B1 French from (false) A0 until 06/2020 (FR with small doses of KO/JP)

[Lawyer&Mom]

I love the Allana books, what an excellent choice for a first novel in French! I assume you have easy access to French books in a German library? My first French novel was a YA library book, but the selection at my Seattle library is not very extensive, so I couldn’t be picky! (Quelle Epique Epoque Opaque by Anne Pouget was fun, but lived up to its non-transparent name, as I hadn’t read it before in any language.) Reading does get easier, just keep at it!

[nagoyana]

I love the Allana books, what an excellent choice for a first novel in French! I assume you have easy access to French books in a German library? My first French novel was a YA library book, but the selection at my Seattle library is not very extensive, so I couldn’t be picky! (Quelle Epique Epoque Opaque by Anne Pouget was fun, but lived up to its non-transparent name, as I hadn’t read it before in any language.) Reading does get easier, just keep at it!

Yes the Alanna books are simply great! I am currently trying really hard not to buy Tamora Pierce's newest Tortall book (Numair's story), but it is almost impossible to convince myself that I will be able to get it in French eventually

The local library is very small and doesn't have a large foreign language selection... but so far I was able to get my French books used online, so I cannot complain After I finish Harry Potter and the Alanna series, I might have to think about another source of French books and maybe try the libraries in the next bigger towns around here.

So, the current plan certainly is to keep reading - although I am kind of afraid that my French reading skills might surpass my Korean reading skills quite quickly

Edit: Typos

[nagoyana]

Just now I finally finished the second part of FSI French Phonology chapter 10!
I am still thinking about revising certain parts (looking at you, e/é-distinction), but after doing a lot of Assimil in the last weeks I realized that by now I am really spoiled when it comes to audio quality. Especially FSI part 10.1 was hard to stomach in that regard.

I have actually been doing some French besides that in the two weeks since I said I would make plans Currently I am working on Assimil L38 and Grammaire Progressive L26.
There is no fixed date when I will finally know if everything worked out or not, so or chose the totally arbitrary date of 9 March as next goal. (Only because that was exactly 50 days from when I started planning )

The goals that I set myself until then were to
- finish Assimil up to lesson 75 (changed to as much Assimil as I can muster, see below)
- finish Grammaire Progressive du Francais (Débutant) (also changed to as much as I can manage, see below)
- finish up to Harry Potter Audiobook 4
- finish the YA fantasy series I have been reading

Unfortunately, I came to realize that I am currently not able to hold the pace of one lesson each of Assimil and Grammaire Progressive per day. (I am commuting an hour one way at the moment, which means that the audiobook goal won’t be much of a problem but does not leave much time for focussed studying.)
So, since I found myself procrastinating right from the start, I decided to change the first two goals to as much Assimil and Grammaire Progressive as I can muster.

Apart from my focussed-study-time problems, I managed to establish a kind of routine that has me doing some reading in Japanese and Korean (and most days English), some Kanji revisions and a lot of French listening each day.
Now the next project is to get both “real” study time and Cello in there as well without burning out
And since I have been lazy with updating this log, I might profit from trying to make that part of the bespoke routine as well.

Happy studying!

[nagoyana]

It seems like 4 Assimil lessons are the maximum that I can currently manage in a week. Or maybe 5 if one of them is a grammar lesson, which I only read attentively and then ignore since I am doing Grammaire Progressive as well.
As I will hopefully finish lesson 42 this weekend, this will bring me to 58 until 9 March.

Some of you might be wondering now why I am taking such a slow pace with Assimil, especially because the way of doing a lesson proposed by Assimil themselves takes 20-30 minutes, I think?
I have, however, added some steps to this routine, which brings one lesson to over 1 hour.
(Or more than 90 minutes if it is an insanely long lesson like 38 )

How I am using Assimil
Assimil has a lot of strengths, especially when it comes to listening.
I do, however, learn better when I not only listen to something but write it down as well.
So this is what I do:

1. Listen to the lesson 1-2 times without looking at the textbook
2. Read the translation
3. Listen again 1-2 times while reading L2
4. Listen again 1-2 times while reading L1 (Like L/R in a sense)
5. Read the comments and explanation
6. Listen again without the book until I am sure I understand everything
7. Shadow the lesson until I am able to do so without mistakes (usually 4-5 times)
8. Do scriptorium with the lesson
9. Listen once again without the book
10. Write down what I hear while listening again (covering the scriptorium part)
11. Check the two written versions against each other and the book
(yes, I do manage to write down mistakes in scriptorium sometimes)
12. Mark unknown vocabulary and grammar-relevant parts in the scriptorium version
13. Do the listening exercises as dictation
14. Do the exercises in the book in writing
15. Listen 1-2 times more to the complete lesson and move on

Up to step 10 I will only listen to the dialogue part of the lesson and leave out the exercises part. All in all, I listen to the audio 10-15 times before moving on to the next lesson.
Point 12 helps me notice new words and grammar. I am, for instance, marking the gender of nouns in the text or interesting turns of phrase.

