Bonjour à tous!
I'd like to join you in your endeavors. I haven't yet started a language log, and it's probably high time that I did, but I'll update this post with that once I've got something going. (Edit:
Here it is.)
My goals and background: I am hoping to resuscitate my French and bring it roughly to C1 readiness by early 2018. I grew up in a francophone-influenced household and was raised by a mother with a Ph.D. in postmodern French literature (I think I knew what the Oulipo was before I'd ever heard of the Bloomsbury group, for example
). We lived in France when I was very young, and after we returned to the U.S., we'd go back to visit about once every two years until I was an adult. In school, I had six years of French instruction and felt pretty comfortable with it by the time I left high school.
I have been able to do just fine on vacations and short visits in the intervening two decades without falling back on English, and I can still read the newspaper just fine. But I did not actively practice or begin learning the language again until about two months ago. Eventually, I would really like to be able to say that French is a language in which I feel fully comfortable functioning, and in which I feel I can be the (French version of the) real me. In addition, I'd like to prepare myself for further studying and a career in Europe. While I will almost certainly not end up working in the French-speaking world, I feel like it would be a mark of politeness and respect toward my adopted continent if I could develop competence in at least three European languages. So, that's the longer-term goal.
Thank you for the excellent list of resources. I will plod on every day and inspire myself through what you have already accomplished!