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My Adventures in French (TAC15) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5282 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 49 of 163 04 April 2014 at 1:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hey Mohave, Although I've had some results of late I seemed to have slumped a little. So encouraging words are worth a lot! Glad to hear you've come a long way in one month! On that note I'm going to use your very post as a spring board to endeavour to do EVERYTHING I can to make April my best month ever. I've got to get back on track and feel like i'm making better progress like yourself. You've really progressed significantly in your coursework, well done! I'll try my best to catch you! ;) As for Harry Potter, I know this is starting to ressemble a broken-record, but again, well done! I wonder if I have the junior folio Harry Potter version's too now. I think that's what I have in print, but I also have iBook versions and CDs so i'm kinda wondering now what i actually do have.... doesn't matter really, as long as we keep on track! I'll think of you when the day comes and I manage to read one right through. Excellent work Mohave, truly. Keep it up. Make April a great month too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3813 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 50 of 163 08 April 2014 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
PeterMollenburg, Thank you so much for your kind words! It's funny, because you inspire me! I would love to be able to pass a B1 exam - particularly with your marks! I think I just have too many holes in my vocabulary, and too many grammar issues and verb conjugation issues to do what you have done! You are so close to passing a B2 exam and having basic fluency! Keep pushing, but remember to have fun along the way! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3813 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 51 of 163 08 April 2014 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I just completed my 7 day stay in Guadeloupe and wanted to update my log on my successes and my areas
to focus on. My largest success by far was I made my self understood! For the language learner who realizes for the first-time they can have meaningful conversations with people they don't know and be understood, this was a huge success for me! :) Successes: 1) I was able to perform nearly all my necessary business tasks in French, ie renting a car, airport check-in, hotel check-in, stores, restaurants, etc. 2) I was able to hold conversations entirely in French with random people about random subjects. Having said that, it was clear that I was a language learner, and I made grammar, verb conjugation, and masc/fem errors in just about every sentence! While I think I got very lucky, I was dependent upon the generosity of people willing to speak to a language learner. 3) We were fortunate to be invited to two small cocktail parties hosted by the B&B owners. The first one included 8 people, one of which only spoke French, one who spoke only English (my husband), 5 fluent or native French speakers, and one speaker with similar abilities in French as me. What followed was a three- hour conversation, largely in French, some in English. I had some some combination of the above speakers each day at breakfast, and the second cocktail party (of nearly two hours). I mostly kept up, but what fun, and what great experience! Areas to improve: 1) My focus in learning has been in the formal French register. I must make learning the informal French register (including some slang and vulgarity) a priority before my trip to Belgium this fall. I had nearly a complete failure listening/comprehending speech at this level! I also inadvertently became embarrassed/red faced when everyone was laughing at some vulgar words used around the breakfast table used as a name of a fruit that I did not understand until someone explained it to me. I plan to order one of the many books from Amazon that teaches slang/vulgarity and start watching TV series. Also would appreciate any podcast recommendations or other thoughts on how to approach this. 2) Confidence/Fatigue. Sometimes the conversations just rolled off my tongue, and other times, I fumbled badly, and frankly, butchered the language. I seem to talk and understand the best when I have confidence and don't question myself. When I did question myself/had a lack of confidence or was very fatigued late at night, was when I was at my worst. 3) Vocabulary, Grammar, Verb Conjugations I could really see where my holes in vocabulary were, and I really need to clean up grammaire and verb conjugations. I tend to talk mainly in present, passé compose, near future and some future. Maybe a conditional on a rare occasion, but never the subjunctive or Imparfait. 4) Also, while I can listen and read without much translation in my head, for my speech, I often translate from English to French in my head before speaking, particularly on those subjects I am not familiar, and particularly when I am fatigued. While I have improved my automaticity of response, I need a lot of work in this area! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5197 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 52 of 163 09 April 2014 at 1:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good job! It's great that you had a good time!
For a guide to informal French, you should check out the guides at IE Languages. And of course, exposure plenty of native materials. The translation issue should go away with practice. To help, you can use the "islands" concept to come up with little monologues and various topics that you can use confidently in a conversation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5338 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 53 of 163 09 April 2014 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Wow, congratulations on your trip! It sounds like you had an awesome time. I remember how great it felt to know that I could function independently in French, and hold long conversations, no matter how much I butchered things.