I am re-listening to old lessons only when I feel like it. Before I start a new lesson, I go back to the lesson 14 lessons earlier and do a dictation with the whole audio again.

Currently I am still understanding most of the lessons on the first listen (except maybe new vocabulary words).
What am not yet managing, though, is to remember the correct spelling of all words than I can catch when listening Besides the scriptorium and dictation part, I hope my reading will eventually take care of that.

I think I might be overlearning Assimil, but while the above takes a lot of time, I am also enjoying the process. And I am seeing progress already even though I haven't done nearly as much as I was planning.
By now I am following the plot of the Harry Potter audio books just fine with audio-only in the car (might occasionally miss a sentence with too many unknown words, but for the most part it works surprisingly well).
I am also reading the second book of the Alanna series now in French first, only referring to the German translation for difficult words or sentences (maybe 2-3 times per page).

Maybe when 9 March arrives, I will take the Dialang test or something similar for French just to see to what level 3 ½ months of French have taken me.


Oh, and on another note: after 150 or so pages of Breaking Dawn, Korean reading is finally starting to feel like less of a chore
I started with 2 pages per day but now I am managing between 6 and 10 (in a session of maybe 20 minutes most days).

What is really disconcerting, though, is that
a) I have both read more pages this year in French than in Korean so far and
b) I have the feeling that my known to unknown words ratio on every page is about the same for both languages.
So without my TOPIK 5 I would by now probably feel the need to correct my Korean ability down by at least 2 CEFR levels... ^^J

Instead I am hoping that Korean will work out as Japanese did (where I was conversationally fluent and able to enjoy TV a lot earlier than finishing my first book) and that just reading will take care of my reading ability eventually.

I am still going back to French now.
Happy language learning everyone!

[nagoyana]

Okay, so it’s been a while since my last post (again), but this time at least I really have news.
1) It looks like I am going to need my French. And by 20 May, to boot.
2) From what I got as example questions, that test is not going to be easy.

So, I realized that I had to step up the pressure a bit. In some regards, that worked well, in others, not so much – more below.

First things first: I finished Grammaire Progressive du Francais – Niveau Débutant. And I am glad that I did not start with Niveau Intermédiaire I did not find many topics that I had not heard of before in school, but there was not much that I did not have to drag up somewhere from the depths of my memory, either.
So, grammar-wise, I should be somewhere around A2 now. Whether I feel like that, I am not sure, but hey, I still have until May
I am going to continue with Niveau Intermédiaire now (which I am actually told to finish by May – weren’t we talking about B1?!). The goal is to do 3 double-pages a day, which should be doable.

Then, since I haven’t spoken much French yet, I decided to sign up for a French course at the local Volkshochschule (community college). Most Germans are probably rolling their eyes reading this, since the Volkshochschulen are not exactly known for their speed in language tuition – which is why I decided to sign up for a course that started at lesson 9 of 12 of a B1 textbook.
I was totally expecting to have some catch-up to do in the first weeks (and I do have some time on my hands between now and May), but it turned out I was severely overestimating what I was getting into.
While I might have to cram some grammar points that the rest of the course has supposedly already covered, judging from the first lesson I took part in, my French level is just about right to get along.

I just wish this was a realistic indication of my current level So much for stepping up the pressure.


Long story short: I am planning to continue with the course, if only to get some more exposure to French and some additional explanations for the more difficult grammar points. Other than that, I am currently doing the following:
- 1 lesson of Assimil French without Toil per day
(This is including my own revision and the active wave; I am at lesson 60 currently and should thus finish right before the test in May.)
- 3 double-pages of Grammaire Progressive du Francais – Niveau Intermédiaire per day
(See above; I am thinking about mixing this up with a bit of Kwiziq)
- 2 Iversen-style wordlists (ca. 70 words) a day
(My vocabulary does need work and unfortunately I do not have enough time to just keep reading.)

I am doing a 45min-rotation of the above topics, which seems to be a bit too much time for the grammar, about right for vocabulary and quite tight for one complete lesson of Assimil. But we will see.
I am also thinking about doing some conversation classes on italki to get used to speaking, although I will probably wait some more weeks. Other than that, my timetable is quite full already with the above.

Oh, and other than that, I am of course still reading I finished the second Alanna-volume in French yesterday and already got the third and fourth book as well as all of Harry Potter. That should last me till May.


As you might imagine, the rest of my languages have suffered quite a bit in the last weeks since I went full French mode. I am still managing some pages of Japanese and Korean reading on the side, but nothing more. But supposedly there will be time to tend to my other languages after passing French. (In theory)

In the meantime, I will be going back to my rotation.
Happy studying, everyone!

[nagoyana]

I am still working on my French, but my studies been slow-going for some days...
At least I did finish learning all unknown (or half-known) words from the vocabulary lists of the textbook we are using during my French classes.
(Which, however, have been cancelled due to the current Corona-situation.)

