Languages vs Time

[DaveAgain]

I think what I might end up doing is trying to do the textbook thing for a week and then go with a week of RFI and see what I find more useful. I also need to do things like watch the news in French, but I think for intensive listening, it needs to be graded in difficulty. If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them.

There's a TV course for German learners you might like. It's all in french, with some vocabulary given in German. (click on the podcast link in the right hand column)

EDIT
There's a radio phone in cookery programme on France Bleu called On Cuisine Ensemble that might suit you too. (scroll down for episode links)

[aokoye]

I think what I might end up doing is trying to do the textbook thing for a week and then go with a week of RFI and see what I find more useful. I also need to do things like watch the news in French, but I think for intensive listening, it needs to be graded in difficulty. If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them.

There's a TV course for German learners you might like. It's all in french, with some vocabulary given in German. (click on the podcast link in the right hand column)

EDIT
There's a radio phone in cookery programme on France Bleu called On Cuisine Ensemble that might suit you too. (scroll down for episode links)

Thanks for those suggestions! I shouldn't be surprised that Bayerischer Rundfunk produced a TV course but I never thought to look. I watched half of the first episode of C'est ça, la vie last night and it like it'll be useful. Thanks too for the cooking radio show. I'm listening to it right now

[aokoye]

If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

That really needs to be my mantra when it comes to vocab. I know that Anki doesn't work well for me in almost every case*. I also know that Learn with Oliver works really well for me and I can currently afford it. Given that, why is it that I try to deviate from that?! The past week and a half have felt fairly unproductive all with regards to language learning. I think I need to go back to the basics in terms of material use. Textbook (1 single textbook), handouts from class (they are amazingly helpful and it's assumed I've used them so...), Learn with Oliver, watching French language TV for fun. I'm ok with using other resources when I need extra help with specific grammar points, but otherwise my goal for the next two weeks is to limit myself to those three things.

I had a test this morning that went far better than I expected. I didn't have/make enough time to study as much as I wanted to, but it was a case of a. getting quality studying done in what little time I allowed myself and b. the test being easier than the review/revision sheet. One thing that was helpful this morning before the class was translating most of a two page excerpt in my textbook from French into English. I needed to have a really good understanding of it as we were going to be asked to write about it and at the last minute I thought of just translating it from French to English. While this isn't necessarily going to help my productive skills, it should help in cases where I know or suspect that I'm going to have to write or discuss what we've read at home. Also if I get into the University of Ottawa it will likely be reading a lot of French as part of the program I applied to.

Another thing that I really need to be good about over the next few weeks is making sure I keep reviewing the grammar from the first two chapters of the textbook while also keeping up with the third chapter. It's all fairly basic stuff which is nice, but I'm not that good at reviewing and frankly I have the time to figure out and implement some sort of rotating schedule. Depending on how well I manage my time, it would behoove me to work forward into the grammar of chapter 4 (the next two weeks will be spent on chapter 3) as it things start getting more out of my comfort zone in that chapter and this chapter should be fairly easy on the grammar front. The assumption in this class is that everyone has been introduced and studied all of the grammar that's in the textbook and thus this is a quick review of grammar and then a lot of reading, writing, and enlarging our vocabulary.

Goals for this week:
Put all of the vocab in Learn with Oliver (not all at once)
Watch a few French language shows
Finish everything that is prescribed on the syllabus for the week
Review the articles sheet that my prof sent from the chapter we just finished (this should take 30-40 min and I should make a habit of it)

If I'm lucky:
Finish all of the grammar exercises that are homework
Start on chapter 4's grammar (this might take a outside grammar resource)


*Outside of it working really well for me when studying Modern Hebrew

[aokoye]

The bad news, a new crop of racist bullshit has turned up on my campus and I'm very very unhappy and a bit anxious about it.

The good, I got a B on my French test. I'm ok with Bs in this class because it's actually really challenging. Getting a C is not ok with me, but a B is okay. I also somehow got all of the questions about expressions temporelles correct. I have no idea how because I didn't study them nearly as much as I wish I had (which is to say, I didn't study them at all outside of class), but I did. Slowly but surely my imposter syndrome about this course is going down. The test result is a big part of it and while it was "just" 80% (or 80 point something), my professor verbally told me that she was pleased with how I did. It also turns out that my translation strategy for the piece of writing that we had to write a response about worked well - full marks on what I wrote for that section

I'm still dealing with motivation issues, but I think it's related to the anxiety that I'm dealing with waiting to hear back about grad school admissions. The vocab goal isn't going to be met, but I have turned in all of my homework on time which is good.

[aokoye]

Still waiting to hear back about the University of Ottawa. HOpefully I'll know within the next few weeks. I'm on part two of reaching a peak of anxiety. The first dime this happened was a week and a few days ago. Then earlier this week I found out that the dept didn't have my application (the university does but the dept whose program I'm applying to didn't). They do now and now we're back to the mounting anxiety.

French is still going ok. We're on the last chapter of the quarter which is nice as it means the term is coming to an end and sooner rather than later it will be winter break. I had a chapter test this that I don't think I did amazingly on but otherwise I'm doing really well. I got the second of two in class writing assignments back and I got a 91%. The prompt was to write about something in Portland or another city that we know well that isn't good. I chose gentrification. It was two double spaced handwritten pages and the bulk of my issues were little grammatical errors. I did do better than the first in class writing assignment (by 1 or 1 and a half percentage points) and, having learned from the first time around, I organized my ideas on a seperate piece of paper while still ending up with enough time to proofread.

