so, the first full week of the new year & I have been getting some good studying done. I'm rather liking the "Grammaire progressive du francais" A2/B1 & B1/B2 books. I quite like grammar in a perverse sort of way, but it takes an effort to make it stick.
I've read a few hundred more pages of Le Miroir d'Ambre & I've also been reading Aitchison’s Linguistics which I'm finding really interesting.
I finally gave in & have also started watching Buffy. whilst I'm not getting every word without subtitles, I'm definitely getting a lot more than the gist. I may need to study some vampire-related vocab thogh.
I have put some money on iTalki as an incetive to either use it or lose it. after this week things will be a bit quieter & I may even speak to a French person/
I've really been feeling like I have been on the intermediate plateau for a looong time - learning a lot but not really proprtionately increasing my understanding of spoken French - but I seem to be starting to understand a lot more & being on the cusp of understanding the majority rather than not really very much, which is quite exciting.
el mono está en el árbol.
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
-
- White Belt
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2019 10:33 am
- Location: France
- Languages: English (N), French (A2)
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12172
- x 62
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
Just wanted to say I’m enjoying reading your posts and look forward to the next update
1 x
I'm learning French and these are my current resources:
366 Day Challenge:
- Grammaire Progressive du Français - Beginners & Intermediate
- Schaum's French Grammar
- Kwiziq
- Alter Ego 3
366 Day Challenge:
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
not so much grammar since last time, I was ill for most of last week & it wasn't really going in, so I have been mostly reading.
I finished the last couple of hundred pages of Le Miroir d'Ambre & read all of Harry Potter à l'Ecole des Sorciers. I'm not a great fan of El Potter, but it's fairly easy reading to add to my 10k pages target.
I'm still sometimes mystified by y & en though - I get the obvious there and some/of them usages, but now & then I have no clue what they're referring to. I was quite amused by this in the entry for "en" on wordreference.com: "note: It is not always necessary to translate "en" into English".
I watched a few episodes of Braquo, which isn't a patch on Engrenages, but I'm on the third season, so it mustn't be completely terrible. And a few epsiodes of Buffy which is quite amusing in places, although perhaps not the places they intended - terrible SFX, etc.
I hadn't listened to Journal en Français Facile for a while, & when I did again this week it sounds noticeably slow, so my listening must have improved. I'm still not getting it all as I'm missing some news-type vocab, but it's nice to be able to notice some progress.
I finished the last couple of hundred pages of Le Miroir d'Ambre & read all of Harry Potter à l'Ecole des Sorciers. I'm not a great fan of El Potter, but it's fairly easy reading to add to my 10k pages target.
I'm still sometimes mystified by y & en though - I get the obvious there and some/of them usages, but now & then I have no clue what they're referring to. I was quite amused by this in the entry for "en" on wordreference.com: "note: It is not always necessary to translate "en" into English".
I watched a few episodes of Braquo, which isn't a patch on Engrenages, but I'm on the third season, so it mustn't be completely terrible. And a few epsiodes of Buffy which is quite amusing in places, although perhaps not the places they intended - terrible SFX, etc.
I hadn't listened to Journal en Français Facile for a while, & when I did again this week it sounds noticeably slow, so my listening must have improved. I'm still not getting it all as I'm missing some news-type vocab, but it's nice to be able to notice some progress.
5 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
I've been kind of busy the last couple of weeks, but still Anki'ing & I read Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets. time for a change from le garçon sorcier as it's starting to irritate me & I could do with doing some listening/watching. I may give Les Revenants another watch, without (French) subs this time, as I rather enjoyed that.
1 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
seems like a while since I wrote anything here. I missed a few days early in the month, but got back into it again by watching Narcos Mexico (with subs), did a bit of Anki which I really must start doing again regularly.
I read Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban & have started on La Coupe de Feu - I may put that on hold before I get too far into it & try something else with some different vocab. I have Le Monde de Sophie by Jostein Gaarder that I tried to start a while back & found it a bit above my level, but I read a few pages today & it seems a lot more manageable now.
anyway, hope everyone is staying safe & well in these uncertain times.
I read Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban & have started on La Coupe de Feu - I may put that on hold before I get too far into it & try something else with some different vocab. I have Le Monde de Sophie by Jostein Gaarder that I tried to start a while back & found it a bit above my level, but I read a few pages today & it seems a lot more manageable now.
anyway, hope everyone is staying safe & well in these uncertain times.
2 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
well, I actually spoke French to a French person this week. one of our French IT guys at work had to do something to my laptop over Zoom & his English wasn't very good - although obviously still much better than my French - so we kind of talked a mixture of French & English which was quite fun. I should really use the ££ that I put on iTalki at the start of the year & book some sessions to practise some production.
I've read half of Harry Potter #4, but have put it aside for a while & have started Chocolat by Joanne Harris which I read in English many years ago & can't really remember too much about it, except that the plot runs over the Easter period, which seems kind of apt. it's a bit more literary than La Coupe de Feu which is nice & has lots of new vocab.
I'm up to ~5.5k pages of reading, from ~2.5k at the start of the year, so I guess my reading speed has improved & my 10k target seems very doable.
Anki is getting hard. I have a pile of words that just don't seem to want to go in. I'll just keep throwing mud at the wall & it'll stick eventually I suppose.
in other language news, while we're all locked away, I may brush up my PERL which I haven't used for a few years & try (again) to learn Python. someone on here wrote a French verb conjugation script in Python (I think) which I will have to try to find as I'd probably learn conjugation better than way that slogging through verb tables.
