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Deadscreen’s French/Arabic TAC2013

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deadscreen
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Newbie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4374 days ago

25 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 7
06 December 2012 at 6:17pm | IP Logged 
This is the beginning of my first year here on HTLAL, and I am going to be working hard
to make sure it is a fruitful one.

A bit about myself: I live in the USA, and I speak English and Spanish. I am 23 and
currently attending college, studying Plant Sciences. Studying languages has always
been a passion of mine, just not something that I would like to do as a career. It has
taken on more of a "serious hobby" quality, though "serious" definitely means that I
put a lot of time and effort into it.

Why French?: I have always loved the way French sounds; the speech flows so smoothly
with the liaison that French speakers like to use. I also really like the culture and
history associated with the French language: fashion, art, fine dining, literature,
etc. Also, being a Spanish speaker, I have a leg up on the grammatical difficulties
that French can pose to new learners, though pronunciation is going to be, I'm sure, a
difficulty.

How will I be learning?: As of right now, I have 1 physical textbook - The Ultimate
French Review and Practice: bit.ly/THvlFQ <-- link to book on eBay. I will be using
this for grammar studies and some vocabulary. I will be trying to employ as many free
materials as possible, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I hope to
find: podcasts to help with listening comprehension; vocabulary exercises; basic
reading materials; a conversation partner who is a native speaker.

On this site I have seen "language levels" and "certificates" mentioned in several
places. I've seen A1/B2/C1 etc. Is this a European system? This is something I will
have to look into I suppose, unless someone could offer me an explanation?

How with this learning log be used?: I will be posting about grammatical structures
that I am currently learning, and I will also be posting French-language writings so I
can possibly get some feedback on my grammar, spelling, and syntax. My first entry
concerning actual studies will be made after the first of the year. I think this will
be (one of) my New Year's resolutions!

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/suggestion!
Erica

Edited by deadscreen on 09 December 2012 at 6:37pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Brun Ugle
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Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6621 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 2 of 7
06 December 2012 at 6:25pm | IP Logged 
CEFR
is the level system you were asking about.
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deadscreen
Diglot
Newbie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4374 days ago

25 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 3 of 7
06 December 2012 at 7:17pm | IP Logged 
Thank you very much for that information, Brun. In my experience, the CEFR is basically non-existent in the US, or rather it is not a common certification at all. I am sure that plenty of Americans (who are studying languages, not Americans in general) are aware of its existence, but only in a vague way.
1 person has voted this message useful



Luso
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Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 6062 days ago

819 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 4 of 7
12 December 2012 at 4:42am | IP Logged 
Hi again, Erica.

Regarding CEFR, I'd like to let you know that this system actually helps to clarify language knowledge across borders over here in Europe. For instance, normalized "Europass" CVs use this set of rules.

Furthermore, language institutions such as the British Council, Goethe, Camões, Cervantes, Alliance, IIC, etc., all use this system for their exams.

But my Arabic teacher told me once that the validity of such a system for non-European languages is not universally agreed upon. I don't know whether this still holds true today.

Best of luck to you.

Edited by Luso on 12 December 2012 at 4:43am

1 person has voted this message useful



JohannaNYC
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Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4453 days ago

251 posts - 361 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian)

 
 Message 5 of 7
04 January 2013 at 6:34pm | IP Logged 
Feliz Año Nuevo!! I hope your finals went well and you're getting lots of language
studying before next semester starts. Anyway, let us know how it's going.
1 person has voted this message useful



Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6621 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 6 of 7
04 January 2013 at 6:43pm | IP Logged 
GLOSS and FSI are pretty good for free learning materials though I haven't used any of the French ones. It looks like the FSI site has a course in French phonology too which might help your pronunciation.

Also, could you put your team names in the title of your log? It makes it easier to find. It's not so important to have the names of the languages since they are already listed as tags.
1 person has voted this message useful



fmmarianicolon
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4347 days ago

28 posts - 30 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Sign Language
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 7 of 7
04 January 2013 at 8:59pm | IP Logged 
Howdy to my fellow American and Team Romulus member! It's very interesting that you are
pursuing Plant Science! My husband is into agriculture (grew up on a farm) so he's
frequently teaching me about plant life. (Right now he's currently looking for jobs in
aquaponics.) What led you into Plant Science?

Let's make 2013 rock! I look forward to hearing about your progress in French and
Arabic!


1 person has voted this message useful



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