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My French Log [TAC 2015] | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5322 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 60 12 November 2014 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
Let me share one of the great secrets of language learning: It's all about finding ways to fill up otherwise unused time, and ways to make the language a regular part of your life. Here are some suggestions: 1. When gardening, can you listen to French music? Or maybe even follow along with an FSI lesson you've already studied? 2. Do you have a smartphone? You could try doing a few Anki reps while waiting in line for something. 3. Do you have access to French TV? Or YouTube videos? You can try watching a little bit when you're too tired to study, perhaps with French or English subtitles (or both). 4. Do you have any hobbies where you could read or watch some things in French? 5. When you're too brain-fried for anything serious, you could always look for Izneo's free online graphic novel of the week, and have fun flipping through it. Basically, look for little places where you can use French. In the beginning, you won't understand very much, so look for things that are fun even if you don't understand what's going on. This will help you get used to the sound and look of the language, and give you an opportunity to look for things you've learned recently. It's also worth trying to do something every day, even if it's just a bit of messing around without studying—listen to a French song on YouTube or something. Doing something every day is a great habit, and it can easily make the difference between giving up in two weeks, and getting sucked back in by something awesome. Edited by emk on 12 November 2014 at 4:40pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5052 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 10 of 60 12 November 2014 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
Seconding emk's advice here. The time you find or make may not be as optimal as time that comes more easily, but this is one of the differences between people who end up learning a language and those who fall by the wayside. Finding and making time, taking advantage of "hidden moments" is being persistent. Being persistent will keep you in the game until you can be consistent. These are two of the most important qualities in language-learning, in my opinion and experience.
This is true in language-learning as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3544 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 11 of 60 14 November 2014 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey everyone,
Thank you all so much! Jimjam, likewise, it is nice to see a fellow young language learner, especially an Aussie! I will see if I can start Assimil; I'll get back to you all on that. Emk, you have been the greatest support for me, I cannot thank you enough! :D I will definitely start to implement your methods into my daily routine in order to maximise my language learning efficiency. I already watch the French news occasionally; there is an app 'SBS On Demand' where one can watch episodes of the French news on one's phone, and here is the website: French News on SBS. Also, I take my 'French Review' notes (my summary of what I've learnt so far) with me, and today on the train I had a little time to read over them, further ingraining the information in my brain. As for French music, I simply love that typical music that one hears when they think of 'Paris': Bonjour Paris (Music). And of course, perhaps my greatest inspiration is corresponding with my two pen pals in France: it makes the whole fantasy of talking to French natives a reality! They look forward to be able to talk to my in their own language :) Iguanamon, I love your two quotes that you gave! Being persistent until you're consistent... I like that! Ok, so I did say that I'd get into a few specifics in this entry, but since I don't want to write whole essays I'll just mention a couple of things here. Last Thursday I passed by my local library and borrowed the two French resources that I could find: the 'Collins-Robert Paperback French Dictionary' (bilingual), along with a book entitled 'The Everything Learning French Book' (I'd previously read a book in the same 'Everything' series on philosophy, and it was really good). So yeah. Online dictionaries are, of course, far more comprehensive, yet I love the comfort of a worn dictionary which I can hold in my hands and flick through. So I guess this is another great reason to learn French: the vast amount of resources for it. There are also a few books in French which I can borrow at the library once I get to a decent level at French. Ok, well I think that's it for now. Tonight I completed the 5th lesson of the FSI Metropolitan French FAST course, so I'm happy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3544 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 12 of 60 16 November 2014 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I finished lesson 6 of the Metropolitan French FAST course tonight. I did this lesson in a day, but I have found that there is a good three hours or so in each lesson (on average). Next I am going to summarise lessons 5 and 6 (along with relevant grammar notes); although this means that I am not going through the course as quickly, I have so far found doing this summary to be of great benefit. I have casually named it 'French Review', and it's basically a continuous stream of notes which follows my progress through the FSI lessons. These notes are what I take with me everywhere in a plastic folder to look at during the day. The rest of my notes which I do not have with me are in a big green folder (everything I've written is on loose leaf paper). Soon, when I've covered more in French, I'll write other notes and flashcards and whatnot, but for now I've found that these notes suffice.
