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PMs TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission | ||
Tags: TellMeMore | Fluenz | Linguaphone | Flash cards | Michel Thomas | Self-Study | Spaced Repetition (SRS) | Diploma/Certificate | Study Plan | Fluency | Dutch | Pimsleur | FSI | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Assimil | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4100 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 385 of 451 29 May 2015 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Actually it is not so simple. If anyone has the chance to test out life in their
favoured country, it would be ideal, if you have time and money, to spend some free time there, especially a month or a few. If you can get a part time job for a year there, even better. If I did that right now, that is to say, move to Spain, Argentina, Italy, Netherlands, or Norway for 6 months or a year, spending money on the airfare and accommodation in this state, I would not be surprised at all if I ended up homeless at the end of the trip. The financial situation is, to be nice, very poor right now, which explains why if I took even one week holiday to a different continent I would be in seriously deep shit. The last time that I actually went on holiday was September 2012, to give a perspective. But if you have money, you should try it. I ususally take a holiday at least once a year, even when I was younger, three times a year was normal. Now it is 0. It is true, also, that most of the people whom I know are either unemployed or in low payed jobs. Ironically, the people whom I know who make more money or are in a better financial state, are those from the supposedly "f*cked up" financially countries. Some of my acquaintances from Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland not only have better financial situations, but also seem less stressed and enjoy life more than the people who end up on government assistance in the UK and USA. There surely are some idiots in the USA though who think that the poor people deserve their plight. They also probably believe that people should speak English and nothing else. Unfortunately their view seems to be gaining in popularity. In my hometown, Manchester, each time I went to the city centre to have to buy my food or whatever, I used to go sometimes to the Arndale Centre, if anyone knows it. Right down Market Street, and I always saw homeless, some who would talk amongst themselves about how they were screwed by living in the UK and how they were just middle class or working class people who crashed economically in the past years. I started off from being from a working class background, but now it seems like working class is a finanancial step up. So exactly what my class is, not sure. Borderline government assistance class? As I said, my family were doing reasonably okay in the 1990s. In the latter half of the 2000s and increasingly more in the 2010s we have been destroyed financially. When I talk with my friends from Argentina, Spain, Italy (and in their respective languages!), they do not seem to have this problem. In fact, they seem happier... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5286 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 386 of 451 31 May 2015 at 3:51am | IP Logged | |||||
FR Salut iguanamon, J'ai lu ce que tu m'as dit. En fait, je l'ai beaucoup réfléchi. C'est pourquoi que je n'ai pas encore répondu. Je crois que tu as raison. Je crois que la réalité n'est pas exactement le béton et que les choses peuvent changer avec nos esprits même. C'est peut-être une question de perspective. J'ai enregistré ton lien, merci. Je le lirai bientôt et répondre au sujet de là. Je ne sais pas ce que je vais faire exactement et où je serai dans cinq ans. Mais une chose est certaine- que je vais continuer à étudier le français. Avec ça ce sera au moins plus facile de travailler dans un pays francophone. Merci pour avoir partagé ton opinion. C'est la réalité de la plupart des gens qui veut habiter dans un ature pays, je suis d'accord. Peut-être que j'en suis un de ces gens. Peut-être pas. On verra. Savez aussi que j'ai essayé d'habiter aux Pays-Bas il y a 4 ans ma femme et moi. Elle a voulu retourner en Australie. Moi, pas exactement. Mais c'est notre mariage, alors on a du retourner. Maintenant elle veut retourner en Europe (moi aussi), mais elle a raison quand elle me dit qu'on ne va pas le faire sans un emploi AVANT que nous nous y installer, est notre avenir et famille est important aussi. Dans une situation parfaite on vivraient la moitié du temps ici et la moitié en Europe. Ce n'est pas exactement facile tu vois. PM ------------------- EN I read what you said. I believe you are right. I believe that reality is not exactly concrete and that things can change with our minds even. It's perhaps a question of perspective. I recorded your link, thank you. I will read it soon and reply. I don't know what I'm going to do exactly and where I will be in five years. But one thing is certain- I'm going to continue studing French. With that at least it will be easier to work in a Francophone country. Thanks for sharing your opinion. It's reality for the majority of people who want to live in another country. I agree. Perhaps I am one of those people. Maybe not. We will see. Do know that I also tried to live in the Netherlands four years ago my wife and I. She wanted to return to Australia. Me, not exactly. But it's our marriage, so we had to return. Now she wants to return to Europe (me too), but she is right when she tells me that we're not going to do it without a job BEFORE we settle down there, and our future and family are important too- In a perfect situation we would spend half our time here and half in Europe. It's not exactly easy you see. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5286 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 387 of 451 31 May 2015 at 3:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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Le mois de mai :
85 heures, 29 minutes des études de français. Pas mal hein, le meilleur mois cette année en fait. Edited by PeterMollenburg on 31 May 2015 at 3:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4719 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 388 of 451 31 May 2015 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've got another couple of ideas for you to think about, PM. You've talked about the difficulty of getting into another country, but that applies mainly to wealthier countries. Have you considered going to work as a nurse in a poor Francophone country? I imagine they would have more demand there. The hitch there is that wives and children are often unhappy in those situations. Another possibility would be to find a summer placement somewhere in a charity hospital in a Francophone country, so do the same thing but short term.
