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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 249 of 436 20 June 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, if I stay in the realm of the written word, spelling is not an issue. The problem is
mapping sounds to words and words to sounds. So no major surprise that my listening is relatively weak. Assimil is definitely proving a huge help here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 250 of 436 21 June 2013 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished reading le Petit Prince on Wednesday and almost immediately started reading my
first grown up French book: Stupeur et tremblements by Amélie Nothomb. I'm already over 100 pages in! I bought this book a couple of years ago on a trip to Cambridge. The guy who served me in the bookshop turned out to be a big fan of her work. He told me he'd even tried translating some of her stuff for university, adding "I didn't do it very well, of course." When I got home I tried reading it but gave up a few pages in... ...until now. Le Petit Prince and my brief review of the passé simple were absolutely necessary warm up activities to crack this nut of a book, but it turns out to be a pretty straightforward read. I'm also enjoying the feeling of somehow levelling up at the turn of every page. I don't think I've ever read quite so freely in any foreign language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4983 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 251 of 436 21 June 2013 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm looking for the like button and not finding one... Grr. Yeah thats awesome. I think you can see how
frustrated I get going from European languages to Japanese. It's so much harder. When I read German or Spanish or whatever I can totally feel myself getting better. Japanese not so much. Just the opposite sometimes lol. *edit* found the like button Edited by kraemder on 22 June 2013 at 3:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5781 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 252 of 436 22 June 2013 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I finished reading Stupeur et Tremblements today. It's neither long nor particularly difficult, however I must say I am feeling rather pleased with myself for finishing my first proper grown up French novel (not to mention reading the whole thing in four days, three of which were working ones).
Stupeur et Tremblements will probably be of interest to many people who are studying French and Japanese. It's written as a memoire, but I have no idea to what extent (if any) it is autobiographical. But basically it tells the story of a naive young Belgian woman who enters a Japanese company in the early 1990s and, thanks to a combination of cultural differences, her own incompetence, and some pretty nasty bosses, manages to somehow descend from the bottom rung of the corporate ladder to an even lower position. To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting much from the book. The internet is already full of complaints of Westerners who went to Japan wide-eyed and in thrall to the exotic, only to discover that Japan is not actually a paradise. However, I was doing the book a disservice. There is plenty of intelligence, insight and good humour which puts it in a completely different arena to the complaints of an average blogger. I've added French as a language for this months Tadoku, and I find it slightly amusing that although I initially registered with Japanese, the last 21 days have seen me finish two French books versus a rather pathetic 32 pages of Japanese. I am feeling quite happy at present with where my French reading skills are sitting, but I am all too aware that I need to do some serious work on the language overall. I know I need to bring my listening skills up, and have to admit I don't feel the same pleasure listening to French as I do German or Japanese. I also know that this time last week I wasn't too enthusiastic about reading French either, but getting through a couple of enjoyable books seems to have solved that problem. I have spent a few hours listening to RTL and watching TV5. I've also experimented with some French dubs of TV shows I own on DVD already. But nothing has got me hooked. I'm also very aware that as my listening is pretty weak compared to my reading I will probably need to do some more targeted work to make native materials more accessible in the first place. I dislike having weak listening skills, so it's a little strange that it's a little harder than normal to find the motivation to work on them for French. And of course I would definitely profit from doing a little more targeted work on grammar and vocabulary, especially grammar. At some point I will have to activate this language for real. Although it makes sense to improve my listening a little first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4464 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 253 of 436 22 June 2013 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
I thought the name rang a bell. I've read Peplum and I started (but didn't finish) Acide Sulfurique. I found them both a trifle odd, but useful for what I was doing at the time (trying to improve my French comprehension). Congratulations on getting through your first proper novel: it's a great feeling isn't it? Edited by dampingwire on 22 June 2013 at 11:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4983 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 254 of 436 22 June 2013 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't worry if you don't do any listening practice with French. I think you'll be really surprised a few months (or maybe a little more) from now if you keep reading (nothing too extreme) at how much better your comprehension will get. It happened to me with Spanish. In fact, you might want to try it this way just to see what happens. My draw dropped to the floor when I turned on the Spanish dub on a whim while watching Avatar.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4464 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 255 of 436 23 June 2013 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
2 days into my bathroom-tiling marathon, I do need the occasional hearty laugh. Thanks :- ) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4983 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 256 of 436 23 June 2013 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah I could tell the content was easy but I understood everything. And previously, I had watched Spanish and understood next to nothing. It's a big change.
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