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James29’s French Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 3841 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 29 09 July 2014 at 5:28am | IP Logged |
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Just wanted to chime in with everyone else and say that I'm looking forward to following your French language process. You've been such an inspiration with Spanish! The world is your oyster! :)
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5165 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 18 of 29 14 July 2014 at 1:06pm | IP Logged |
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Not too much to report on this week. I watched an episode of FIA every night except last night. I also had a long drive for work and listened to ten lessons of the Berlitz audio.
I seem to have hit a wall in FIA at about lesson 8. All of a sudden I really was not understanding what was going on and did not seem to be getting much out of it. I'll press on a bit, but will likely need to re-start the videos or do something else to get my comprehension up a bit. When speaking Spanish yesterday I found myself slipping in the French word for exactly... oops. Other than that, there seems to be no problem studying the same languages together. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HermonMunster Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4423 days ago 119 posts - 211 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 29 14 July 2014 at 7:44pm | IP Logged |
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Hey James,
This is awesome! Best of luck with French. I'm hoping to start learning it in about a year and a half after I get my Spanish to a strong B2 level. I hope your wife will travel with you. It's fun to be able to share your language learning adventures with your spouse. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5165 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 20 of 29 21 July 2014 at 3:09am | IP Logged |
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Well, I must say that, despite the encouragement I have received in this log, I have seriously been thinking of quitting French again.
This week I managed to do my five days of French for 20-ish minutes. I have been primarily listening to the Berlitz audio. I must say, it is a really cool course. I really do like it. It is funny, interesting, and... both easy and challenging at the same time. It is hard to explain. It is challenging but at the same time not hard to do. It almost has a game aspect to it. I put FIA aside. After doing video lesson 10 I felt like I was not going to get much out of it as it was just too hard to understand what they were talking about. OK, so my problem with French is that I don't want to do it. I constantly say to myself "I'd rather be doing Spanish." I just feel like I'd rather advance my Spanish than trudge the long road of getting the basics of French. I so wish there was a way to import a language into the brain. I really want to KNOW French, I just don't want to take the time to learn it. Perhaps what I will do is set a realistic short term goal like six months of study or simply doing Assimil and just leave it at that. Oh, one other thing, I was speaking to someone in Spanish on Skype and they also spoke French and started speaking in French... I was able to say "I speak a little bit of French, but I am tired" and then "you speak Spanish and English really well... let's speak English and Spanish." 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 21 of 29 21 July 2014 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
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I made a similar decision to focus primarily on one language and It is satisfying to make progress just a bit
faster than if I were spreading myself thinner. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4699 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 22 of 29 21 July 2014 at 8:41am | IP Logged |
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Maybe FIA videos aren't a good idea for you at this point. It could be you'd be happy just doing a little French, or maybe you just need a break. After a while you might begin to start missing French, or you might not care. If after leaving it for a while you don't care, then it really doesn't matter if you don't return to French. It's like that cheesey saying: "If you love French, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is yours. If not, it was never meant to be."
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5026 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 23 of 29 21 July 2014 at 10:37am | IP Logged |
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I have a similar problem when I started with French, because I really wanted to continue with Italian. However working for a French company it was important to me (they didn't care) to learn some French. I think my main concern was I would lapse in Italian and lose all the hard work I had put into that.
You don't have to do "either or" you can study both. I think if you make a point of having 1 hour per day, or every other day when you read a book in Spanish, or watch a movie or do some other activity then you will not feel as if you're missing out on Spanish. Also I found that French seemed to make my Italian stronger because so many words were similar. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4997 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 24 of 29 21 July 2014 at 11:07am | IP Logged |
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Join the quitting-French club ;) Seriously though, it depends on you and your situation, and you probably know better than anyone else. I certainly spent a ton of time on French that I now wish I had spent on Spanish instead; I have little regret about quitting French, except perhaps the regret of not having done it sooner. Spanish is just a far more useful language for most people so it's unsurprising that you feel more motivation for it. And of course, if French does become useful to you in the future, you can pick it up again and your stronger Spanish will make it easier.
That's just my thoughts though, as someone who learns languages primarily for communication and social reasons and has nobody to communicate and socialise with in French. So it's not advice as much as my own perspective. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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