My second idea is to look into working at an international school in some Francophone country. In that case, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a poor country. They usually have a medical centre, so they need nurses. The hitch there is that they usually expect both people in a couple to work at the school, which may or may not be a problem for you. But the advantages are that they usually provide housing and your children would be educated at a good school for free (or for a discount). It's worth a look anyway. I agree that if you're going to a European country you need to have work arranged before you go. I'm not sure about Austrialians, but they wouldn't let an American in without something lined up. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5286 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 389 of 451 31 May 2015 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for your input Jeffers, good things to consider for sure. I realise, you know, that all in all it seems like i'm very much a person that can't be satisfied, and as I get older this is becoming more apparent as my expectations and standards generally rise in light of my disappointment with the state of many things in the world (enforced/very STRONGLY encouraged vaccination programs for example). Such things count me out of many 3rd world style health care/aid work avenues which I would not leave my family to do, but still a worthwhile suggestion. I don't agree with many of the practices (certainly not all by a long shot- these ppl need help, I don't think they need bullshit science). It's very intersting when you look into the spread of HIV throughout parts of Africa and mass vaccination programs that took place in the very same areas in the years prior. I don't mean to land you in a hot spot here or to yet again bring up this sore point, i'm just providing an example of why many people willingly try to assist me then I throw in a "yeah, but..." Perhaps I need to learn to turn a blind eye despite my opinion or remain content with limited/no choices. This can even impact my potential for work in a 1st world country (hasn't happened in my own... yet) as nurses are increasingly simply expected to vaccinate themselves (and their families). This is in part why I am at odds with the work I do. Pharmaceutical companies have a huge amount of control over people when it boils down to it, and in summary I do not for a second feel it's for the good of the people and I will not support that any further than I have to depsite being a 'pusher' in the hospital I work in. Okay so this is just one example. Perhaps there are countries in which I could help with construction or sanitation works and attend to a few wounds etc- perhaps there are in fact many programs that don't compromise my moral standards... but I can't see myself leaving my family for that. Still I should remain open to it, and despite my seemingly strong reaction Jeffers I wholeheartedly appreciate your response. On a positive note I would not be under the same scrutiny in Europe as most non- Europeans as I hold an EU passport (NL). Unfortunately tho, my nursing qualifications are not immediately recognized throughout the EU and that is problematic. But as you suggested there are other options and this is definitely worth considering as it had only recently been suggested to me by someone else as well, so I think that's good enough reason to investigate further. Thank you Jeffers, sincerely. PM 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3817 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 390 of 451 31 May 2015 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Very impressive! How you do this month-after-month is impressive indeed! Have you given any more thought to taking the B2 exam later this year? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5286 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 391 of 451 31 May 2015 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hey Mohave, Thanks for the praise Mohave :) I have given the B2 exam more thought... I'm likely to sit it in November, although I could delay until March. I'm not sure what's best... passing it either way, or passing it well. I guess that's what I expect, but I may not even pass it at all, who knows. I do a lot of volume (hours) but I don't know about my methods. Many people think my methods are a bit idiotic (doing so many courses, doing a LOT of same level courses). I feel very strong in what I do know so far, but I don't feel upper intermediate by anyone's standards. I think my level would be best described as a very solid B1 even if I feel I could pass a B2 exam, perhaps just. I can barely use the subjunctive (I've not really used it much in my courses) and don't have a good grasp on more complex grammatical structures- not to mention I simply should be speaking much more but I'm not. And native TV still baffles me for the most part probably because I'm using so many lower level courses. Well if anything with 10,000 flashcards my vocab is slowly but surely increasing and that's gotta help for something. And my pronunciation and automaticity still feels very good. Speaking wise, meetups are a pain to get to as I usually work in the evenings, and I currently am simply not enthused at all with skype style conversational exchanges. Either way I'll sit the exam and see how I go, just not sure if later this year or early next. Thanks for asking Mohave :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5118 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 392 of 451 31 May 2015 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
All of the courses I've seen are just elaborated phrasebooks, so they serve a completely different purpose than reading, and I don't know how to compare the two. I've done very few courses and I've never done "intensive courseswork with SRS" so I cannot say or predict how it'd work out. Reading has various benefits, but if the purpose is to memorise vocabulary, to get repeated exposure to an already-learned word, I find SRS much more efficient. My experience is that I do well although I don't read much. However, I listen to the radio and my grammar & vocabulary are strong, so I guess either radio+grammar+vocab make up for the lack of reading, or radio+grammar+vocab are more important that reading. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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