Corona-induced social distancing is also the reason why I should have even more time on my hands at the moment, but as of late I have been feeling a bit less motivated than before.
Bored by too much Assimil and grammar and vocabulary and not enough content probably

So basically, I am currently giving myself a short break from vocabulary (I have to prepare a new list to base my wordlists on anyways).
And I kind of gave myself a short break from Assimil already

The sad reality is that the only thing I have been doing consistently this past week is grammar
(So yes, it is official now, I am one of those strange learners who actually like their grammar.)

Speaking of grammar, I am loving the intermediate volume of Grammaire Progressive so far. The texts in the tasks seem way more natural to my untrained eyes (and they are a lot more interesting for sure!) than in the first book. And I am constantly encountering new nuances of grammar points that I might have known at some point or that I just reviewed in the Débutant volume.
I can actually imagine myself getting the next part of the series in preparation for future French studies – but only after my test in Mai

All in all, since I needed something French to do instead of first Assimil and then vocabulary, I started reading again. As of today, I am at around the halfway point of the third Alanna book. I have been reading (and enjoying myself) completely without referring to the German translation, which means that I am already insanely proud of myself
So the mix will probably include more reading for the time being. I have Harry Potter lying around as well, after all...

Oh, and did I mention that I finished Tamora Pierce’s newest book Tempests and Slaughter in... 3 days? In English though since it is not yet available in any of my other languages. It was a great book nonetheless and I can’t wait for the next volume.

Not much to tell on the remaining-languages-front. I have been reading a bit of Korean and Japanese almost every day, but especially in Japanese I am way behind my reading goals for the current year. Too much French!
A good friend of mine sent me a box of books (and sweets!) from Japan, though, so maybe I’ll manage to read a bit more in the next weeks.

And while everything gets cancelled at the moment (I am kind of worrying about my test), I might as well think about getting the Korean Grammar in Use books for a spurt of Korean – after French or in case I get a French overload...

In the meantime, good health to all of you and happy language learning as always!

Edit: Typos

[nagoyana]

Behind again on any kind of plan to update this log more often. Oh well, at least this fits with my general problem in terms of sticking to routines recently...
Which is why I have to repeat myself in saying that I have not been doing as much as I would have liked – but what is interesting is that while I still have a long way to go (and am fighting with what feels like a serious overdose of French), I have the feeling that I am getting somewhere.

One reason is that I can see the end of Assimil (at lesson 92 at the moment). And of the intermediate level of Grammaire Progressive (just finished chapter 51 – my head is full of subjonctif phrases...).
And I can feel that dreaded French test coming ever closer :O Best not to think about it... *repeats to herself*

As always, I have been tinkering with what I am doing to study for the last weeks. And I have cut 50% of my vocabulary time in favour of more or less intensive reading. One reason is that I needed a source of new vocabulary anyways after I had finished the lists in my textbook and another that there is only so much focused vocabulary work I can stomach.
I reviewed around 2 000 words before I started tinkering, which, together with the fact that the complete textbook vocab list contained about 3 500 words, leads me to estimate my passive vocabulary at between 3 500 and 4 000 words, currently.
I am still encountering between 5 and 7 unknown words per page of Harry Potter (although a large part of these are understandable from context and I am only forcing myself to notice and note them down for practice purposes). Come to think of it, that's 2-3% unknowns assuming 250 words per page. Anyways, it is a comfortable reading level for me

I did, by the way, finish all 4 Alanna books in French before I started HP – and it does feel very strange to have logged more pages read this year in French than in English or Japanese!

On another note, I decided that I needed to start speaking at the beginning of April and have been doing a language exchange once a week. Since we are doing French-English, I even get to de-rust my English as a nice side-effect.
I would love to say that my French works well enough – but it certainly doesn’t. At least I do understand most of what my exchange partner is telling me (making an effort to speak clear but not much slower than usual), but I have seldom felt less eloquent as when I am trying to string something together in response.
And yes, I know, that's the point of practising – but it's so HARD!

But enough ranting – I am learning and both still mostly enjoying myself (need to do more reading and less vocabulary!) as well as seriously worrying that my French is soon going to overtake my Korean.
Which, considering the respective time invested, would be shame.
Which probably signifies that I should study more Korean.
Which, however, is only my French overdose getting the best of me and in any case prohibited until after the test

In the meantime maybe someone has a good idea how to cure a French overdose with more French?
I'd love to hear any ideas but in the meantime I am going back to my books.

Happy language learning!

[lusan]

In the meantime maybe someone has a good idea how to cure a French overdose with more French?
I'd love to hear any ideas but in the meantime I am going back to my books.

Happy language learning!

Watch some French serial. I've done a couple and it has help a lot. Cheer!

[nagoyana]

Just dropping by to tell everyone that I finished Grammaire Progressive du Français Niveau Intermédiare.

Watch some French serial. I've done a couple and it has help a lot. Cheer!

Thank you for the tip. I think treating myself to some episodes of Star Trek (or maybe better Au service de la France ) is exactly what I am going to do now!

[lusan]

Thanks to mention au service de la france. I checked out in you tube is so funny. I will get them.

https://youtu.be/gg_bolSHYHQ?t=78