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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4832 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes  Studies: French | Message 25 of 42 18 April 2015 at 12:23am | IP Logged |
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Some bad news and some okay news and some other news.
Bad news: I won't be able to go to Québec this summer. Financing the trip was difficult enough, but then I realized that my health insurance situation was a mess and that I'd need to pay 2,000 dollars to renew my health insurance just to go study in Québec. That really pushed me over the edge both financially and emotionally as well. Live and learn I guess. Okay news: I should still be able to take a 6 week french course at my university, and those will be all the french credits I need for my bachelors degree, so not going to Québec won't hurt me in that area. Other news: I'm really torn on what I want to do for my masters degree. I'm immensely interested in second language acquisition and linguistics in general, and I've already taken one class that falls into the Masters of Teaching English as a second language degree. Like I said, I'm very interested in the subject—I love studying it; but I'm not sure if I can see myself having the patience to be an ESL teacher. On the other hand, I love literature and I can absolutely imagine myself teaching a Lit class and enjoying it. However, teaching ESL seems like it would come with broader opportunities—traveling and sociological/ cultural opportunities, which I would absolutely love to experience. If only American universities weren't money sucking black holes, then I could do both. French news: I'm still reading and listening to the Alex leroc series. I also started duolino because, well, my grammar is my weakness, so I figure duolingo can't hurt. Besides that, I've done some grammar exercises from practice maker perfect Complete French Grammar, and I've watched up to episode 47 of FIA. I'm pretty excited to get through this Alex leroc series and start using some of the resources that Jeffers mentioned; the pod cast especially seems usefull. As usual, I typically spend 1-2 hours a day on french, except on days where I have french class—then I spend more time on French. Edited by fortheo on 18 April 2015 at 12:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4832 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 26 of 42 22 April 2015 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
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I have to give another thanks to Jeffers for suggesting the podcast l'avis de marie. That is an excellent resource to have. I took a break from my audiobooks yesterday and looked at the first podcast in that series, and it's great. Upon first listen I was a bit frustrated because I probably only understood 70% or so, but my comprehension increased a bit after the second listen. Then I read the text once and picked out words that I didn't know (there were probably around 5 words per page that I didn't know) and then I read the text one more time. After that, I listened to the audio while reading the text. I will probably listen to it again in a day or two before I move on to the next podcast. It's a nice little change of pace from my normal routine.
It's just a great resource to have because it talks a lot about french life and teaches you words that you won't find in textbooks. Thanks again Jeffers! Edited by fortheo on 22 April 2015 at 12:49am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3803 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 27 of 42 22 April 2015 at 3:45pm | IP Logged |
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Fortheo,
I have really enjoyed reading your log and your progress! I am impressed that you are incorporating books in the Alex Leroc series! Those can be quite challenging! While the stories aren't necessarily the best, I found them to be a pleasant change from some of the earlier learning material I was using. I usually listened the first time through only, and then read the story, learning any vocabulary I didn't know, then did an L/R, and then another listen. I have several of these downloaded on my iPod's Audible app. Enjoy! I'm sorry Quebec didn't work out, but glad the French credits workout to not impede your graduation. You are making great progress and it won't be too long before you are routinely adding in native materials to your routine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Clarity Groupie United States Joined 3318 days ago 85 posts - 107 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 28 of 42 22 April 2015 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Fortheo, I'm also sorry that Quebec didn't work out for you. It's frustrating when unexpected expenses stand in the way. But it is great news that you can take the French course for graduation.
I just wanted to add my two cents because I got a Master's Degree in ESL a gazillion years ago. My original plan was to travel and see the world while teaching. I absolutely loved studying linguistics, but was never actually able to travel with my degree. Life got in the way and I could not live abroad. What I didn't expect was how difficult the job market would be stateside. I am not sure where you live, but in Southern California it wasn't easy to get a full time job. Most of my friends from school scrounged to get classes here or there in order to pay the bills. There was never a lot of job security from one semester to the next. For example, when a recession hit Japan at that time, many of my friends lost classes due to fewer international students at their schools. Also, getting benefits like health insurance or retirement was an issue. The job market was so bad, I went back to grad school and took an entirely different career route. I love my job now, so I don't regret it. It's been a long time, so the situation may be different now or it may be completely different where you live. Southern California is an expensive place and there's also a lot of competition for jobs. And if you plan to live abroad and emigrate to another country, my experience would not be relevant. I loved what I learned in school and I miss linguistics, but I wish I had known how brutal the job prospects were at home. Edited by Clarity on 22 April 2015 at 6:03pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4832 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 29 of 42 23 April 2015 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Mohave for the kind words!
and thanks Clarity for the input! I think the job market for ESL teachers is a bit better here than it was for you. In my state, since 2002-2003, any school that has even one ELL student must provide a Sheltered English Immersion program, which means that they must have ESL teachers in nearly every single school now. Ideally I'd like to teach abroad for a few semesters and then come back home to settle down. I'm not sure yet if I want to do a full out masters degree in teaching ESL, or just do my Masters in teaching English in general and get a teaching ESL certificate on top of that. Basically, the problem is that I'm not sure if I want to teach ESL for my whole career, or if I just want to do it for a few semesters abroad. The idea of teaching and discussing literature in a class is extremely alluring, but it requires a completely different degree. I've got some soul searching to do! Edited by fortheo on 23 April 2015 at 1:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4705 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 30 of 42 23 April 2015 at 5:19pm | IP Logged |
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My own two cents: my sisters both got ESL certificates, but neither of them teaches English any more. One moved into journalism in Belgium, and then working for the EU. The other taught ESL in India for 3-4 years, but didn't enjoy it enough to want to keep teaching it. For the first, it did actually lead indirectly to the journalism job in Belgium, for the other it didn't lead anywhere because she didn't like doing it.
If you do want to teach ESL, I think teaching in a school (e.g. primary or secondary) will pay more and be more secure than teaching at a "language school". But it depends if you like working with younger students or not. Having worked at an international school myself, I know there is a lot of demand for ESL teachers around the world, and many people with itchy feet use ESL to travel. By the way, your log has inspired me to get a second Alex Leroc book, since I found one used for pretty cheap. For me, I expect it to be pretty easy, but good practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 4832 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 31 of 42 25 April 2015 at 2:37am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the info Jeffers.
At the moment I have two choices: Do my masters in Teaching ESL, or do My masters in Teaching English. They are both very different. I'm leaning towards doing My masters in Teaching English so that I can teach high school lit classes, but also doing an oxford seminar sometime so that I can get a certification in Teaching ESL and possibly teach abroad for a year or so. I'm not a hundred percent sure. I'm going to talk to some of my professors and get their opinions on the subject. The thing with Teaching ESL, if I was going to do it for my whole career I would want to settle down at a university or something and teach adult learners. I could teach children abroad for a few semesters just to get the experience out of my system, but overall I want to deal with older students. Also, about Alex Leroc, it's not the greatest series but it is very useful to me! It's right at my level in regards to grammar. Once I start a new book in the series and I hear similar descriptions of the characters and their personalities, it really helps solidify the vocabulary. I do actually know pretty much all of the vocabulary before hand, but my listening still lags behind my reading. I'm not sure if I should proceed on to a higher level text, or if I should wait till my listening catches up. I'm considering doing FSI. I've heard that it's good for drilling grammar and automaticity which is exactly what I need. You guys think that will help me? Edited by fortheo on 25 April 2015 at 2:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5272 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 32 of 42 25 April 2015 at 3:23am | IP Logged |
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imo FSI would def help
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