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Slow Learning: FR, HI, ancGR TAC 2015 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4024 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 33 of 164 01 May 2014 at 10:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Jeffers, bad team mate that I am, I am a bit late with my condolences. I was very touched by the slideshow. As someone who has to cope with some losses as well, I deeply feel with you. I hope you find some solace in having been able to spend some intense and valuable time with your brother before.
Well, May 1st has started, and let me wish you the best of luck for the Super Challenge! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4704 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 34 of 164 09 May 2014 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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One week into the Super Challenge, and I think I'm doing really well with French,
almost on track with Hindi, and still have ancient Greek in the holding tank. Books read Rémi et le mystère de Saint-Péray An A1 reader with audio. I've read it several times before, and when I couldn't sleep at 2am of the 1st of May, I thought I would kick off the SC with an easy and familiar book. Le Petit Nicolas I have read this twice before, and it still makes me laugh. I wanted to read it during the first week, to get 3 book credits out of the way. Enquête capitale by marine decourtis My favourite A1 reader. It is an interesting story, which includes a lot of details about interesting features of the city of Paris. For example, the house of Nicolas Flamel (a character in Harry Potter 1) is the oldest existing house in Paris, and it is now a restaurant. If I only knew that before I visited Paris 2 summers ago! Total pages read: 210 = 4.2 books Films watched 7 jours sur la planète (3 episodes) Excellent for learners as it has almost perfect French subtitles. I have about 15 more episodes recorded. Cain An enjoyable police drama, in which the main character is in a wheelchair. I had these two recorded, so I watched them again. Les villages de France (4 episodes) I thought I had more recorded on my sky box, but I only had 4 episodes. Lovely show, has English subs. Rien à déclarer A funny film, and my son wanted to watch it. Le peuple des océans (2/4 episodes) A very nice documentary by a French director. Documentary language is a lot slower in pace, so it's good for a beginner. At times I felt I understood 95-100%. Other sections had whole sentences I couldn't understand (due to vocabulary). Audiobooks La tête d'un homme (twice) A B2 reader of a Maigret story. I've listened to the audio carefully twice. I like to listen to readers a few times before reading them, to work on my listening skills. Les vacances du Petit Nicolas I listened carefully to the audiobook in preparation for reading the book (I've read it once before). Total French films/listening: 855 minutes = 9.5 films. Hindi films Talaash Talaash means search. It is a pretty good police drama, with a supernatural touch, starring Amir Khan, who I think is the best actor in Bollywood. Like any Bollywood film, there are a couple songs, but none of the characters sing or dance. I will definitely watch this one again. Total Hindi films: 135 minutes. Irons in the fire I am currently reading Les vacances du Petit Nicolas. I'm also slowly working on the Amelie script. I'm planning to start reading the Greek New Testament this week, and want to start reading something in Hindi this week. I don't know what yet. Plans I mentioned before that I wasn't planning on doing a film/audio portion for ancient Greek. However, I have found a well-respected recording of the entire Greek NT with the Erasmian pronunciation (which is what I'm used to). I plan to buy it when I'm in the USA this summer (it's not available on amazon.co.uk), and I will use it to at least make a dent in the film/audio half of my half challenge in ancient Greek. I only need 4500 minutes........ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4704 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 35 of 164 17 May 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Day 17 of the Super Challenge, and here's my update:
French books read Astérix le galois I've read this BD in French once before, and many, many times in English. It's the first, and one of the best Astérix comics. Les vacances du Petit Nicolas I've read this once before, just before the start of the Super Challenge. It's an enjoyable read, and not too difficult for me. Amélie script I read very carefully through a parallel version with the French script and an English translation. Unfortunately, the available English version of the script is pretty poorly made, with a lot of errors and bits and pieces left out. For some reason, the person who made it left out every single number! I made some corrections which I was working through it, and looked up a lot of unusual phrases using Google translate. Since I have seen the film 5 times, I was able to picture the scene most of the time, and I actually understood at least 90% without the help of the translations. French films 7 jours sur la planète I've watched 10 episodes since my last update. It's funny, because I'm working backwards through the episodes I recorded, so the news is getting older and older! Again, I'm happy that I understand most of what I'm reading/hearing. It used to be a bit of a headache to read the French subs fast enough to keep up with the speakers, but I'm finding that