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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 57 of 439 30 September 2012 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I continue my slow march through Le Petit Prince using the Frank Ilya method. I'm on the 6th of 6 mp3 files, listening at 70% normal speed. It's still delightful at the slower pace.
In the New French read and review track, I'm on lesson 78. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 58 of 439 04 October 2012 at 11:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in the home stretch. I listened to Rene Descartes Discourse on the Method of Reasoning in English and French. I'm looking forward to the post trip change in study methods.
In the background, I've been listening to French Without Toil and I enjoy that course a lot. I'm going on a flight today and am bringing New French with me as well as the recordings. The choice for New French was supported by the "taper" idea (something a bit easier before the big event), as well as the long time, though only a couple of weeks, since I've really done a quick once through on the book. This is the time for quick once throughs, rather than deep dives into just a few lessons. I plan to come back and recap what I've done over the last 10 weeks or so and put in some comments about how I thought the various parts of study. more later 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Agnesi Newbie United States Joined 4221 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 59 of 439 07 October 2012 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for writing such a detailed log. I enjoyed skimming through it, and have a few questions (some of which
you may have already answered in this thread but I missed). Did you ever finish the FSI Pronunciation course? What was your impression? How many times have you listened to Le Petit Prince now and how do you think these repetitions have or have not been beneficial? Have you been doing anything to maintain your Spanish through this whole process? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 4997 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 60 of 439 07 October 2012 at 6:19am | IP Logged | ||
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A quick note to say "thank you" for the info. on Ilya Frank's site. http://english.franklang.ru/ (Copy and paste,
removing any spaces inserted by the forum software.) It's been a very handy resource - I've recently finished Le Petit Prince for the first time, thanks to it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 61 of 439 08 October 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
I listened to the first lesson in the FSI French Pronunciation course and could see going through it. However, my goal was to ramp up my understanding as quickly as possible, and not worry too much about speaking, although I do that and it's important. For me, listening is the most important skill. I haven't counted the times I listened to Le Petit Prince, but I've listen/read it at least twice, possibly three times. I've listened to it at least 2 or 3 more times than that. I find it useful because I enjoy the story a great deal and it captures my imagination. When listening, I can wonder, "how is that spelled", etc. When I come back from my trip, I think I'll take a longer term approach, focusing on what I want in the short and long term. Some Assimil to make sure I keep learning and have a good foundation, and lots of listen/reading to hear and read the things I want. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 62 of 439 10 October 2012 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Recap
Assimil New French with Ease - Outstanding. I studied and wrote out the first 35 lessons. I did that in about 4 weeks. The writing was helpful for getting me to pay attention to spelling, etc. Then with my 10-12 week time horizon, I decided to just start burning through the book as fast as possible and no longer write out anything. I did that several times. I started by listening and reading the translation, then progressed to listening and reading the French. In the background and in the car I listened to all the lessons at least a dozen times, probably much more, but listening in the background doesn't count for that much, although I think it's helpful considering how little effort is involved. Assimil Using French - Great. I used this course in a similar manner, although I never wrote anything out. I can understand and read most of the French in it now. Assimil French Without Toil - Very Enjoyable - Great. Another course I listen/read. I can understand most of most of the dialogues now. The three Assimil courses are really helpful and pleasant to use. I plan to continue to use them after my trip as there is a lot more to get out of them. Another book I used for a while was See It & Say It in French by Margarita Madrigal and Colette Dulac. I went up to page 60 of 254. I used http://translate.google.com/ to help with the pronunciation. The "speak" function disappeared from the google site for a while, so I got off this track. The "speak" function is back now. I feel I get more out of the Assimil courses, so I'm not in a big hurry to get back to this one, although it does have a drill sort of quality that is probably helpful. Le Petit Prince which I downloaded from Frank Ilya's Reading Method was a delight. I listen/read it about 3 times and listened a couple more times. There is more to glean from this source, so I plan to go back to it from time to time in the future. I read through Essential French Grammar by Seymour Resnick about 3-4 times. This was a handy little book for quick review or to bring to my attention things to watch for. I zipped through the main points the first time through. The book stayed in the bathroom for a couple of months where it could be read and reviewed briefly and on a daily basis. No audio support for this book, but nonetheless not too bad. Although I plan to use the Assimil courses more in the future for grammatical and other points, I can see returning to this book at a later date for a recap. I ordered Listen & Learn French CD edition. That wasn't bad, but I don't think was overly helpful either. Resnick mentioned this course, so in that way, one could say Essential French Grammar and this CD set provide a course with audio. Having said that, they don't stand up to any of the Assimil courses for my purposes. I Listen-Read Voltaire's Candide once early on in this odyssey. I can't say it was very helpful at the time, but I did it. This is another piece that I plan to come back to and see if it is more pleasant the next time through. It's supposed to be a great work of literature by a genius, wink wink. I checked Easy French Reader out from the library. The one I checked out didn't have the audio CD, which reduced my interest in this work a great deal. If I had the audio, I probably would have listened to it a bunch of tmies. I read some of the early stuff and wrote out a few exercises. I don't plan to come back to this one. I think there is more interesting easy stuff out there and for historical and other works, ditto, but it's not bad and I could see one garnering benefit from actually going through this. For me though, it would be more of a waste of money. I picked up Learn French In Your Car from the local library. I listened through it once. It's not my cup of tea. I'm much better off with an Assimil course or a short audiobook. Having said that, this one does break up the grammar into specific chunks, which some may find helpful. For me though, grammar is best learnt in context and piecemeal. I'm not done with French. I'm getting ready for my trip. I listened and read New French with Ease again in the last few days. For the trip to France, I'll listen/read Using French. So, if I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't change much. A little more time on the Assimil courses, and a little less on the other courses. Le Petit Prince - definitely. Oh, one thing I would change is getting started sooner. I could have been studying French for the last 6 months or more. I knew about the trip, but kept focusing on Spanish instead of French. Focusing solely on French these last 10 weeks or so was helpful. I.E., not doing both French and Spanish at the same time. Having said that, when I return from my trip, I do plan to work on all 4 of my languages simultaneously. I think that's the key for long term success. It keeps things interesting, and variety is the spice of life. Also, it makes a lot of sense to me to keep the languages growing and taking root. You can't always predict when one will come in handy. One thing that is coming to me is the benefit of taming some sort of corpus or body of work. This seems to be helpful for building a foundation or repertoire and can make coming back to the language after an extended hiatus easier. I'm not suggesting a hiatus, but I've found it easy to come back up to speed when I have mastered a body of work in the past. A bientôt! Edited by luke on 10 October 2012 at 1:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sammychanforeve Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5856 days ago 43 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: French | Message 63 of 439 13 October 2012 at 5:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Luke,
Thanks for this detailed account. I look forward to hearing how using the language on your trip goes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 64 of 439 13 October 2012 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm on the trip now and my studies have helped. My wife and I were stuck with an automatic parking
attendant that wasn't working and I was able to get help from a Frenchman who worked for the hotel. Road signs, billboards, writing on packages, etc are generally decipherable. My level is probably around A2, which isn't too bad for such a short ramp up. We are in the south of France and I was surprised that the waiter we had last night and the hotel clerk were both quite capable in English. Employees who deal less with tourists aren't as fluent in English, such as the women who prepare breakfast and clean the rooms or the fellow who worked in the parking garage. Definitely though the experience of knowing some of the language and using it to get by is enriching our experience here. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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