My 'French Review' extracts every bit of information possible from the FSI course, providing a quick summary of core information which is essential to know. Each 'session' of my review (consisting of 2 FSI lessons worth of summarising) has so far taken me around 2 hours to do; this includes looking up relevant grammar information and listening to the relevant FSI audio tapes. In saying that, this is all new to me, so I just assume that every lesson is a similar size. Although, the first couple of lessons were significantly smaller. I have so far found no need to learn lots of vocabulary, as the FSI course is teaching me enough. Although, in some exercises that say, for example, "write four sentences using the words le, la, and les" I may use some new words in these sentences, rather than just using words I've already learnt. For example, 'Il est à la plage [new word I looked up]'. Quickly looking through the glossary, the French FAST course must teach almost 2000 words... I'll have a better look later and get back to you on that. I had a quick peak at the last lessons and the Appendix of the course book. It goes to a remarkably high level it seems (especially considering this is just the Familiarisation and Short-term Training course); if I can get to this level by three months or so then I'll be very happy! [btw, for anyone new to language learning, here are the courses: FSI ... also, here is another link to some DLI courses (I'm yet to really check them out though): DLI Now I have a little announcement which I didn't want to make, but I should do so now. Well, my pen pal may unfortunately not be able to come to Australia in February next year. She hasn't replied to the last email I sent her (which was about 5 days ago) but when she replies I will hopefully be able to confirm as to whether she will be staying with my family or not. Oh, and if she does come down to the Great Southern Land it'll just be her now, she says. Which is fine, although it was her parents who can't speak English, that's all (but that doesn't matter haha, that was just another little 'reason' or 'excuse' for me to start learning French!) So what does this mean for my challenge, 'French in 3 Months?'? It means nothing. I'll continue to study as if Sara (my pen pal) will be visiting Sydney sometime in February. So, let's just say, that on the 15th of February (the middle of the month) I will assess what level I am at with my French (well, at least I'll try to assess my own French. It'll be more of a 'feeling' thing I think). I would like to be at an A2 level (albeit more likely a A1/A2 level in reality), and I think that this is achievable. Of course, 'French in 3 months' is a little misleading, because this will mean something different for everyone who tries such a challenge: - Is it one's first foreign language? (no, technically my third although it is deceptive to say this) - Does one already know a related language to the target language? (yes, a very little bit of Spanish along with a month or 30 hours worth of Esperanto) - Does one know a lot of foreign languages already and therefore this is just 'another' language to learn? (nup) - Is one's native language close to the target language? (well, kind of in a way, although not in the same language family) - Is one self-studying (doing it the proper way) or going to a weekly class at the local primary school? (well, I'll let you guess) - Is one a student in between high school and university or a mother with three young children? (in my case the former) - Does one have a passion for the target language? (well, yeah!) - And is this just a half-hearted crack or a serious pursuit? (for me, greatly leaning towards the latter) So there you go! Those are the main variables I reckon, although there'd be many more, like whether one has a parent or friend who speaks the target language or whether one is living in a country where the target language is spoken ext. One little technique I thought up while I have been learning the pronunciation of numbers: listening to the audio, I close my eyes whilst the number is read out for the first time. I repeat the number with my eyes closed, then I open them and look at the number whilst it is pronounced for the second time. This way, my preconceptions on what the word 'should' sound like do not interfere with me learning the actual pronunciation of the word. I found that I was looking at the number before hearing it on the audio recording (all of which I've put into itunes... simply right-click on the audio tapes and then select 'Save Link As' and then open the file up in itunes) and not being to shake off what I thought it 'should' sound like, if it were an English word, that is. So doing this little technique I'm trying out (I doubt it's particularly original though haha) so far seems to help me ingrain the proper French pronunciation in my brain. This technique can be applied to any words of course, not just numbers. Also, by tomorrow afternoon I will know as to whether my little brother will be doing French or Japanese next year at school. He should have already chosen last Friday, but he still doesn't know which language he wants to study next