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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 593 of 1317 06 June 2013 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
What you say may sound like a truism but it is, in fact, one of the most useful piece of advice you could give. On another forum about Chinese, a very insightful member called imron once said practically the same thing:
As we say in French: les grands esprits se rencontrent! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5313 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 594 of 1317 07 June 2013 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
The more I learn, the more my advice is starting to sound really obvious. :-) For example: The only way to get good at a language is to see and hear all the important things so often that you get used to them. Input isn't going to do you much good unless you understand at least some of it, somehow, even if it's only because of pantomime. To draw, you need to learn to see what's really there, not what you think you see—and to learn a language, you need to hear what's really there, not what your brain fills in. Brute force memorization of stuff out of context is horrible, so it helps to have lots of interesting context. In the end, it all probably comes down to time you spend wrestling with and enjoying the language. Khatzumoto has succumbed to an even more extreme case of the truism disease: He's now saying things like, "You’re either touching Japanese or you’re not. If you are, you’re winning." As far as I can tell, he's right. SensCritique I'm not sure whether this message got through the first time, so let me jump up and wave my arms to get everyone's attention. Here: "Oh, wow! Hey everybody! Look over here. SensCritique is, like, totally awesome!" Things to check out: My list of BD recommendations for students of French (in progress) "Best of" lists for many kinds of BDs My profile (to follow my recommendations, sign up and use "Ajouter comme éclaireur") The media wish list I built in two hours of browsing 
This is way more effective than browsing around Amazon, and for those of you who want to talk about books and movies intelligently in French, the review database will be an incredibly useful source of vocabulary. I plan to post some of my reviews on lang-8, too. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5313 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 595 of 1317 14 June 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Last Friday's lesson with my tutor was a bit of a washout, thanks to excessive fatigue, but this week rocked. We went really in-depth on a number of subjects:
I continue to rely heavily on my coping strategy of introducing technical jargon in English and then explaining it in simple French. In a lot of cases, neither me, nor my tutor, nor Wikipedia have the slightest idea what the appropriate French word might be. (Can anyone translate "long-form sales letter" to the appropriate French copywriting jargon? Thank you!) When my tutor works with me, she types notes into a Google Doc. These include corrections, new vocabulary and various suggestions. Red text indicates that something was incorrect:
I find this whole role-playing exercise to be enormously useful. I'm explaining complicated ideas quite fluently, with relatively little preparation. And my tutor is clearly thinking seriously about our discussions even when she's off the clock, which hopefully means I'm providing actual value! Having these "consulting" conversations in French is a real eye-opener. Sure, my language skills put me at a huge disadvantage. But I also have access to an English-language knowledge base that's never really been popularized in French. It's really weird when Linguee, WordReference and Wikipedia return absolutely no results for an important bit of jargon. I'm sure most of this knowledge exists somewhere in French, but it's sure not easy to find. Here's a nice essay on what it takes to be a copywriter in French. This would be a good place to start digging for the terminology. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Swift Senior Member Ireland Joined 4389 days ago 137 posts - 191 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Russian | Message 596 of 1317 14 June 2013 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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emk... your entries in this language learning log are amazing. They are full of detail,
but at the same time really interesting. Definitely taking some mental notes for when I get my own language log going again in a few weeks ;) I remember reading this thread a lot last summer when I was more active. Edited by Swift on 14 June 2013 at 8:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4947 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 597 of 1317 14 June 2013 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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emk, I don't know if I told you about this, but I've been through the textbook "French for Marketing", which is fairly comprehensive, even though it is a bit dated. Maybe there is some insight for your role-playing session?
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lorinth Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4055 days ago 443 posts - 581 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Latin Studies: Mandarin, Finnish | Message 598 of 1317 14 June 2013 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Salut emk, d'après ton profil et tes choix sur senscritique, je vois que tu es fan de s-
f. As-tu déjà essayé René Barjavel? Michel Demuth (le cycle "Les Galaxiales" a été mon livre de chevet pendant longtemps...)? En BD "Valérian", de la s-f des années 70? Anki Bilal (La Trilogie Nikopol par exemple)? (For those who don't read French: that's just a few tips for those who want to read sci-fi in French) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5313 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 599 of 1317 15 June 2013 at 6:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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Swift: Thank you! I'm really looking forward to your next log.
Expugnator: That's a really great find, especially for ~$40. Does it include any information on advertising, as opposed to marketing? lorinth: Merci pour la liste ! Tous ces livres m'intéressent, et je les ai ajoutés à ma liste d'achats sur SensCritique. Oui, ça fait beaucoup. :-) Mais il me faut toujours un tas de livres intéressants en français. Sinon, c'est trop facile de trouver un livre en anglais. Edited by emk on 15 June 2013 at 6:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4947 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 600 of 1317 15 June 2013 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not only that, but also on press, distribution, it is quite extensive on both adminstration and communication concepts. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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