wwiding's French log

[wwiding]

Main Goal:
Assimil NFWE

Completed Today:
Lesson 56

Next Step:
Scriptorium and Shadow Lesson 57


Secondary Goal:
Harry Potter in French

Completed Today:
Read chapter 16

Next Step:
Scriptorium on a page of chapter 16

Notes:
Still on OT so I only did assimil today. I've added another 100 cards or so to my anki decks as well. Last night at work, the big bosses were freaking out because our most important customer was coming in for a visit. This company is responsible for about 80% of our business, so I talked to my boss a bit to see what needed to be done. At the end of our conversation, the boss mentioned that our customer was from France. I think my new goal is to use the French I'm learning to work into a more influential position, and possibly into that customers company!

[wwiding]

Just a quick update. Things are still hectic at work, I should be done with the over time by Friday. I've fallen in love with anki and will continue using it in the future. It's changed the way I study in a very good way.

[wwiding]

I'm finally off the twelve hour shifts! I'm going to go back to my regular schedule of Harry Potter and assimil. I'm not going to give up anki, I really like it and I think it's benefited me a lot. I think it's time to move from passive to a more active form of study as well to really start progressing.

[wwiding]

Just an update. I'm still studying French, I'm just not using the forums that much do to time constraints. I'm currently on lesson 10 of French in Action. I've found that I struggle a lot at the end of each lesson, where I have to kind of figure things out on my own, but the rest of the lessons are mostly doable. I've started imputing parts of the lessons into anki to study when I have a few minutes here and there, I'm hoping it'll help drive some of the points home. I think French in Action has brought be farther than any thing else I've done so far and I hope I can complete the course. I'm going to look for a native French speaker to email back and forth with soon to really bring my French to the next level as I feel my progress will be pretty slow if I don't actually use the language.

[wwiding]

I'm still alive and still studying. I'm using an app on my phone to memorize 5000 words and their meanings and still reading Harry Potter. I struggle with Harry Potter far less now than when I started. I've gotten to the point where I can read French pretty well but I don't have any speaking or writing practice so to resolve that I've downloaded Tandem on my phone to get some practice with native speakers. I've also started DLI Basic French to get some much needed speaking practice. I tend to get bored with things like Assimil and other "courses" but I've found that reading and watching natve materials helps my comprehension but doesn't do a thing or my speaking ability.

My current regimen is as follows:

Watch whatever movies, tv shows, music videos in French catch my fancy.
Continue to read Harry Potter, now that my comprehension is higher I spend more time reading for enjoyment and vocabulary aquisition since I no longer need to translate every word.
Memorize around 50 vocab words every day.
Do some DLI drills at home to familiarize myself with the drills, then listen and repeat on the way to and from work.

[wwiding]

I probably won't update this log on a daily basis still. But I'm going to try to dictate the drills from DLI as well to embed them in my mind and move from passive to active. So far, the move from passive to active has been the hardest step for me.

[tastyonions]

I probably won't update this log on a daily basis still. But I'm going to try to dictate the drills from DLI as well to embed them in my mind and move from passive to active. So far, the move from passive to active has been the hardest step for me.

Comme je t'ai dit dans l'autre fil de discussion, faire ces mises à jour en français pourrait représenter une bonne première étape vers l'activation. Je comprends tout à fait la frustration avec l'écart entre connaissance réceptive et connaissance productive. C'est exactement cela que j'éprouve en ce moment avec mon allemand.

Bon courage !

[wwiding]

I probably won't update this log on a daily basis still. But I'm going to try to dictate the drills from DLI as well to embed them in my mind and move from passive to active. So far, the move from passive to active has been the hardest step for me.

Comme je t'ai dit dans l'autre fil de discussion, faire ces mises à jour en français pourrait représenter une bonne première étape vers l'activation. Je comprends tout à fait la frustration avec l'écart entre connaissance réceptive et connaissance productive. C'est exactement cela que j'éprouve en ce moment avec mon allemand.

Bon courage !

Tu as raison. Je les ferai en français aussi.

[wwiding]

Bonjour!
I've finished DLI French lessons 1-4. I'm really focusing on the audio, doing the lesson as it's supposed to be done once, then dictating the next day and checking for mistakes(My spelling is surprisingly good, but I mishear things here and there.), and finally on the third day I listen to the audio without the book and try to shadow it.

I haven't really studied French grammar at all and I feel it's time to start. I may do some intensive study on a few paragraphs in the Harry Potter books to see if it helps me demistify the French grammar.

I really wish I had more time to devote to language study.

[Fortheo]

I haven't really studied French grammar at all and I feel it's time to start. I may do some intensive study on a few paragraphs in the Harry Potter books to see if it helps me demistify the French grammar.

Yeah, if you want to improve your output, then having a solid understanding and feel of the grammar will only help you as a lot of grammar exercises are basically prompts for output.

Another idea in regards to writing: think about the entire sentence and say it out loud as if you were talking to someone right in front of you--do that before you even write the first word. I'm not sure about the linguistic science of this, but it helps my brain get used to thinking of full phrases in real time, instead of writing one word, pausing, and writing another. It also helps in that you get to practice your pronunciation and general flow of the language. Just think it out and speak it out before you write it

Good luck.