el mono está en el árbol.

[badger]

finished La Belle Savage by Philip Pullman. for a change of pace, I also read some actual French-French - Candide by Voltaire, which was probably terribly amusing in the grands salons of 1770's Paris.

did an iTalki sessions & had my first French homework in 30 years corrected. I thought I'd done rather well (& still do, in the circumstances) but there was rather a lot of red ink.

still watching The X-Files - half way through season 7 now, which is ~120 episodes I think. also watching the TV adaption of Le Nom de la Rose from a few years ago, with John Turturro in the William/Guillaume de Baskerville role which is rather good & also features what I think is some Occitan, which sounds like a cross between French & Spanish to me.

the AI6WC finished yesterday & was useful - it pushed me to do some extra study, but not as much as I would have liked. maybe I'll keep closer tabs on my study in future, as I'm clearly not doing as much as I think I am.

French expression of the week: tomber dans les pommes

[badger]

more reading, more X-Files, more YouTube.

I gave up on the last iTalki tutor who seemed not to want to be there most of the time, but have found one now who I get along with, so I'm going to try to get into a routine with him before the lighter evenings come along & distract me.

my proper studying, Anki'ing, etc. has really slipped since the end of the AI6WC & I really need to get back to it if I'm going to make any progress. I really hope Cavesa (or someone) runs the AI6WC again as I found it great motivation.

French expression of the week: Une couille dans le potage

[badger]

so, a while since I've done an update. I'm just back from a nice couple of weeks in France - except for priotité à droite, which I still don't really understand.

as far as reading things - signs, stuff in the supermarket, etc. - I'm fine, but I still totally suck at speaking French. I find it super-hard to understand & reply to someone who speaks to me where I don't know their accent, have any context to what they might be saying, etc. before they switch to English, but I guess that's to be expected. I probably need to make my standard response "pouvez-vous répéter s'il vous plaît?", rather than just going "errrm" & looking confused.

lots of reading lately - 9,600/10,000 pages now for the Super Challenge. I seem to be reading mostly English-translated-into-French, so I should probably read some French-French for a change, or maybe something non-fiction to mix up the vocab a bit.

more italki - lots of DELF-type exercises about whether mobile phones/social networks/AI/etc. is a good thing or not - much use of the phrase arme à double tranchant

I'm quite enjoying doing some study for the AI6WC. since it's 1st July, I'm going to set myself the challenge of doing an hour of active/intensive work daily for the rest of the year. all the input I've been doing is all well & good, but the amount of production I do is nothing like enough.


French expression of the week: "C'est au sorcier que je m'addresse et non à son chat" which made me smile & which seems to be a variation of mieux vaut s'adresser à Dieu qu'à ses saints

[DaveAgain]

so, a while since I've done an update. I'm just back from a nice couple of weeks in France - except for priotité à droite, which I still don't really understand.

Glad you didn't get caught up in the rioting, although I sometimes wonder if rioting is just an everyday thing for France, rather than something newsworthy

I seem to be reading mostly English-translated-into-French, so I should probably read some French-French for a change, or maybe something non-fiction to mix up the vocab a bit.

Two French books I liked, that you might find at your local library are: un sac de billes, and suite française.

Hippolite Taine's les Origines de la France Contemporaine found it's way onto my to-read list a while back, but I've not looked at it yet.

[badger]

Glad you didn't get caught up in the rioting, although I sometimes wonder if rioting is just an everyday thing for France, rather than something newsworthy

maybe I went to do some rioting

there was quite a lot of graffiti referencing the current political flashpoints - retirement age ("64 Jamais !") & Article 49.3.

thanks for the book recommendations - I'll take a look at those.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Two French books I liked, that you might find at your local library are: un sac de billes, and suite française.

Agreed about Suite francaise, though I read it in English translation (I think ). Have not read Un sac de billes.

[badger]

another month gone, I'm not sure quite where, but some useful stuff done.

a productive six weeks of the AI6WC - particularly while I was on holiday in la belle France, after which earning a living rather rudely cut back into my study time somewhat. plus being a bit distracted by The Ashes.

I finished the reading for my Super Challenge double French - 10k pages total - and am getting pretty close on the watching too. I was considering keeping going for a triple, but I think my time would be better employed doing some production for the rest of the year. I may give Writestreak a try, or see if I can find someone on Conversation Exchange who wants to do some writing.

I have been listening to the Inner French podcast quite a lot which, without wishing to toot my own horn, I find a bit easy. but some of the subjects are quite interesting, & it's nice to have some more listening practise while I'm doing other things.

French expression of the week: se carrer [qch] quelque part

[DaveAgain]

but I think my time would be better employed doing some production for the rest of the year. I may give Writestreak a try, or see if I can find someone on Conversation Exchange who wants to do some writing.

You might want to check if there's a French club in your area, or perhaps a film club that sometimes shows French films.

French expression of the week: se carrer [qch] quelque part

A new one to me

[badger]

long time, no write ...

I was rather distracted from language learning in the back half of 2023, but I've still been reading - I just finished Le pays des autres by Leila Slimani which I enjoyed enough to have just started the next book in the series, Regardez-nous danser. I've been watching bits pieces of French YouTube, ARTE, etc. but no real structured study. I think I'll see what challenges come up as a bit of accountability seems to spur me on.

I'd like to do some Spanish this year - I have dabbled in the past, but not very seriously. if anyone has any recommendations for textbooks up to about A2 then please let me know.

it looks like I will need to go to Bulgaria this year so I may have a dabble with that - I'm quite interested to learn Cyrillic.

[badger]

ne vous inquiétez pas, le singe français va bien aussi.

I have kind of put French on the back burner for a while - I'm still reading a little & listening to a few French podcasts, but proper study, Anki, etc. is on hold.

instead I've mostly been doing Spanish. I've dabbled in the past, but not to any great depth, although I have remembered some vocab & a bit of grammar. I've dug out some textbooks from my bookshelves, and Lawless/Kwiziq seems to be doing Spanish now too. plus some Anki & Duolingo (which just gave me a story about monkeys ).

I'm rather enjoying it so far & my French is obviously a big help, although I see many tenses/moods & many, many conjugacions in the not too distant future. & maybe some Pepa la Cerdita too. I'm also doing Spanish in the 6WC.

български (Bulgarian): slow-going with this, but I've learned some Cyrillic & a handful of words. unfortunately there's no Duolingo for BG - the closest thing seems to be Bulgaro, but it doesn't have quite the same dopamine hit.