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Gary’s TAC 2012 - The Romantics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5421 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 41 of 167 16 February 2012 at 3:18am | IP Logged | ||
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He definitely speaks fast and with a lot of slang, it's good practise. And as you say,
incredibly entertaining :) I will have to look into getting the DVD myself! The only other series I have really loved in French is completely different called "Engrenages" a crime series that has intricate plots unwinding over the whole season. It can be a bit gruesome and I find it harder to understand than Bref due to all the specialised Law/Medical vocab but the BBC has done versions with subtitles so I've used those to try and learn more of the words. Totally recommend it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5019 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 42 of 167 20 February 2012 at 11:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah I thought they might be trying to cash in on the popularity of the show and release it as a DVD. I'm certainly tempted. Maybe it'll even have French subtitles to help me catch these tricky bits, but that's probably a bit much to hope for. I also watched Engrenages a while ago, might give it another watch soon and see if it's any easier than last time.
Français As expected, no time for meetups last week so I had to get creative. I've been doing more and more self-talk recently, applying what I said about accuracy over speed, and it seems to be helping. I had a Skype chat yesterday which went quite well - we were speaking French for over half an hour and I felt that I wasn't getting stuck or making mistakes as frequently as usual. Also got a bit of shadowing done at the weekend and watched some Youtube videos. Italiano The usual - Assimil, some self-talk (still pretty difficult but after the first few minutes I start to get the hang of it), and the random Italian conversation that seems to now be happening on a weekly basis. This week's random Italian conversation was with a Sicilian girl at a party, and between her accent which I wasn't used to at all (faster and less clear than the Northern accent I'm used to; there were points where I didn't pick up a single word of a sentence and it sounded like she was talking some weird sort of Spanish) and the noisy environment, it wasn't easy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5019 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 43 of 167 27 February 2012 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Another crazy but fun week. I finally had some free time at the weekend, but I was feeling too burnt-out and sleep-deprived from the last few weeks to do anything requiring much active effort. Even working through one Assimil lesson each day was tough. Things are getting a bit quieter now so time to take it easy and recover.
Français I went to a concert in another city the previous night, by one of my favourite bands who happen to be French. Had a wee half-French half-English chat with the guitarist afterwards, then I didn't get home and go to sleep till the early hours. I went to the language café the next day but didn't feel very with it after the late night - I had a couple of French conversations but just wasn't feeling up to socialising and didn't stay long. On Friday there was a French film night (Les femmes du 6e étage), but there were a few beginners there so most of the conversation after the film was in English. Then at the weekend I did the usual bit of shadowing and videos; other than that, as I say I wasn't in the mood for much active study, but I was quite happy to watch some TV and films. Some of the usual Canal+ stuff (mostly Action Discrète), then the old favourite Amélie which I hadn't seen for a couple of years. Nice to be able to enjoy it in the original language without subtitles, it helped me appreciate it as a film in a way that I hadn't before. Italiano Just barely keeping up, and missed four out of seven days of Assimil. No real random conversation to speak of this week sadly, but a little bit of conversation at the language café. Other than that I watched some Italian videos on Youtube, including one of a Russian woman who spoke good Italian comparing the Russian and Italian cultures, and not always very favourably towards the latter. I'll need to find it again, it was called something like "what the Italians could learn from the Russians". Anyway lets hope my enthusiasm comes back this week as I catch up on sleep and work calms down a bit. Edited by garyb on 27 February 2012 at 1:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5021 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 44 of 167 01 March 2012 at 1:22am | IP Logged | ||
How was the film? - It's had somewhat varied reviews. From the plot summary, it sounds as if it might be somewhat predictable; would you nevertheless recommend it? And a side question: do the maids speak in Spanish, or in French? - If the latter, I assume it's Spanish-accented French? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5019 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 45 of 167 01 March 2012 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Aye it's certainly a bit predictable and the characters are quite clichéd, but it's well-done nonetheless. Nothing amazingly special but it's enjoyable. The maids speak to each other in Spanish and to the French characters in French with varying degrees of accent. Edited by garyb on 01 March 2012 at 12:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5019 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 46 of 167 01 March 2012 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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...And a proper update, or at least mini-update. I went to the language café and the French meetup as promised. At the language café I was still feeling quite tired, unenthusiastic, and not very talkative so I didn't really make the most of it; I was feeling better and more normal yesterday for the French meetup, but it was quiet and there were mostly non-French people and/or beginners, so very much not the usual few hours of constant French conversation that help me so much. Still, in both cases I'm glad I made the effort, and every bit of speaking is good practice. And I'm glad life's getting a little bit quieter now and I'm feeling better and I'm catching up on my sleep and my non-work activities.
Travel plans: I'm going to France in mid-June (14th to 24th or thereabouts). I'll be at the Hellfest music festival that I've already talked about for the first few days, then I'll probably hang about in Paris for the next week. Should be plenty to keep me busy there. I'm not too fussed about sightseeing and other touristy stuff - been there and done that - I'm more keen to just experience the life there, meet people, and speak lots of French. I know a guy there (my Skype partner) and I could probably get in touch with some locals through Couchsurfing etc., and I'll check out some bars and clubs. Other suggestions on making the most of my time there are welcome. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5019 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 47 of 167 05 March 2012 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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This week's update...
Français Other than the disappointing meetups I talked about, I had a Skype chat at the weekend which wasn't great, my level seemed to have reverted back to that of a year or two ago. I'm just hoping that it was a bad day, but I am starting to worry that I'm losing my French ability due to lack of speaking opportunity. I've either been too busy to go to the meetups, or when I have gone, I haven't gotten much out of them due to either feeling too tired and untalkative or due to too many beginners. I really shouldn't get angry at beginners, since I'm all for starting speaking early and being a beginner in Italian I can understand their difficulties, but it's starting to get on my nerves that I'm experiencing very little benefit from the meetups because of their constant insistence in turning the conversation to English. I respect the ones who're making a good effort to actually use the language they came to practice and are saying sentences in it, even if they're clearly struggling, but most seem to be happy to just introduce themselves in French and then proceed to make no further effort whatsoever, making it a waste of time for those of us who're actually serious about improving. Anyway that's my rant for the week. Italiano Caught up on Assimil, and watched a couple of films: La vita è bella and Che bella giornata. With English subtitles, but paying attention to the spoken Italian. It was nice to see some of the words and expressions I've learnt being used. This week I should make it to the language café and hopefully a French conversation group. Won't have much free time for any other sort of study though. My lack of time and progress is as frustrating as ever, but at least I've recovered and found enough enthusiasm to feel that way rather than just not caring. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hendrek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4694 days ago 152 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Persian | Message 48 of 167 05 March 2012 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've all but given up on the meetups for the same reason. They either turn into all English, or me trying to teach Italian to people just to get away from English.
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