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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 19 06 January 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
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My language exposure:
I originally started self-studying Mandarin in the spring of '08. Then I took a semester of Japanese later that year, then Spanish, and then French...you get the idea. I've decided to buckle down and get a handle on French before anything else. So for the rest of this year, I'm hoping that if you click on this log, you'll be reading amazing success stories and incredible feats of linguistic daring. The Methods: FSI - This might work for me, because I spend about 2-2 1/2 hours a day walking to and from school, and with a little prep, I can do most of the FSI course with just audio. Assimil - I have the 1940 version of French Without Toil, which seems to be a treasure. I feel like I'm firin' up the tubes on an ancient radio and tuning in with others around the globe whenever I listen to it. FIA - When I originally started French, this was my main source. I like it, but the video-based course might not work best for my walking schedule. Books/Audiobooks - I've always been a big reader and will often sit in one place for 10-12 hours at a time reading a book (if life permits). I think this might be condusive to the L-R method, but I'm not sure if I want to try something quite that intense. [edited orignal post (and will probably continue editing it) for my own sense of clarity] Edited by cazgram on 18 January 2010 at 1:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5488 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 2 of 19 06 January 2010 at 2:39am | IP Logged |
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Sounds good.
If you like audio books, you can find similar stuff at http://www.litteratureaudio.com/ It's got some old books that are now in the public domain as well as some more contemporary stuff (for example, you can listen to the Dalai Lama or Barack Obama's speeches). Anyways, best of luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 3 of 19 09 January 2010 at 6:30am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the link. I think I came across that a while back (1+ year), but had forgotten it and lost my bookmark during a reformat of my PC.
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| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 19 09 January 2010 at 6:39am | IP Logged |
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Yay, it's Friday. I finished the second unit of FSI today...I call that a good day. I think I'll aim for two units a week, and be open to taking longer if need be. I didn't feel like I rushed through Unit 2, and probably went through the audio 2 or 3 times with the first couple of tapes. Taking it a bit slower and adding in either french music or instrumental rock seems to give my brain a rest. I think I'm actually able to go faster when I go slower, since I don't have to repeat tapes as much.
I decided to break up the book, three-hole punch it, and throw some binder rings in it so I can carry three or four units with me while I'm walking. This works better for me with memorizing the initial dialogue, and also if the audio is garbled and I can't make out what was said. An interesting side-effect that I hadn't thought about is the strain of trying to continuously talk for 45+ minutes, especially when each words is has non-native vowel shape, which makes it doubly tiring. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 19 09 January 2010 at 6:58am | IP Logged |
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I stumbled across Renan Luce on Lastfm. There's a fair number of youtube videos of him, so if you're trying to find some decent music, you can give it a shot.
It's interesting how your taste forcibly changes when learning a new language. People say, "Just listen/watch what you would normally, but in French." The whole, do what you like and you're more likely to succeed. I agree with that, the problem is I usually listen to instrumental music, don't have a TV, and read stuff that I have a hard time understanding in English. I remember when trying to learn Mandarin, I forcibly decided I liked Taiwanese teen dramas (...Mars anyone?) so that I'd have something useful to watch. I wonder how many Harry Potter books have been sold for the sake of learning a language... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 19 09 January 2010 at 9:44am | IP Logged |
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I'm on a posting spree.
I'm not much of a gamer (last game I really got in to was Command & Conquer series) but I found out that Steam, an online game distribution service, sells Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I never played this when it originally came out, but it got rave reviews. Anyways, for ten bucks, I downloaded the game. It has an option under "Properties" within the Steam window to play it in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Once I selected French, it downloaded what I assume to be all the audio files, as there seems to be an extensive amount of actual recorded dialogue. Not bad for ten bucks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 19 18 January 2010 at 1:39am | IP Logged |
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Almost a week since the last post. I still haven't finished unit 3 of FSI.
I found the epic post about L-R (which I've seen before but never read) and skimmed through the main content. I made a parallel text for Tome I of Les Miserables to see how such a method would work. The entire audiobook is 60+ hours, so I'm not sure if I really want to undertake something that epic, although I resonate with the idea of longer books forcing overlearning (which seems to work). I do have Le Petit Prince, Le Petit Nicolas, and Harry Potter, all on audiobook + hardcopy. The problem with that is I'd have to type out the entire book, then make a bilingual text. Regarding the game KOTOR that I mentioned last time. I haven't gotten too far in it. I think if I could get into the video game itself, I might get a lot from the play time. I met someone when I was walking my dog who is starting a French speaking group and invited me to join. I think I really need to do this. I tend towards being competitive, and it drives me crazy when I can't do what others are doing (seemingly) effortlessly. Maybe it'd motivate me to stick with this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5468 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 19 28 January 2010 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
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Midterms are here and abstract algebra is really working me over. French has been cast
off to the far corners of the entertainment void, where it waits with the other unnecessaries, such as sleep and kindness. On a positive note, I got the cartoon "Chasseure de Dragon", which is a entertaining animation about these heroes who go around saving ungrateful people from dragons. (Although I feel guilty...is it really cheating on French if I'm speaking math instead of French?...I don't know if I would ever call what we're doing English.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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