I've read half of Harry Potter #4, but have put it aside for a while & have started Chocolat by Joanne Harris which I read in English many years ago & can't really remember too much about it, except that the plot runs over the Easter period, which seems kind of apt. it's a bit more literary than La Coupe de Feu which is nice & has lots of new vocab.
I'm up to ~5.5k pages of reading, from ~2.5k at the start of the year, so I guess my reading speed has improved & my 10k target seems very doable.
Anki is getting hard. I have a pile of words that just don't seem to want to go in. I'll just keep throwing mud at the wall & it'll stick eventually I suppose.
in other language news, while we're all locked away, I may brush up my PERL which I haven't used for a few years & try (again) to learn Python. someone on here wrote a French verb conjugation script in Python (I think) which I will have to try to find as I'd probably learn conjugation better than way that slogging through verb tables.
4 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
I'm quite surprised, but rather pleased, that I seem to have read ~1,000 pages of French in a fortnight! I finished La Coupe de Feu which got rather tedious by the end & have read about half of Chocolat which I'm really enjoying, but it's slower reading as the language is a bit more involved. The May book club looks good - I was intending to read La Peste anyway given its topicality & Courrier Sud sounds interesting. I'm going to be a heretic & say that I didn't like Le Petit Prince, but I'll give Saint-Exupery another go.
I hadn't done any language exchange writing for ~six months, but one of my partners mailed me & I've exchanged a few messages with her, which has been nice. I'm trying to write without using a dictionary, so my spelling is probably atrocious - but the meaning seems to go across. I've given up entirely on trying to remember the gender of things unless it has an actual gender, ie people, or has an obvious ending like -tion - my brain just doesn't seem to have a way of attaching a (somewhat) arbitrary attribute to a word, except by repeated exposure
my work is offering group French lessons - we have quite a large French office - but I'm in two minds about whether I want drag work into my fun language learning hobby. saying that, everyone who has signed up seems to be an A0-A2, so I might get one-on-one B1/B2 lessons lol
not much listening/watching lately as I've mostly been reading, just a couple of episodes of Buffy, but I'll try to do the Harry Potter #4 film this week - probably in stages - now that I've finished the book.
I hadn't done any language exchange writing for ~six months, but one of my partners mailed me & I've exchanged a few messages with her, which has been nice. I'm trying to write without using a dictionary, so my spelling is probably atrocious - but the meaning seems to go across. I've given up entirely on trying to remember the gender of things unless it has an actual gender, ie people, or has an obvious ending like -tion - my brain just doesn't seem to have a way of attaching a (somewhat) arbitrary attribute to a word, except by repeated exposure
my work is offering group French lessons - we have quite a large French office - but I'm in two minds about whether I want drag work into my fun language learning hobby. saying that, everyone who has signed up seems to be an A0-A2, so I might get one-on-one B1/B2 lessons lol
not much listening/watching lately as I've mostly been reading, just a couple of episodes of Buffy, but I'll try to do the Harry Potter #4 film this week - probably in stages - now that I've finished the book.
2 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
bits & pieces for the last couple of weeks, but I've been doing something each day still. I finished Chocolat, which I liked & was quite a good level for me. I started Courrier Sud for the book club, but I haven't got very far with it yet. also started watching Le Coupe de Feu. I've been trying to switch my news consumption - which I seem to be doing too much of lately - from English to French, so I've been reading Le Monde & Libération.
I saw on FB last week one of my friends who is home-schooling his kids because of the lockdown & was having to teach his 8 year-old subordinating conjunctions in English, & him (my freind) not having had any idea what they were. he's a similar age to me & I barely remember ever having been taught any English grammar at school - I wouldn't have had a clue about subordinating conjunctions had it not been for my learning French in the last few years, & even then, not that much of an idea.
by way of Chocolat I discovered this song, which I rather like:
I saw on FB last week one of my friends who is home-schooling his kids because of the lockdown & was having to teach his 8 year-old subordinating conjunctions in English, & him (my freind) not having had any idea what they were. he's a similar age to me & I barely remember ever having been taught any English grammar at school - I wouldn't have had a clue about subordinating conjunctions had it not been for my learning French in the last few years, & even then, not that much of an idea.
by way of Chocolat I discovered this song, which I rather like:
2 x
-
- Black Belt - 1st Dan
- Posts: 1998
- Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
- Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
- x 4121
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
YouTube safaris always seem to end up with me listening to Lara Fabian tunes at the mo.badger wrote:
by way of Chocolat I discovered this song, which I rather like:
2 x
- badger
- Green Belt
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:33 pm
- Location: UK
- Languages: native: English
intermediate: French
dabbling: Spanish - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... p?p=135580
- x 1160
Re: Le singe est dans l'arbre [EN->FR]
haven't written one of these for a while ...
I've had quite a lot of other stuff going on, so bits & pieces really. still plugging away through the Harry Potter books - I just noticed that I passed the 7,000 page mark towards my 10,000 page reading target, which is quite gratifying. I have reached a level where I can follow YouTube videos in French & it helps with vocab for areas which interest me, as well as general listening comprehension. obviously it helps to have some visual cues/clues, but I'm pleasantly surprised how much I can follow & it makes a nice change from reading about Le Quiddich.
I've had quite a lot of other stuff going on, so bits & pieces really. still plugging away through the Harry Potter books - I just noticed that I passed the 7,000 page mark towards my 10,000 page reading target, which is quite gratifying. I have reached a level where I can follow YouTube videos in French & it helps with vocab for areas which interest me, as well as general listening comprehension. obviously it helps to have some visual cues/clues, but I'm pleasantly surprised how much I can follow & it makes a nice change from reading about Le Quiddich.
2 x