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Learning French - For Real, This Time! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ragnar1230 Newbie United States studygreek.wordpress Joined 4274 days ago 15 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 9 of 19 27 October 2014 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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A few notes on things I've noticed over the past week:
The active phase is revealing that, yes, I really am "assimilating" French. Several times, in translating the English into French, I'll have a word-for-word translation, and then catch myself thinking, Wait. That doesn't sound right. I'll re-order the words - upon what principle I cannot articulate - and discover that, yes, I am intuitively using the correct order/phraseology/whatever. Also, studying French is tiring. Just focusing on the audio drains me, much less reading the French dialogue and trying to envision it without using English. I've noticed the dialogues are getting longer. This is hidden behind the numbering of the lines of dialogue. They are still numbered 10-12 or so, but there are more lines per number. So, for instance, Lesson #2 has 10 numbered lines of dialogue that take up 15 lines on the page. Lesson #64 has 13 numbered lines that take up 29 lines on the page. Lesson #111 has 15 numbered lines that take up 39 lines on the page (I looked ahead!). Add to this the "active wave" exercises (which do NOT only take "five minutes") and my daily French time has increased at least 50%. I wish I could make up for this by going faster, but that's not really happening. With Lesson #64, the elisions are no longer marked. The training wheels are off! Slowly but surely, I am making progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| clmns01 Diglot Newbie Austria Joined 3479 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Portuguese, Italian | Message 10 of 19 27 October 2014 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bon chance!
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| ragnar1230 Newbie United States studygreek.wordpress Joined 4274 days ago 15 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 19 03 November 2014 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ten weeks completed! And the lessons are definitely taking longer. I get most of the work done before classes, then try to have the rest of it finished up by lunch.
My current Assimil study format: Passive Wave Review (Pimsleur Style): Listen to previous lesson Listen to current lesson # -6 (i.e., #1 on day 7, #14 on day 20) Listen to current lesson # -31 Familiarization: Listen to today's lesson without the text Listen with English text (for understanding) Listen with French text (for reading/pronunciation) Study for Meaning: Read French aloud with translation & study notes Repeat lines until you can read the french and envision the action * this does not require intense focus, only attention and repetition Study for Pronunciation: Listen & Repeat (pause after each sentence) – use book Read French aloud w/o translation Synthesis: Do translation exercises w/ audio; use French text in book as crutch, if necessary Do completion exercises Repetitions: Listen to the lesson twice more Listen again mid-morning Listen again mid-afternoon Active Wave * Listen to the audio * Translate one sentence at a time. * Check the sentence, note the errors. * Copy down the correct sentence twice if more than minor errors * Go on to the next sentence. I'm thinking I should definitely start a third wave once I'm done with the Passive Wave. We'll call it "Perfection Wave" and will involve things like Anki and maybe shadowing. 1 person has 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 12 of 19 05 November 2014 at 8:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds like you've got an excellent working method. I am especially impressed with your consistency. I would suggest one 4-5 minute addition: at some point in the afternoon, listen to tomorrow's lesson twice (or more if you have time). You'll find you understand most of it after a couple of repeats, but certain parts will stick out as being difficult. This way you will approach the lesson in the morning with questions, which aids in retention.
I'm curious if you have any plans for what theological French you will read for practice when the time comes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ragnar1230 Newbie United States studygreek.wordpress Joined 4274 days ago 15 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 13 of 19 06 November 2014 at 1:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, Jeffers! I've added a preview of the next day's dialogue to my daily routine.
Theological French is at least a few months away, but I have a few ideas and resources lined up. 1. Reading the Bible in French It appears to me that the Louis Segond version (1910) is the French translation most likely to be the version most widely used in theology, but I'm not sure how popular the Nouvelle Edition de Geneve (NEG1979) revision became among theologians towards the end of the century. In addition, I could get the French Facile version and use it even now, but it looks like I'd have to order it from overseas, and I might as well practice with the version that the theologians are most likely to be quoting from. 2. Reading Theology Textbook I have a copy of Reading French: A Guide for Students of Religion and Theology, Second Edition, but it's long on grammar and short on readings. I don't really need grammar, as I already have Rasnick's Essential Grammar. I wish I knew of a book of theological readings in French, maybe a graded reader, but this is what I have for now. I'll probably just use it for the vocabulary lists and the readings, maybe a little grammar refresher. 3. Readings in Theology I'll have to see if my school subscribes to any French theological journals, but a journal anyone can access is Erudit, a Canadian French journal which has 2012 and 2013 issues behind a pay wall, but gives free access to issues from 1993-2011. I'll do a more thorough search when the time gets closer. Thanks for the encouragement! Edited by ragnar1230 on 06 November 2014 at 1:59am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4234 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 14 of 19 06 November 2014 at 7:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I started French in high school but have never reached the conversation level. I think everybody should aim for
fluency in speaking and not just reading newspapers or magazines. A language is a form of communications. Don't forget, there are half-dozen new terms for electronic gadgets every year. You will never learn every word or phrase in a language. Also, a lot of what you do is outside the classroom. In a given day, your time in class depending on the curriculum accounts for less than half of your day. The only way to become fluent is to get as much exposure as possible. Fortunately, I can get French TV stations in Canada with captions. The only way to improve your listening skills is to make every effort to listen to radio / TV programs even if you don't understand every word / phrase. I was recently in Hong Kong. Since the end of September I've been following the "Umbrella Movement" for democracy which is a news story for over 1 month. I would be reading the English edition of "The Standard", "S. China Morning Post" and also 明報 Ming Pao, 星島報 Singdao and finally 頭條新聞 Headline News in Chinese over the Internet. Having a school break doesn't mean literally taking a break. Successful language learners will spend the time watching TV broadcasts & movies with subtitles. You get to a certain point you start thinking about certain things in your head without having to translate to and from English. Even the simplest "Today is Monday" you'll say to yourself "Aujourd'hui c'est lundi" or 今天是星期一. 1 good exercise to get into is throughout the day, you see objects around you. Try to name as many as you can such as "C'est un crayon", "C'est le stylo", etc. Bon chance... Edited by shk00design on 06 November 2014 at 7:59am 1 person has 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 15 of 19 06 November 2014 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
One reason the Louis Segond version is useful for students is that you can get mp3 audio of the whole Bible for free: http://www.cet.ch/bible/bible-audio, all easily downloadable. In my limited amount of looking around, another popular Bible version I have come across is the Segond 21, which is a modern (1997) revision of the Louis Segond, with the motto «L'original, avec les mots d'aujourd'hui». I have found an online version with audio http://www.universdelabible.net/lire-la-segond-21-en-ligne, but without an obvious way to download the audio. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ragnar1230 Newbie United States studygreek.wordpress Joined 4274 days ago 15 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 16 of 19 05 January 2015 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Back in the Saddle
Last fall I finished 12+ weeks of Assimil New French with Ease (up through lesson #89). At the end of the semester, work crushed me (grading papers for class + finishing papers for my Ph.D. program) and I had to set it aside. Over Christmas, my son was born prematurely, and life has been chaos. Now, I'm climbing back in the saddle. I'm spending this week reviewing old lessons (four per day, not counting review lessons), and picking up with lesson #90 on Saturday. Format for my review: listen to the dialogue w/o text - read dialogue for comprehension in French and English - listen to it again w/o text. When I finish NFWE, I intend to do another pass through it, using Anki to cement noun genders and verb forms, and go on to Using French. My goal is still to pass a reading exam of theological French by the end of the summer. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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