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Bookworm’s adventures-TAC15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3870 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 17 of 217 11 February 2015 at 5:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Do you need the DALF?
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| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 3835 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 18 of 217 11 February 2015 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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In bocca al lupo per l'esame :)
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 19 of 217 15 February 2015 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot for your support, everyone! It means a lot to me, despite not having had
the time to respond earlier. Well, my immune system is still fighting and it looks like I am getting better. Knocking on the wood, this winter might be my healthiest winter at least twelve years! :-D Well, I should cut down even more on carbs but I can't see that much how and I don't think the immune system is as damaged by the carbs than by my sleeping regime. However, there is little to be done about that I am alread working on it. Perhaps, I will have a solution in a few months but for now, I am lost. And while I agree with the worries concerning some of the vaccinations (for exemple, I am not getting those for flu as the virus mutates a lot and the vaccinations seem to have some problems as some of them are pretty fast made) but the american (but it spreads to Europe as well) hysteria concerning vaccinations is horrible. And I think your population is going to pay for this ignorance with return of several killer illnesses. A practical exemple. One of the very few, perhaps the only one, advantages of being held in Czechoslovakia like in a prison was near extinction of some of the infectious deseases. As very few people got out and not many came in (especially compared to today's situation), the vaccination nearly made the diseases extinct. So, in the 80's, the governement thought about removal of some of the obligatory vaccinations for babies. Autism wasn't that known back than but some of the bad reactions to the vaccines were and, of course, treating the whole population costs money. But in 1989 the country became free. People started travelling as that was one of the nationwide dreams, including to pretty exotic destinations with lower hygiene standards, crowds of immigrants came here, mostly from poorer european countries where the illnesses still were present, and so on. So, the two or three years of people (including two of my cousins) were sought out and offered vaccination. When a parent doesn't give the vaccines to their child, they are abusing the good sense of the parents around, who took the decision and despite the rather small risks trusted their doctor. But the child won't always be surrounded by this protective cocoon, there are likely to be more and more such parents. And you are basically forbiding your child to meet new people or travel with such a decision. And ruining the protective cocoon for the children, who trully cannot get vaccinated for various reasons. Well, we trully get to various topics in my log, don't we? ANd I appreciate it. Please, don't take it as an offence, Peter, I am not trying to bash your opinions. I just think automatically believing the alternative opinion must be surely better, that isn't the right way. To the question: Yes, I need the DALF. I need many more opportunities to get translating jobs and without a piece of paper, I am lost. I am having real trouble finding part time jobs as a medicine student and this could be a solution. And I need to prove myself I am not as stupid as I feel too often at the faculty. Well, to prevent writing a huge post, I will describe my friday's opinion in the next one. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 20 of 217 15 February 2015 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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CAVESA'S DALF ADVENTURE
It was Friday, 13th of February 2015. The night was horrible, as I couldn't fall at all. Not a great way to prepare yourself for an exam, trust me. And the night before had included only 3 hours or sleep as well, really perfect. I came to the testing centre and found out the guy whom I had thought to be preparing for the DALF C2 with me, is sitting there among the C1 candidates. And there were only three of us, for the C2 exam. Funny thing how the French is obviously considered a feminine language by our society. That day, the centre tested about thirty women and two men. Obviously, it follows the stereotype of men being the pragmatic people, therefore studying German, and women being the emotional, studying French. It is stupid as there is quite a lot of French companies in the Czech republic and people working at higher positions are expected to know or learn French. My two testmates were probably better than I am, one having studied in France for several years and the other having a French husband (well, she used to teach French at highschools but I guess the husband is the more important factor). That didn't boost my confidence. FIRST PART: comprehension et production ecrite 3h 30 min, that looks quite comfortable at first sight. But it's not. Comprehension is not the trouble but putting our thoughts together in a cohesive manner, checking the word counts, eventually checking things in a dictionary, that takes time. Comprehension was without any trouble. The two words I didn't know were easily understood from the context. 