I've flipped through several books of French slang and vulgarity, and I have not been impressed. They seem to contain a lot of rare or dated slang, and they don't seem to have much overlap with the vocabulary I see used in actual French works, or which I hear used by actual French people. Here's how I tackled this: 1. The most useful media for informal speech, slang and vulgarity are TV series, films and BDs. These consist almost entirely of dialog, with minimal narration. For a written example of informal French, the French dialog in Persepolis is almost perfect: Modern, casual, with a touch of French sarcasm. As I've mentioned in my log, my favorite source for dirt cheap BDs is Izneo, which geoffw told me about. 2. Online, my biggest sources for informal French were viedemerde.fr (neutral, conversational language), topito.com (mixed high and low registers) and girlsandgeeks.com (mixed high and low registers, extremely conversational style). But you could find thousands of others. The IMX French link emails are full of bouletcorp, or you could dig around the site for À boire et à manger and look for their occasional dialog-heavy comics. Or check out danstonchat. Etc. Anyway, in the absence of regular access to French friends, native media is probably one of your better bets for the informal register. There are a few very good sites for students of French, like the one sctroyenne linked to, and Fluent French Now, but for sheer volume and entertainment value, pop culture is really handy. Edited by emk on 09 April 2014 at 5:19am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5282 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 54 of 163 10 April 2014 at 5:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks Mohave, I'm honoured to be inspiring someone out there :) And I will keep on keeping on... Yesterday I had a rare day off, but i'm back at it today :) Keep up your studies too! Your doing great :)
I've been curious about Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyane (French Guiana)... so please tell me more about Guadeloupe. What's it like? I recently saw on the French news that the crime rate there is quite high. Are there unsafe areas or is it a bit of an exaggeration? Is it laid back? Locals friendly? What's the scenery and standard of living like there? [/QUOTE]
This is pretty much what my speech is like also with regard to verb conjugations, so if you want to compare against me recently passing a B1 as you mentioned it inspiring you, you're actually doing pretty well :) It's great that you're recognizing your weak points and aiming to improve them. In regards to slang/everyday speech/naughty vocab whatever you want to call it. I bought a couple of books last year called Street Wise French and it's companion. I haven't used them, but they might be worth looking up on amazon. I'm sure emk's recommendations are sound as he states they are as always and he may even in fact have something to say about these books i have mentioned, but I think he's onto sth by recommending pop culture Keep plodding along! Consistent, consistent consistent (i know i'm drumming this into my own head while making such statements, thus yet again this website simply helps me by talking to others) PM Edited by PeterMollenburg on 10 April 2014 at 5:29am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3813 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 55 of 163 11 April 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
emk and sctroyenne, as always, I appreciate your sage advice and sharing of websites and how to approach this. I've perused many of the links provided, and these are exactly what I needed, and am going to incorporate into my study routine, as well as focus on including this type of media in the SuperChallenge. Thanks as always!!
I loved Guadeloupe, and would go back in a second! As I understand, Guadeloupe is to France as what Hawaii is to the US. We read before arriving, as well as were warned by locals and long-time visitors to the island, to not go into Point-à-Pitre (the capital) at night. We stayed in Le Moule and DesHaies and had absolutely no problems whatever. The locals were very friendly, and were more than willing to chat with me and/or help with directions, etc. The roads and infrastructure are among the best I've seen in the Caribbean. Guadeloupe has some nice beaches, but it definitely does not have the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. It is well-known for its hiking, waterfalls, and tropical rain forests. It also has wonderful boulangeries! Overall, the standard of living, for the Carribean, seems reasonably high. Many people from France retire here. Thanks for your many kind comments. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5197 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 56 of 163 11 April 2014 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Speaking of BDs for learning, a great resource for Spanish is
Better/dp/007141519X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397243293&sr=8- 1&keywords=laugh+and+learn+spanish">Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish (if that link is broken I'll fix it later) which uses For Better or For Worse comic strips to teach Spanish. Unfortunately this book was only ever done for Spanish even though it could quite easily be adapted to other languages. The strip is actually a good choice since being family-based there's a lot of good examples of everyday language. I *think* there might be a pedagogical version of Tintin for French but I'm not sure. @emk If you're ever wanting for professional projects that's something that could be developed - pedagogical sets of BDs for language learning. There are some challenges when learning how language is used from native, informal materials which is part of developing your general language learning skills. One is learning how to look up the meaning - you may have to develop a sense of what the key word is in the expression to find it easily. Sometimes you may have trouble finding a good definition so you have to rely on context and exposure to get a more refined understanding. Also, it can be tough to recognize something that's being used idiomatically - some clues are use of different prepositions, reflexive verbs, etc. Another difficulty is register. It can be difficult to understand when something is or is not appropriate. And especially as a foreigner, there are some things that just won't sound right coming from your mouth that are otherwise fine for a native. Also, I'm not too familiar with the French of the DOMS-TOMS but at the informal language level, I'd expect to find some regionalisms. Despite the challenges, this aspect of language learning is one of the most rewarding ones. It's really fun making these little discoveries. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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