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TAC 2011 Team Ÿ - Cazgram - FR | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 12 29 December 2010 at 6:29pm | IP Logged |
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Bienvenue! Hello to all my TAC partners! It looks like Team Ÿ is settled with Persona, myself, marrubizko, and Sunja.
I started a log here in 2010, but decided to start fresh with TAC. Background: I originally started self-studying Mandarin in the spring of '08. Then I took an intensive semester of Japanese later that year, but quit both after realizing I didn't have the motivation to make significant progress in either. I then started Spanish, and then French...you get the idea. That was almost three years ago, and I still feel as if I'm reading the same phrases from the same beginner books without much more comprehension. Sometime last year I decided to devote my time exclusively to French, mostly to have one direction to move towards. But I still haven't made much progress, due to lack of consistency. Goals: I really don't want to get anything out of this year other than consistency. I believe that if I'm consistent with my French studies, everything else will fall in to place. Daily: watch or read at least an hour of something French, and doing at least a half-hour of some method-based learning (i.e. literal translation, LR, Assimil, etc) Edited by cazgram on 02 January 2011 at 10:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 12 29 December 2010 at 7:35pm | IP Logged |
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Methods:
I own a good deal of materials for French, including FIA(audio/video + workbook), FSI, and Assimil (Without Toil and Using French), TYS Improve Your French, a few bilingual books, and an assortment of young adult literature (Harry Potter, Le Petite Prince, etc.) and corresponding audiobooks. I also have Shaum's French Grammar and Langenscheidt's Pocket Grammar for French. FIA Last year, I attempted FIA for a while, which definitely impressed me as far as quality is concerned. I made it through lesson 7 (out of 52?) before I quit. I guess that's not giving it a fair shot, but I felt too much like I was in school when filling out the workbook. Also, having to watch the videos prior to working on the workbook/audio didn't lend itself well to my schedule of commuting. FSI I also tried FSI. This worked a little better than FIA in terms of my schedule (commuting), but lacked any sort of relational/grounding/humanity element. I felt like I got really good at something, but I never could figure out (or remember) what it was. Assimil I've only done the first 20 or so lessons, but it seems like this isn't so bad. It's not the most entertaining thing in the world, but it's easily done while commuting, and doesn't require book work. So...those are the courses I've tried. Now that I've at least tasted them, I thinking I'd like to not continue any of them. Maybe Assimil, since it's not too course like. Just last week I tried simply reading Le Petite Prince, and adding words I didn't know to an Iversen-style word list. I've enjoyed this much more than any of the courses above. I've also been trying the L/R approach with Harry Potter. I'm not sure about this yet. So far, I think the main focus of my studies will be reading/translatiing books, coupled with watching lot of TV/Movies and reading the news. I can see myself sticking with this much longer than any course, which is my main priority. Edited by cazgram on 29 December 2010 at 11:09pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 3 of 12 29 December 2010 at 11:43pm | IP Logged |
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I like Sunja's idea of setting out a plan for the next week, in order to keep from spending too much time logging, and not enough time studying.
TV/Movies: I just discovered OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions and OSS 117: Rio ne repond plus, which are James Bond/Chauvinistic comedies. The humor generally translates well:) It's very refreshing after only seeing the "new wave" stuff, that...while certainly good fodder for film class, is tough for me to watch over and over without losing it. Reading: I've gotten about 1/4 the way through Le Petite Prince. I hope to finish this, in combo with word lists, and get to the point where I can read through the entire thing with a reasonable amount of understanding. I imagine this will take me another week or two. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5192 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 12 31 December 2010 at 6:47pm | IP Logged |
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Cazgram - one thing that might help with vocabulary acquisition (with Le Petit Prince, Harry Potter, etc), is to enter the text into lingq. There are plenty of places out there to get the text, so it would be fairly easy to copy/paste a section at a time into their system. Then you just hover over the word and it will tell you the definition. It's much easier than looking everything up, and then you can print off your lists, do flashcards, etc it you want to.
If you need help figuring it out, just send me a PM. =) Bonne chance avec le français cette année! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 12 02 January 2011 at 10:43am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Kerrie, for the heads up about lingq. I just spent some time fiddling with smart.fm, but until they optimize their site for adding content, I don't think it's something I can use. I'll probably check out lingq tomorrow.
As far as hovering for definitions, I use Goldendict, which works pretty well for me.I enabled a hotkey (for me the Windows key) so that I can just hold it down and click on the word, and the translation pops up. It works anywhere on your computer, not just the browser, which is useful for pdf's and such. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 12 02 January 2011 at 11:11am | IP Logged |
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Focus
So, I haven't gotten much further on my reading. Last week, I had been fiddling with French all day (actually with that corpus stuff), until the evening came around and I decided to buckle down and actually accomplish something. I cranked through Le Petite Prince with wordlists, and added about 60 new words within that time frame. I tried to do that the next day, but ended up reviewing for a little while...then playing around with something else instead. A few days later, I finally worked through a good deal more (about 150 words), but only once I'd, once again, fiddled for a while with everything else. It seems that everytime I make significant progress, a special sort of focus comes over my mind. I'm trying to force that focus, but it seems to just happen, and won't be forced. So do I decide this is how my brain works, and work with it, or do I...focus on focusing? If I just work with it, I'm left with a very inefficient way of studying, in that 8 hours of work generally produces 1-2 hours of results. I'm drawn to working with it, but I know I won't stick with French over the long term if it consumes all the time in which I should be doing responsible things. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cazgram Senior Member United States Joined 5454 days ago 34 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 12 02 January 2011 at 11:29am | IP Logged |
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I've read that it takes about a month to create new habits. I think in order to successfully Totally Annihilate French, I'm going to have to develop some better habits. But what those are is the question...
My instinct is to become more devoted to studying, ie setting apart a special time in the morning and cranking away. Maybe eventually I'll need to do this. But for now I'd really like to sidestep the issue. If focus is my problem, then (the little voice in my head says), all I need to do is be more focused. But it's never that simple. Also, once the quarter begins again, Math will once re-claim dominance over my time, and studying for fun, after hours of proofs, will not seem so fun. So, what to do... I have a 40-minute commute which is prime real-estate for something other than NPR. I think for the month of January, I'm going to try this: In car/bus during commute: 1 x Assimil going to & 1 x Assimil going home Any surplus time not needed for Assimil is fair game for radio/sleep/etc. At home: Watch/listen to French everyday as much as possible, but no actual "studying" of French while at home, including weekends If I keep the pressure to a minimum, maybe I won't start seeing it as a chore. Edited by cazgram on 02 January 2011 at 11:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5882 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 8 of 12 02 January 2011 at 1:59pm | IP Logged |
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Hi cazgram,
You're right, the commute would be about 80 minutes of listening. I don't know if you have this trouble, but I tend to concentrate too hard and I get frustrated while driving. I give English lessons to someone who has this problem, too. He's a weekend commuter and drives out Monday and back Friday, 200 kilometers each way. He works for the German automotive industry, has colleagues from all over europe, and the business/common language is English. He's fighting the clock trying to learn English as fast as he can and his only study time alone is his commute. He and I are both trying to accept passive listening while driving, just to let go of concentrating and let it play. I'd like to know how it goes during your commute. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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