700 words of a structured opinion, that was harder. The monolingual dictionaries were a pleasant surprise, they are available only for the C2 exam in the collective part. I am glad to have taken Science and not the humanities version. Scince: several articles about development of the internet in near future and the safety of our privacy. Lettres: articles by psychologists, sociologists etc about importance and sense of working. I had been warned against Science but I think the reason was a bad one. People often wrongly assume that language learners (apart from the foced learning at schools) are better versed in humanities. Not only I know fro experience it's crap. But I recommend anyone with at least bit of interest in Science to take this version because you will always have a topic of reasonable substance and difficulty. One of the women I took the exam with told me she had hard time thinking about what to write as it all seemed stupid and about nothing. And the opposite came during the oral part, where they had a complicated topic on philosophy. You get to choose from two tasks. I was to write an article either in favor of the new possibilities of the internet era or I was to warn about the risks. I suppose you'll guess correctly which one was closer to my heart ;-) I made a first draft and tried to make it as complete as possible as my first draft in handwriting always looks horrible, no matter the language (You should have seem some of my creations in the Czech classes, the weaker of heart might faint at the sight :-D ). I cross things out, I make idiot mistakes as I am more focused on the content structure, I make asterisks to put things in between things, I finish a sentence verically on the edge of the page... you get the idea. Well, even the clean article wasn't perfectly clean, despite my draft. It took me lots of time, so people who can write parts just out their head without making a mess, those have a huge advantage. I kept checking most things in the dictionary, to avoid stupidities but that takes tons of time as well. It helps, for exemple to find a synonyme to avoid endless repetitions or to check the spelling you've been occassionaly messing up for more than a decade. But you should surely not let your nervosity affect you enough to check things you are quite sure about, just in case! After putting a third of the final version together, I noticed I was running low on time. So, goodbye careful checkings, here comes the intuition and experience. Should they fail, there will be no mercy. Goodbye careful word counts and nicely readable handwriting. I have one complaint about the form I was to fill the article in (and the woman I was later speaking to mentioned having the same trouble). You've got only three pages with lines for the 700 words. I was trying to write in a way easier to read (a truthful joke: How do you recognize early a future doctor? You cannot read after them), which means as well writing with a larger font. But after 500 words I was already running low on the lines it appeared. And I couldn't count any more or add words, I had to finish asap in a way that would make sense from the content point of view, no time left. So, it is well possible my text will by short by 20 words, or perhaps 50, if my nightmare comes true. ANd the last two paragraphs are my usual hieroglyphs :-( I ended two seconds after the examinator told us to put down the pens. Well, he was kind to let me finish the last word. I dislike overly long posts, so the oral part comes in the next one. Edited by Cavesa on 15 February 2015 at 5:02pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 21 of 217 15 February 2015 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Part Two: Comprehension et production orale
After approximately two hours of rest, the individual part of the exam began. I got a cd with a 30 minutes of audio. One interview concerning the challenges the humankind faces from the point of view of geologists, two listens. Again, I had no trouble at all with understanding, I needed the second listen only to finalize my notes, especially the names. Than, I had an hour. Both the C2 and C1 candidates could use the monolingual dictionaries and I grabbed one for myself. The hour was quite a good amount of time to prepare myself. I made notes from the listening, so that I can present the interview. My preparation for the second third, giving an opinion, was a bit different, I found it easier to write whole sentences. A few paragraphs. And the time came for me to finish my preparation and join the examinators. This time, the examinators were really professional and good. I know my notes about the B2 oral part made someone laugh, I think Peter, but it definitely makes difference whether someone is listening to you or probably not. These two men were good, let me present the two first parts and then asked questions. First two parts consisted of my presentation of the interview and my own continuing (again, you basically choose from two tasks. One is presenting an opinion that agrees with the outcomes of the interview, the other does not. This time, I joined the light and optimistic side of the Force and agreed.). Than came the questions and discussion. I always get nervous when the examinators make notes. It never occurs to me they might be making a positive note, I always feel like they are counting my mistakes and I made several. I think I didn't take time to look for words, when I was thinking, it was more about an appropriate answer and I think it was obvious. I didn't understand a question once but not because of the language, but more from the content (I would have reacted just the same were we speaking in Czech). I made mistakes, I know. I just don't know how much they are going to matter. I think the nervosity was visible but I was still fluent, presented a good range of vocabulary. My mistakes were stupid ones though. Yes, I made one mistake in vocabulary, not sure what it was about, I think there was a small interference with English. After the three parts, the examinators gave me a few personal questions such as whether I want to become a doctor or how have I prepared myself for the exam. And why I chose the Science variant. They said that this time, the Lettres subject was really hard and philosophical. I left knowing I could have prepared myself better and knowing my mistakes. However, unlike last time, I was convinced to have showed quite a good exemple of my skills, even though the nervosity and fatigue stroke me harder than I had expected. Now, I am waiting for the results. They should come in a few weeks. I am not sure whether I passed either of the parts but I am glad I took the exam, despite the money that is about to be wasted. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3870 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 22 of 217 15 February 2015 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Excellent! Impressive performance under sleep deprivation! 
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 23 of 217 16 February 2015 at 1:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, Gemuse!
