Still learning French, and now starting Russian

[Fortheo]

Overdue update on what I've been doing:

What I've read: I've been bouncing around a lot with reading. I started the Chair de poule series and read about the first 6 books or so, maybe more, but then I got restless and tried to read something else. The next book I chose was the french translation of a young teens series named Animorphs. It would seem that both chair de poules and Animorphs are at a very comfortable level for me, that is to say that other than random words here and there, I have zero problems with these books. Considering the fact that I was reading these books with ease, I decided to jump into books written by French authors, so I read:



I encountered a few small hicups throughout the book, but I managed to get through it without too much pain. I then decided to try another book by David Foenkinos, but I got tripped up and gave up rather quickly in order to try a book by Amélie nothomb, which I'm still kind of reading on and off right now.

To be honest, the french authors that I've tried reading thus far— Musso and Foenkinos in particular— tend to use a lot of figurative language and that trips me up a lot. Those phrases where you know the meanings of the words in the phrase, but not the actual meaning of the phrase; or those almost pretentiously fluff phrases that seem to try to hard to be romantic with crazy similes and metaphors and description—those are the phrases that I struggle with in reading French books. These books send me back to my comfort zone, back to chaire de poule and Animorphs series.

Anyways, I've also read tons of podcasts as usual, and probably over 30 volumes of manga in french since the last update. If you french learners aren't reading manga or comics in french, then you're missing out on a seemingly endless source of great dialogue.

What I've been listening to and watching: Lots of podcasts. I listen to podcasts for about 30-45 minutes a day, then I'll watch an episode of an anime dubbed in french—I watched like 30 episodes of Maison ikkoku, but I'm not sure if I'll continue it; I watched like 40 episodes of pokemon in french, which is easy and fun for nostalgic reasons; then I re-watched a few Avatar episodes and some detective Conan episodes. I'm sure I've missed some things, but in general I listen for about an hour a day.



I'm honestly just swimming around at the intermediateish level guys, so there's not many updates. I haven't been studying grammar despite the fact that I keep saying I will (well, I do some anki decks I have on certain grammatical points, but that's about it). I know I need to do some more work with grammatical topics, but I just can't bring myself to study at a desk these days. I really wish that CLE made an advanced cd for this series:



I seem to really do well with audio drills, rather than actually studying grammar from a book.


I'm not sure what I'll do next to be honest. Obviously I'll keep reading and watching things in french, but a change will need to come soon in order for me to get out of this intermediate slump. I'd like to find a french author that I can really sink my teeth into and then stick with their books for a while, but I'm not sure who that author will be yet, and I'm not sure if my attention span will hold out long enough for me to stick with one author for a long period of time. I also think an output challenge will definitely be in store for me this year. We'll see.

[DaveBee]

Obviously I'll keep reading and watching things in french, but a change will need to come soon in order for me to get out of this intermediate slump. I'd like to find a french author that I can really sink my teeth into and then stick with their books for a while, but I'm not sure who that author will be yet, and I'm not sure if my attention span will hold out long enough for me to stick with one author for a long period of time. I also think an output challenge will definitely be in store for me this year. We'll see.

I've just finished reading a book I very much enjoyed called L'étrange voyage de Monsieur Daldry by Marc Levy. I came across Mr Levy's name in an article about best-selling french authors.

[Fortheo]

Obviously I'll keep reading and watching things in french, but a change will need to come soon in order for me to get out of this intermediate slump. I'd like to find a french author that I can really sink my teeth into and then stick with their books for a while, but I'm not sure who that author will be yet, and I'm not sure if my attention span will hold out long enough for me to stick with one author for a long period of time. I also think an output challenge will definitely be in store for me this year. We'll see.

I've just finished reading a book I very much enjoyed called L'étrange voyage de Monsieur Daldry by Marc Levy. I came across Mr Levy's name in an article about best-selling french authors.

Thanks! I've actually seen his name posted before under books recommended for students of french. I'll definitely check that book out.

[DaveBee]

Obviously I'll keep reading and watching things in french, but a change will need to come soon in order for me to get out of this intermediate slump. I'd like to find a french author that I can really sink my teeth into and then stick with their books for a while, but I'm not sure who that author will be yet, and I'm not sure if my attention span will hold out long enough for me to stick with one author for a long period of time. I also think an output challenge will definitely be in store for me this year. We'll see.

I've just finished reading a book I very much enjoyed called L'étrange voyage de Monsieur Daldry by Marc Levy. I came across Mr Levy's name in an article about best-selling french authors.

Thanks! I've actually seen his name posted before under books recommended for students of french. I'll definitely check that book out.

The UN maintains a database of translations, that might suggest some authors to you too.

Most translated french language writers offers: Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Georges Simenon, Honore de Balzac, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Albert Camus.

[Fortheo]

This isn't an update really as I don't see a need to update yet, but it's more of a question.

Do any of you find it far easier to read non fiction than fiction in your L2? I know I rant about this a lot, but I'm really struggling with the literary and figurative language found in fiction books. I struggle a lot with the abstract thoughts that the writers try to express with figurative language such as metaphors, similes ,personifications etc etc. It's frustrating because I'll understand the vocabulary and the grammar constructions, but I'll still be like "what the hell is this person trying to say?" In contrast, non fiction works deal more with concrete thoughts, and I find that the authors worry less about style and more about coherently expressing their message.

I'm just wondering if any of you have felt that way about Fiction vs. Non fiction in your target languages?

Overall though, this year has been good because I really amped up my listening and reading ability. Next year I hope to improve that even more and hopefully start focusing more on output. I'll probably create a new log for next year just to start fresh.

Happy new year everyone!