year at school (everyone has to study a language till year 8, or around 14 years of age. But by 'study' I mean learn how to say 'hello' and 'goodbye'). I personally hope he chooses French, although I don't want to influence his choice so I haven't said anything to him, although I did casually mention that if he chooses French then he'll have me along with my French resources for him. Although I suspect (as well as my dad) that he'll choose Japanese. My dad can speak a little bit of Japanese (a real little bit), and he is half Japanese, so there is that cultural connection. I have read a tiny bit of this old Teach Yourself Japanese book from the 1980's which I 'borrowed' from the school library, but other than that I know nothing. So it'll be interesting for me as to which language he chooses... Sorry this has been a really long post, but it's just that I have so many things to say and I'm afraid that I'll forget them all unless I write them down here! (hmm... I'll now keep a piece of paper ready to note down things to talk about in this log posts when I think of something...) Has anyone heard of this website?: Lingvo.info It’s incredible, full of links and information, great for a beginner like myself (although it is very tempting to go looking up obscure languages). Also, I reckon these articles are some of the best on the internet. They’re by none other than Benny Lewis (actually, this one isn’t by him though), check ‘em out: What makes learning Polish so easy? This particular one is on Polish (there are others like this on Hungarian, Czech and more), a language which I am trying to convince a mate to learn since his father is Polish and they travel to Poland to see family and friends fairly frequently. He has convinced himself that Polish is impossible to learn. He said to me that one day he would like me to accompany him and his dad to Poland; if this were to be then I would definitely show my mate up and learn Polish! Bye for now :) 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 13 of 60 16 November 2014 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sounds like Metropolitan French FAST is really working well for you. Your method of reviewing is much better than my usual method of muddling through courses. I started it and worked through about 4 chapters, but then I just switched to the main FSI French course (I'm on a break from it right now, but I'm on unit 9). Edited by Jeffers on 16 November 2014 at 9:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| csidler Diglot Pro Member Australia chadsidler.com Joined 4613 days ago 51 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 60 20 November 2014 at 12:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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Have you had much luck listening to French Radio during the day?
You should be able to fill up on the SBS French Podcasts. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liam.pike1 Groupie Australia Joined 3544 days ago 84 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, French | Message 15 of 60 22 November 2014 at 3:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, it’s way past midnight here, but I just have to post something or else I may never post anything here again!
These last few days the only time I’ve been at home has been at night time, sleeping. On Wednesday I spent 12 hours painting my great uncle’s house, for example. Yesterday (well, actually on Friday since it’s technically Sunday now) I woke up early to go to my uncle’s house again, rushed home to have a shower before then rushing to teach a guitar lesson to one of my students, and then rushed from the music studio to a charity concert at my (old) school to see my mate’s band play. Got back home after 10:30, was going to write something since I hadn’t updated my log in a little while (well, only a few days, but considering I hadn’t done anything else French-related…), but was simply too tired to right anything. Just went to sleep. Today I woke up early to paint (alongside my dad) and then came back home to then get ready for the (wait for it) Scottish country dance at the local church! (I played fiddle in the band)… I was going to mention this stuff anyway (just to try and make myself feel better for not having done any proper French study in a little while) but now it actually has something to do with learning French: I met a young lady who is from Quebec, and is French-speaking (like everyone there). She was a little confused at why I was so excited to hear that she was from Quebec, but then I explained. She said that the French of Quebec (Quebecois) is quite difficult for those of ‘French’ French-speaking background to understand (she compared it to how many English-speakers find the Scottish accent quite difficult to understand; very fitting analogy considering this was a Scottish dance!). Also, I found out that the lady who used to teach violin at my old music school, who was also playing in the band, is from Belgium! I knew that she had an accent (“Couldn’t you tell that I have an accent?”) but I dunno, I just didn’t connect the dots haha… so French-speakers all around me! Very motivating for me! :D I arrived back from the concert at around quarter to 11, but then mucked around for a bit (yeah, where’d all the time go?) and am now writing this. Oh, and one more ‘language-learning’ related thing: I casually asked one of the old dance instructors as to whether she can speak Scots Gaelic. She replied, ‘no actually… but I do know of a group that meets together fairly regularly and teaches Scottish Gaelic, just [down the road]…’ Pretty cool, ‘ey! She said that she’s been to one of their concerts where there was a Scottish harpist or something, simply beautiful. Also, I love how the Scottish people roll the r’s! ‘Rrrrready?!’ Ok, my only ‘development’ (I’ll think of a better word later) in French as of recent has been a little way to review my notes (there’s not many so far, but I am currently up to reviewing lessons 5 and 6… that was current as of a few days ago)… while I was painting I put the hard folder with the notes on loose sheet paper attached inside on a platform, next to where the paint bucket was. Whenever I had to get more paint for my brush, I looked at maybe a paragraph, or maybe only a couple of dot points in my notes. So this is an example of adjusting one’s learning techniques to the situation; I have only just started to learn this ‘skill’, but as you all have told me, it is an essential one to learn. The more time ticks by, the more I realise that I’m going to have to get used to having practically no time for French (or anything else, for that matter), or more specifically, no time solely for learning French: only the moments in between other activities. I must try Anki soon. I am not the most tech savvy person, despite the fact that I was brought up with all this stuff, but it’s all out there for me and everyone else to use, so I better start learning to be utilise the latest technologies. I could probably write a little more, but I’ll end here. Oh, my brother decided to learn Japanese at school (the other option was French). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5322 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 60 22 November 2014 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, the Quebec accent was really hard for me in the beginning. But then I watched maybe a half-dozen DVD box sets of French TV series, and spent some time channel-surfing on French television, and the next time I visited Montreal, I could suddenly understand a huge fraction of what people said to me. Many people in Montreal speak a French that's very close to what you'd hear in Paris, with maybe a faint accent. Another group has a heavier accent. And a few people are just really difficult to understand. But overall, my experience is that it gets much better.
And as you get better at French, another great possibility opens up: you can do some of the same activities you were going to do anyway, but use French to do them. I read computer news sites in French, and kayaking books in French, and all kinds of other fun stuff. I even took part of an online statistics course in French. One great choice in the beginning is music. I don't know anything about your tastes in music, but here are some possibilities to get you started: Stromae, Papaoutai. Lyrics: French, bilingual on YouTube. Recent, and the lyrics are surprisingly easy. Thanks to sctroyenne for mentioning this one. :-) Paris Combo, Je te vois partout. Lyrics: French, English. All their stuff is great, if you're looking for something mellow and fun. MC Solaar, Caroline. Lyrics: French, English. An older song, and not the easiest lyrics, but it's beautiful and heartbreaking. Carla Bruni, L'Excessive. Lyrics: bilingual. There's also lots of other music genres that are popular in France. We have a couple people here at HTLAL who are really into French rock, for example. Here's one way to use music: 1. Browse around until you find some songs you like. You can often times find partial sample tracks online and music videos on YouTube. 2. Make playlists and random shuffle while you're busy with other stuff. Can you find some inspiring painting music in French, for example? 3. When you have a spare moment, make a copy of the French and English lyrics, and line them up with copy and paste. Read through them, try to figure out what the French lyrics mean (more-or-less), then listen to the music while reading along with the lyrics. 4. Once you've studied the song, you can practice your French just by listening to it again! To find French lyrics, Google for the song name, plus "paroles". To find English translations, Google for the song name, plus "lyrics English." Just stay away from lyricstranslate.com if possible; their translations are often massively wrong, like somebody fed them through Google Translate and handed them to a very poor French student for cleanup. Anyway, finding ways to mix some real-world French into your day will give all your other studying a boost, too. For a really extreme example, see my Spanish log. For a first-time language learner, I think it makes more sense to combine a course with fun things in French. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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