I am starting to believe the sleep deprivation is my new norm :-D So, it is time to log some new things. I am slightly continuing with Duolingo. It is good exercise but I need to do other things to trully progress. And now I have time, or rather I might have time after this Friday. Plans: Dive into Spanish. I've been a bad team leader so far, I'm gonna catch up. And dive into the language again. German needs my attention as well. I could do with knowing some Hungarian at the end of April, but I'm afraid that is quite impossible. I should catch up on logs of my teammates and I should finally finish the ending post of my previous log. And the Super Challenges. ASCR are still going on French +8 books: P.Pevel, Les Lames du Cardinal and L'Alchimiste des Ombres Awesome author, great historical fantasy set in the Paris of Les Trois Musquetaires, nicely writen, just great. I learnt quite a lot while having great fun! (two books are about to be finished soon) And I should now get on with the Spanish SC and the German one, even though that will be harder. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 24 of 217 23 February 2015 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nearly a week since my last update yet there are things to write about.
First of all, today I called the testing center for results. They are not final yet, as they are waiting for the second opinion on my writing, but it looks like I passed. I am trying not to celebrate or feel too happy. But I couldn't resist sharing. I am very curious how many points I got. As you need 50 out of 100 total and at least 10 from each part, it is quite tricky. You can get both parts above ten, therefore above the limit of still being acceptable as C2, but not get over the limit of 50. Theoretically, you can be awesome at one part but horrible at the other, but in that case, you are likely to fail both requirements becuase, in general, people don't get over 40 points, at least in the speaking part, except for very rare cases. I cannot wait for the final results, it is taking them so long! Apart from that, I finished a French book. I thought I had totally got exhausted by French but reading a book was a good way to stay with the language and enjoy it. It is the last part of the Pevel's trilogy I've been enjoying, called Le Dragon des Arcanes. So, +4 books for my ASCR. And I will count in 0,5 book as I read and used relevant parts of a dissertation on microbiology from Quebec for my seminary work. I am as well continuing with my Spanish again. I have yet to dive into my courses and grammars but I've already started a book and a tv series. To my great surprise, my break from Spanish hasn't damaged my comprehension much and I get to think in Spanish (even though intermediate Spanish) often. My next plan: Finish an old course, as I promised in the team Spanish thread. And continue in my usual style. A recent thread on learning in advanced stages got me thinking about an important subject. The fossilisation of mistakes. I've been thinking about the ways to stay safe from such, so that I don't plant more troubles than necessary to sow when I get to the high levels. I thought of these precautions: -I'll study the grammar rather in larger chunks than small bites, as it helps me prevent confusing things together -I won't take breaks from more formal learning for more than a week. That's going to be a hard one. -no idea about the third one. But lists containing three points look better than the even shorter ones ;-) The book I'm reading is El príncipe de la niebla by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. There are some words I don't understand, a few of them even in the context, but my overall comprehension is better than I had expected so far. I think I chose my first novel in Spanish well but I think it might get more difficult soon as the logic of the story, from what I read in a review, might require some huge verb juggling. The tv series is Isabel. An awesome historical tv series available on rtve.es .I am excited by the story, the characters, the language, the possibility to just stream it without long search and adds, in great quality of both sound and video. My comprehension is very good, even though not as good as if it was French or English. I miss details here and there, I even rewinded a few minutes to really get to the last points, which is something I usually hate to do. But mostly, I get not only the gist but lots of details as well and I enjoy it greatly. German-tonight, I will review the lessons 50-54 of the passive wave. From tommorrow on, I continue with both waves. And with grammar studying. I've given some thought to it and I might take on language number 4, if the final result of my DALF C2 is positive. Yes, I want to bring other languages to the C spheres, I think at least Spanish is on a good way to get there in a few years, but I missed learning more languages during my intensive French period at the beginning of this year. Possible candidates: -Swedish. Still most likely as I have already started and I hate letting it rot. -Russian. A practical language I could get books and movies in. And different from Spanish and German enough. -Polish. Similar advantages as Russian -Hungarian. It is tempting. I'll spend a few days in Hungary in spring in a setting where some knowledge of the language might be more than useful. However, I don't know whether it is possible to get the basics of such a difficult language in just a few months. It sounds quite good. And the country is closer than Finland, as I dream of Finnish in past as well. I simply don't know. And I've been listening to Listz lately and kept falling in love :-) -the hard ones. Japanese or Chinese sound better and better, youtube is already showing me adds in Arabic for some weird reason (I didn't watch nearly anything related lately), but I won't take any of these as that wouldn't be a responsible choice now. -Italian. I know I want it, I know I would have uses for it, I know it wouldn't be that hard after other romance languages, I love the culture and country, I absolutely love the sound of the language. But I'm unsure whether it wouldn't interfere with my Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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