This weekend I need to revise the paper but my other goals include putting the rest of the vocab into Learn with Oliver, going over passé composé, and watching more news in French. And now I'm going to pick up my friend's 5 year old from her French immersion school (which is either 90% or 100% in French in her grade).

[aokoye]

I didn't do well on my most recent test, but it only dropped my total grade down by 1 percent so I don't feel too bad. I'm still at a high B which is where I suspect it will remain. Right now I'm revising and expanding my in class composition. I have to expand it to 400 words which means that I've ended up deciding to include a brief history of racism in Oregon (the original paper is about gentrification in Portland and thus). It's due tomorrow morning and at some point I need to take a break and get or make dinner (I'm leaning towards "get" but I'm not sure how much I want to drive this evening).

I also have learned that there's a slate.fr (I'm a fan of Slate and their podcasts), found the French Morning website, and had to stop myself from listening to their podcast about bilingualism

edit: I managed to finish the paper before 8:15pm

[aokoye]

Major update is major!

I got into the MA in Bilingualism Studies program at the University of Ottawa! I found out on the 7th and am currently in the, "find all of the funding and make contingency plans if and when I can't" mode, but I'm slowly moving into "right this is a real thing" mode.

Per the program's requirements, I'll be taking one of my required courses in English, the other one in French, and then two elective classes in either French or English. In an ideal world I'd take both of the elective classes in French but I will play in by ear. I, thankfully, am allowed to submit my work in English or French and I can write my thesis in English as well. In addition, I am allowed (and encouraged) to take FLS classes which I will likely do.

Outside of that, I'm currently on winter break, thank god. I ended up getting a B in my French class which I'm ok with. I did poorly on the final, but due to the way it was weighted and how well I have done on essentially everything else, I came out with a solid B. My plans for the upcoming weeks are to work out of three textbooks:
Vocabulaire en dialogues: intermédiaire
Compétences compréhension orale: B1
Grammaire progressive: intermédiaire

The grammar book will be coming on Monday, but it's easy enough to find the first 4 or 5 chapters online legally on the publisher's website. I was initially planning on workout out of the textbook that my French class is using, but I think the above plan is better for a few reasons. A. it will allow me to go deeper with grammar, B. it will do a better job in terms of my listening comprehension and C. I do actually want to work through these books and I finally have time that isn't consumed with another class. I would like to watch some shows in French as well but we'll see. I do have a lot of French baking show episodes to binge watch...

[Lawyer&Mom]

Congratulations! A new adventure! How exciting! If you do pursue the MA, what would you like to do with it, ideally?

[aokoye]

Congratulations! A new adventure! How exciting! If you do pursue the MA, what would you like to do with it, ideally?

Thanks! I accepted their offer so I'm officially going baring any unfortunate financial issues. I'll likely end up eventually going on to get a Phd and will hopefully end up being a professor focusing on linguistics. Looking at things from a sociolinguistic standpoint, not a psycholinguistic one. Psycholinguistics is great, and also so not how my brain works. If I don't end up in academia (or at least not that part of academia) for the long haul, I'd like to work in education on a local or national level (don't ask me what country, but preferably not the US) focusing on language education policy. More specifically on how students coming into a school system with a L1 (or plural L1s) that isn't the language(s) of instruction are able to successfully learn the language of instruction while also keeping their L1(s).

Right now I'm really interested in the above but also I'm getting more interested in identity development in bilingual students (primary and secondary aged) in various educational settings. For example, students in Jewish day schools in Ottawa and Montreal where some students have English as an L1, others have French as an L1, and most are learning Hebrew as an L2 (and while presumably some have it as an L1). This is all while being in school that has both French and English as mediums of instruction and in some schools, Hebrew as a medium of instruction in their Judaics classes.

[aokoye]

My original plan for my Winter break (which I had changed a bit after my last post):
Lots of French grammar
Working on Biblical Hebrew
Watching stuff in French
Applying for scholarships for grad school

What has actually happened so far:
10 chapters of grammaire progressive
4 and a half chapters of The Guide to Lashon Hakodesh
Started on one scholarship application
Played a lot of Sims 4

On the bright side, I had a bit of a breakthrough in terms of the verb charts that various textbooks advise you make/have as assignments or exercises for Biblical Hebrew last night. I also decided that I need to just get two notebooks for Hebrew - one for notes and one for doing exercises. I need two so I can reference the notes while also doing exercises without flipping back and forth. The question is do I have any spare spiral notebooks (or at least one of the inexpensive staple bound Clairefontaine notebooks that I like which is more likely something I have laying around)? I also really want to buy Torah 4 Children's chumash text/workbooks - or at least the first half of Bereshit to try it out. From the preview, they kind of remind me of Lingua Latina. I've told myself that I won't get it until I finish (or nearly finish) with my current book, but I might change that to until I'm half way through it....or I could just buy it today because I totally need more books, especially 8ish months before I move to Ottawa. Never mind that I have to sort through hundreds of books to sell back to Powells.

Unrelated to language learning, I had a very good weekend in terms of rowing which was nice. The goal for tomorrow is work on scholarship apps most of the afternoon and into the evening with a small break for making dinner.

edit: low and behold, I quite easily found a nearly unused A5 Clairefontaine notebook that I bought two years ago in Germany.