[Carmody]

Fortheo
this year has been good because I really amped up my listening and reading ability

Congratulations on having a good year; well done!

Re the fiction vs. nonfiction issue you raise, I just go with what many people on the Forum have said which is to read "what interests you." Language learning for me needs to be an enjoyable experience and if one area proves too difficult for the time being then I just move on to another. Of course this whole paragraph is just my opinion and not advice, since you are more advanced than I am.

Have a wonderful 2017.

[rlnv]

This isn't an update really as I don't see a need to update yet, but it's more of a question.

Do any of you find it far easier to read non fiction than fiction in your L2? I know I rant about this a lot, but I'm really struggling with the literary and figurative language found in fiction books. I struggle a lot with the abstract thoughts that the writers try to express with figurative language such as metaphors, similes ,personifications etc etc. It's frustrating because I'll understand the vocabulary and the grammar constructions, but I'll still be like "what the hell is this person trying to say?" In contrast, non fiction works deal more with concrete thoughts, and I find that the authors worry less about style and more about coherently expressing their message.

I'm just wondering if any of you have felt that way about Fiction vs. Non fiction in your target languages?

Overall though, this year has been good because I really amped up my listening and reading ability. Next year I hope to improve that even more and hopefully start focusing more on output. I'll probably create a new log for next year just to start fresh.

Happy new year everyone!

Hi Fortheo. I don't know the full list of novels that you've read or the quantity, but I'm wondering if some of the issues may be due to the authors you've chosen to read and their particular writing style. Do you find only certain authors giving you issues?

I struggle a bit with Patrick Modiano, myself. I've read two of his books and they were both difficult at times. The grammar and vocabulary were no problem, but he writes in first person and it's like trying to follow a bounding ball. Abstract thoughts, jumping in and out of the past, memories and intimate details of unknown characters. I've wondered if his English translations would be more difficult that average for me also. For me he is uniquely the only author that I've had issues with. Everything else I've read this year has not presented any issues at all, possibly with the exception of some metaphors that are unknown and may cause me pause. But that has been infrequent, all that other colorful stuff authors do to weave the story line hasn't really caused any issues. My perspective is coming from ~1,750,000 total fiction words read, with an average of 22 pages a day since staring the SC this year.

[Fortheo]

Hi Fortheo. I don't know the full list of novels that you've read or the quantity, but I'm wondering if some of the issues may be due to the authors you've chosen to read and their particular writing style. Do you find only certain authors giving you issues?

I struggle a bit with Patrick Modiano, myself. I've read two of his books and they were both difficult at times. The grammar and vocabulary were no problem, but he writes in first person and it's like trying to follow a bounding ball. Abstract thoughts, jumping in and out of the past, memories and intimate details of unknown characters. I've wondered if his English translations would be more difficult that average for me also. For me he is uniquely the only author that I've had issues with. Everything else I've read this year has not presented any issues at all, possibly with the exception of some metaphors that are unknown and may cause me pause. But that has been infrequent, all that other colorful stuff authors do to weave the story line hasn't really caused any issues. My perspective is coming from ~1,750,000 total fiction words read, with an average of 22 pages a day since staring the SC this year.

You've probably read a lot more fiction than me at this point. I find that I've been reading more romance these days, mostly because lots of romance novels seem to be recommended on "intermediate french reading lists", and I stumble up on the artsy, pretentious metaphors and hyperbolic similes and what not. I'm probably just frustrated that my french level isn't higher than it is, but at the same time I do think I'm reading books that aren't really my style—I can enjoy a romance from time to time, but I mean more so the authors writing style isn't my cup of tea. Most of what I've read to this moment just feels very pretentious and like they're trying to be clever just for the sake of being clever. I'll pay attention to the phrases that I struggle with and share them on here next time to give you guys an idea of what I mean. In the mean time I'll have to keep looking until I find some fiction that clicks with me I suppose, but until then I have plenty of non fiction to read, or Comics—I love comics and manga in french.

Thanks for the response rlnv. Are you the person that has experience with this book/series?




I know I saw some other user on here post about those books. Anyways, I just got my hands on those and I have to say, I really like the exercises in that book.

[PeterMollenburg]

I find non-fiction more interesting in general, so I don't read a lot of non-fiction except some books to my daughter. I'm still not fantastic with the passe simple. I would recommend you find a good workbook or utilise what you already own to drill the passe simple forms into your mind, so that when you read fiction and come across these conjugations, rather than shying away or becoming frustrated, you instead relish the challenge of trying to understand and facilitate comprehension- ie putting into practise what you've worked on in a textbook or two. Work on your weaknesses! Good luck in 2017!

[Fortheo]

I find non-fiction more interesting in general, so I don't read a lot of non-fiction except some books to my daughter. I'm still not fantastic with the passe simple. I would recommend you find a good workbook or utilise what you already own to drill the passe simple forms into your mind, so that when you read fiction and come across these conjugations, rather than shying away or becoming frustrated, you instead relish the challenge of trying to understand and facilitate comprehension- ie putting into practise what you've worked on in a textbook or two. Work on your weaknesses! Good luck in 2017!

Thanks for stopping by!

I actually don't have any problems with the passé simple. Well, I shouldn't say I don't have "any" problems because I definitely wouldn't be able to use it in my own writing, but I understand it fine. It's just all the figurative and abstract language that I encounter in fiction that throws me off sometimes—really weird descriptive phrases, similes between abstract ideas, personifications etc etc. Non fiction is a lot more direct, utilizes less artsy literary writing techniques, and it's more along the lines of actual conversational language, all be it a bit more refined because it's still a written work.

Anyways, I don't think there's any magic answer for me other than read more!


Hopefully we'll both reach high levels of French in 2017! good luck Peter!