of the new year. I don't think my list of films will be comparable to last years. I saw the prophet. It's not a film that will make you feel very comfortable. It received the grand prix at the cannes festival last year. It's a film set in a prison. I'm normally uncomfortable watching films of this genre. What if I was to do the wrong thing and end up in prison??

Anyways there's a gang of corsicans that kind of run a prison and they take in an arab after he does a job for them. I get the feeling that the Corsicans were the old guard as many of them are freed from gaol and more and more Arabs and Blacks come into the gaol each day. There's kind of a romantic notion that they, (the corsicans) did things with more finesse and style. But by the end of the film only 5 of them remain in the gaol and they operate things anymore.

Gonna jot down for the final time the study I spent each day in preperation for the exam.

Monday 1st
Skype - 1 hour
TLMVPSP - 40
L-R - 1 hour
Anki - 40 minutes

Tuesday
FFA - 1 1/2 hours
TLMVPSP - 40
Textbook - 30
Anki - 25

Wednesday
Skype - 1 hour
Textbook - 30 minutes

Thursday
TLMVPSP - 1 1/2 hour
Practice exam - 2 hours
Exam - 2 hours

Friday
Skype -1 1/2 hours
Test - 30 minutes
Textbook work - 3 hours


Anki: 13.5 Hours
TV: 12.5 Hours
Movies: 2 Hours
Listening-Reading: 14.5 Hours
Text Book Study/Grammar study: 28.5 Hours
Skype conversations: 13.5 Hours
Class: 14 Hours
Fluent French Audio: 7 hours
1 person has voted this message useful



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