a lot easier. Boulevard du palais, s8e2, rituels barbares This is the first episode of this crime drama I've watched. It's from about 2006, and it's not brilliant. On the plus side, each episode seems to be self-contained, so there's no compulsion to watch another if I don't want to. I'm sure I'll end up watching the whole series (I've been recording from this episode, so I missed ep 1). It has English subs. French audiobooks Pas d'Oscar pour l'assassin by Vincent Remède I've listened to this 3 times before, and read the book twice. It's a pretty good policier, and I'll probably read it again soon. Les vacances du Petit Nicolas (2nd time) I listened to this again before reading it. Hindi films Rowdy Rathore I'm not sure if this was meant to be a comedy, but it was pretty funny. Let's call it a typical Bollywood masala film: a mix of comedy, action, romance and a bit of tragedy. I doubt I'll watch it again, but I do have the music soundtrack and the songs are pretty good. Hindi books I've begun to work through my collection of children's books in Hindi, and I've read 9 books so far. I count the pages with words, and divide by 5 to get my page counts. It's been a while since I've worked a lot in Hindi (although I did a 6wc in Hindi last year), and the reading goes slowly. Typically, Hindi children's books use a fair bit of unusual vocabulary, so I'm using the dictionary a lot too. The philosophy behind children's books in India is that they want to introduce new vocabulary, rather than the western philosophy of making the vocabulary easier to encourage reading. This means Hindi children's books are good for even an intermediate learner, but difficult for a beginner. Irons in the Fire For listening, I'm alternating between Jus de chausettes by Vincent Remède and Harry Potter 1. Although I've read HP in English a couple times, and seen the film a couple times, it's still a bit difficult to follow. I'll continue to try to read Hindi children's books at an average of one per day. That will never get me to complete the challenge, but once I get to real books, the pace should pick up. As for ancient Greek, I'm still putting it off. It's always "something for next week". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5004 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 164 18 May 2014 at 1:37am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, I too am catching up on my backlog of "7 Jours", and am quite happy to have "old" news. It's an advantage in a sense (whether with "7 Jours" or any other news-related broadcast) in that you would - if it's reportage, possibly not so much if it's just a piece of general cultural, political, or other interest - be likely to already know what has happened. So it makes it that much easier to put things in context, or already have the "gist" of the narrative. Edited by songlines on 18 May 2014 at 3:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4704 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 37 of 164 18 May 2014 at 10:56am | IP Logged | ||
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It has been interesting to watch the situation in Ukraine in reverse. More recent episodes are more sypathetic to Ukraine against Russian aggression. But earlier episodes were sympathetic to the Russian speaking minority fighting for their rights in Ukraine.
Either way, the reporting was sympathetic to the underdog faced with a larger aggressor. Edited by Jeffers on 18 May 2014 at 11:01am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5271 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 38 of 164 18 May 2014 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Jeffers,
Just dropping by to say hi. I don't have a great deal to say except you're doing a great job really. I'm not overly familiar with most of your material so little to say on that too. A couple of questions I'm sure you've clearly answered somewhere. What's your level of French as per the CEFRL and do you look up many words when reading? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4704 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 39 of 164 19 May 2014 at 8:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Peter, I would guess my level is somewhere in the A2 band, but my reading is definitely better than my speaking (and don't ask me about writing!)
When I read on my Kindle, I tend to look up more words because it's so quick and easy. But usually on my first reading of a book I try to look up as little as possible. If a word is clearly keeping me from understanding a whole sentence or is a key word in a discussion, then I look it up. But on 2nd or 3rd readings I start to "sweep up the crumbs". I'm getting used to the idea of understanding "enough", and it's made my French reading much more enjoyable by allowing me to read a lot more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5271 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 40 of 164 19 May 2014 at 9:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Cool,
tnx Jeffer-tonium. Well keep up the good verk! You're doing very well with your reading considering I think that (currently) I have a lot more time on my hands than you (assumption) and you're level it seems is a bit below me or on par. I assumed your level was quite some way above me considering how much you'd done in the SC up to this point. So credit to you, great work! Let us all keep plodding along to attain our goals, shall we not :) PM 1 person has voted this message useful |
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