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1,000 hours of French

  Tags: French
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80 messages over 10 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 9 10 Next >>
tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 1 of 80
20 April 2012 at 11:33pm | IP Logged 
Bonjour à tous!

I have wanted to learn French for a while. To this end, I have set myself the somewhat
arbitrary goal of seeing how far I can get with the language in 1,000 hours of focused
study. I am starting pretty much from scratch -- I did some Pimsleur lessons a few
months ago, read a couple lessons on LinQ, and have been watching French movies
with English subs for a while. My plan right now is to divide up the hours evenly,
study at least one hour per day, and to write one entry for each hour I complete.
Hopefully by the end I will be competent enough to write each entry entirely in French.
So, here I go!

Hour 0001: Watched first episode of French In Action. Used remainder of the hour
to read and listen to three lessons on LingQ.

Edited by tastyonions on 27 April 2012 at 4:54am

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freebutterfly
Diglot
Newbie
Canada
Joined 4500 days ago

16 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Korean

 
 Message 2 of 80
21 April 2012 at 2:04am | IP Logged 
Bonjour!
Can I ask you why do you want to learn French?
I think it's interesting that people want to learn French, my mother tongue!
If you have any questions, you can ask me! It would be a pleasure to help!
Bonne chance, tu es capable!
1 person has voted this message useful



JujuLeCaribou
Diglot
Newbie
Thailand
myonlinefrencht
Joined 4515 days ago

28 posts - 44 votes
Speaks: French*, English
Studies: Portuguese, Thai, German, Dutch

 
 Message 3 of 80
21 April 2012 at 3:28am | IP Logged 
Salut tastyonions !

1000 hours is a lot of time.
Do you have clear objectives and a clear method to reach your goals ?

The most difficult skill to acquire in French for native English speakers is the
ability to listen and understand spoken French.
That's why I think the "French in Action + Lingq" combo is a very good idea !

If I were you, I wouldn't write so soon.
In my opinion, output activities (speaking and writing) should be used after gaining a
certain familiarity with the language.
But this my personal opinion...

The most important : do what is good for you, spend time with French, enjoy it, and you
will progress !

Bonne chance !
1 person has voted this message useful



tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 4 of 80
21 April 2012 at 3:56am | IP Logged 
Hour 0002: Watched second episode of French In Action. Read and listened to
several lessons on LingQ a few times each.

freebutterfly wrote:
Bonjour!
Can I ask you why do you want to learn French?
I think it's interesting that people want to learn French, my mother tongue!
If you have any questions, you can ask me! It would be a pleasure to help!
Bonne chance, tu es capable!

Hi freebutterfly. I have a few reasons to learn French: I like the sound of the
language, I have enjoyed watching some French movies and would like to be able to enjoy
them in French rather than reading subtitles, and I would also like to visit France
some day.

I'm sure I will have questions as I learn, so thanks for offering your help.

JujuLeCaribou wrote:
Salut tastyonions !

1000 hours is a lot of time.
Do you have clear objectives and a clear method to reach your goals ?

The most difficult skill to acquire in French for native English speakers is the
ability to listen and understand spoken French. That's why I think the "French in
Action + Lingq" combo is a very good idea !

My main goal is simply to be able to understand spoken French well enough to do things
like watch movies and listen to the radio. I would also like to visit France,
though, and it would be great to know enough of the language to get around without
having to use English.

I wouldn't say I have a very definite method yet. So far I am just using the tools I
have found online (like FIA and LingQ). I also bought a grammar guide from Amazon (by
Calvez).

Quote:
If I were you, I wouldn't write so soon.

Oh, I don't plan on doing much output in the early stages. I would rather understand a
good amount before trying to really develop my speaking and writing skills. I have
heard that listening comprehension is one of the toughest parts of learning French for
English speakers, so I am going to focus pretty heavily on that.

Edited by tastyonions on 21 April 2012 at 3:58am

1 person has voted this message useful



tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 5 of 80
21 April 2012 at 9:56am | IP Logged 
Hour 0003: Watched third episode of French In Action. Read and listened to
several lessons on LingQ. Also created an account at frenchpod101.com so I can try out
some of their materials. :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 6 of 80
21 April 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged 
A bit more about methods. This is how I have been using LingQ so far:

(1) Listen to the lesson twice without looking at the text, seeing what I can grasp
without the visual aid.
(2) Listen to it again, but read along in the text at the same time, using the
mouseover dictionary tool to figure out unknown words.
(3) Listen and read along again, but pause the recording as I go to make LingQs for any
words I didn't know.
(4) Listen without text one or two more times (usually I can understand it decently at
this point).

I also use a part of each session for reviewing old lessons, listening to the audio and
making sure I still understand it, and going back to the text if something is still
unclear.

I like the tools i have been using so far (LingQ and FIA), but I want to check out some
new ones, too. I have read around these forums that Assimil is quite good, so I may
look into it.
1 person has voted this message useful



tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 7 of 80
22 April 2012 at 3:04pm | IP Logged 
I dreamed in French! Well, sort of. All I remember from the dream is standing around with
a guy wearing a lab coat who was speaking to me in French. He asked me a question that I
didn't know the answer to, I managed a "Je ne sais pas," and he started talking again. I
think his speech was probably garbled French, since I don't think I know enough to
properly construct that many sentences yet. Still, I found it encouraging, since I
suppose it indicates that my brain is working on the language even while unconscious. :-)

Edited by tastyonions on 22 April 2012 at 3:06pm

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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 8 of 80
22 April 2012 at 10:31pm | IP Logged 
Hour 0004: This time around I spent the whole hour focused on a single LingQ
lesson, which was longer than usual and had more unknown words (I picked one from the
"Beginner 2" level rather than "Beginner 1"). Listened to it several times while
reading along, then downloaded the audio.

The lesson's format is that it is read once slowly and with full enunciation, and then
more quickly and at a "natural" pace. After downloading the audio, I split up the
faster-paced reading into sentences. While this was time-consuming, I think it will
help me focus in on the parts that tend to breeze by. I also put my sound player on
"shuffle" mode for some practice figuring out words apart from the sequential context
of the lesson.

I also spent some time listening to a couple of old lessons, which I can now grasp with
little effort.

Edited by tastyonions on 22 April 2012 at 10:34pm



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