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TAC ’15 French Spanish Celtic Adv Study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 4998 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 281 of 336 15 July 2014 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a great French update!
Re the AF classes - yes, group conversation classes (whether AF or otherwise) can sometimes founder, depending on the dynamics of the group; or a few individuals who (unfairly or unproductively) dominate. It's a difficult situation. - How do your teachers handle it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 282 of 336 16 July 2014 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
The one course is very text-based, so if we get off track we can bring it back to the text. Also the teacher isn't afraid to shut down the one who interprets things in "interesting" ways that send us off into debates that seem unproductive (at least for someone who wants to talk about the essential of a text rather than going around in circles about whether the definition of a certain word really translates into its English cognate or not). The other kind of unintentionally instigates tangential discussions. He'll bring up an interesting fact or aside and for some reason someone will be shocked about cultural differences (such as the PS wanting to grant immigrants the right to vote in local elections) and it'll take a while to come back. I do my best to find a connection to bring it back if I manage to get a word in. We also have more participants who always want to compare everything to the US and/or Canada (for the one Canadian) and people here can usually be assured that everyone shares similar opinions when it comes to American politics so they don't really push themselves intellectually to develop their arguments. I think another part of the issue is that he assigns long, challenging reading which I think quite a few don't read, only skim without really understanding, or that is over people's heads (not everyone grasps social science theory). So the trade off is I get some fascinating reading that I wouldn't have found on my own, but I don't get the discussion to match. The philosophes are typically easier to understand but you can still have a deep discussion over them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 283 of 336 22 July 2014 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a lazy weekend but one that was productive for the SC. I checked out the Netflix
French catalog which has been updated: La maison de la radio: A behind the scenes at the "Maison Ronde" which until very recently has housed France Radio. I recognized a lot of names in the credits but I only recognized Patrick Cohen by sight. It was nice to get a look at what I spend so much time listening to. Le chat du rabbin: emk recommended this BD but the Alliance Française library never has the first volume so I was able to watch it in film form. Le tableau: Another animated feature. This is about a painter who leaves one of his works unfinished which leaves the world he created in social crisis. A group of living in the painting sets out to find the painter to ask him to finish his work. Ridicule: A classic from 1989. A noble from the South hoping to drain marshland that's making life miserable for everyone living on his land goes to Versailles and is forced into the exasperating world of the Court where power and influence is won through intellectual word play. De l'autre côté de la périph: An American-style cop film that teams up an ambitious upper-class Parisian detective with a more streetwise cop from the projects (played by Omar Sy). It's nothing special but the whole "worlds collide" setup can be good to learn nuances of register. 17 filles: The rumored "pregnancy pact" (which turned out to not really exist according to the girls) from a high school in Gloucester, MA gets an almost film d'art et d'essai treatment in this French film. It explores why a group of teenagers from a dead end town would want to get pregnant. 10th District Court: A documentary showing a few days' sessions of a misdemeanor-level court. Fascinating to see the cross-section of people who end up there, how they argue their cases, and how the French justice system works. Et soudain tout le monde me manque: A family dramedy. A bit disjointed but entertaining. Starbucks, Illy, and Crocs feature heavily in this film. And with that I earned my 5th star! I also finished "La défaite de la pensée" d'Alain Finkielkraut. I need some time to go over my notes but a quick summary - cultural relativism has its roots in the German romantic and nationalist movements (the Volksgeist), continued through the post- colonial era and stands in contrast to universalist French and European values. Also, pop/vulgar culture has been given an elevated status through consumerism so that there is no longer a hierarchy between high and low culture. Also, Finkie apparently hates rock music. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3796 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 284 of 336 22 July 2014 at 6:51am | IP Logged | ||
These are awesome finds! Thanks for sharing! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 285 of 336 23 July 2014 at 9:31am | IP Logged | ||
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As I said, this guy really hates rock music.
"Certaines écoles américaines vont même jusqu'à empaqueter la grammaire, l'histoire, les mathématiques et toutes les matières fondamentales dans une musique rock que les élèves écoutent, un walkman sur les oreilles." (La défaite de la pensée d'Alain Finkielkraut) I was thinking of working on some exercises to prepare for the DALF based on tips from this site. Anyone want to work as a group? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 286 of 336 28 July 2014 at 8:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Just got back from an Irish immersion weekend with my study group! It went very well - we got lots of practice with verbs, shared our resources, and enjoyed one another's company. I find that being a minority language, and a challenging one to tackle, the Irish learning community is usually great about being supportive and building communities. Though, a funny side note: we were wondering about a point of grammar (is it "bean deas" or "bean dheas" - I could swear I remembered a line from Aifric where they said "bean dheas"). I ended up finding this forum thread attempting to answer that question. What starts as an innocuous question about how to translate a user name descends into an intense flame war which is nothing short of hilarious (a NSFW excerpt: "me and my balls are f**king frightened of you and your coven of grammar nerds, that's for sure"). So there are some bad apples out there, but thankfully I haven't met them yet.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 287 of 336 31 July 2014 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had my French course yesterday which covered Emile Durkheim. I have to say that all the
nonfiction reading I'm doing in general plus reading out loud practice is helping a lot with my spoken fluency for advanced topics. I remember about two years ago trying to read some translated Joseph Stiglitz out loud and stumbling over words all over the place. I've gotten much better! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 288 of 336 01 August 2014 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Since I know I won't be doing anything else language-related tonight, I'll post my month's summary! It seems that my time tracking app is having trouble exporting my charts and graphs right now so I'll add those later.
July 2014 Total Hours: 219:08 Daily Average: 7:05 French Total: 187:39 Reading: 52:05 Listening: 116:46 Speaking: 4:30 Writing: 2:11 Course/Lesson: 12:07 Irish Totals: 29:22 Reading: 1:57 Speaking: 0:40 Writing: 0:00 Course: 20:20 Spanish: none :( Meta Learning: 2:46 So it wasn't a record-breaking month for me but still fine (and my French reading time is still very good). I'm not happy with my writing time, though, and my speaking time can be better. I've been playing with the graphs and I think I'll plot some monthly skill graphs and go over my plans for the remainder of the year. Goals: Continue with the Super Challenge. It's still going well and getting my reading times way up. As it's my birthday, I'm hoping to get some gift certificates that will allow me to order some Irish language books so I can make SC progress in Irish as well. Start the 6 Week Challenge in Irish. This is my first 6WC! I'll be working on really pushing through my studies as I feel I've been lax for the past couple months. In six weeks I ought to be able to get through most of GGS2 which will be a pretty big level up for me. I'm thinking of doing a blog of sorts to accompany my learning process as a lot of other learners I've met using GGS1 keep asking me how I finished. Stay tuned for that. Still nothing for Spanish :( I now feel like a fraud when I say I'm learning Spanish. I will focus on getting on the board in Spanish for the SC - especially for movies as that will be really easy to accomplish. If all goes well for my first 6WC I'll probably make Spanish my choice for the next one. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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