Willfr’s French Language Log
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:40 pm
Introduction
(Following advice from reineke, I’m pasting my first post here from https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=12166, to start my language log)
I have been learning french independently for a few years. I didn’t study it at school but I managed to pass DELF A2 - (though that’s based on a lack of good foundations) last year. At the start of this year I moved to France with my french partner but as my work is online, and entirely in English, I haven’t been exposed to french in the way I perhaps imagined. Every week I communicate in English much much more than French because of work. I’m also doing (distance) postgraduate study - again in English.
We don’t have friends where we live, so communicating in french is usually in shops, with my partners family when we visit them, and my partner will speak french to me but I’ll respond in English.
Almost one year on, I feel pretty embarrassed. My French has moved on a little but I still feel very uncomfortable producing written or spoken language. If I need to write an email, it always goes through deepl. Phone calls are still out of the question. Trips to the doctor require that I translate a script in deepl and then memorise it. In general, my approach to interactions is to nod and smile and hope that a question doesn’t come my way.
I feel trapped between cultures, having lost frequent touch with all of my English speaking friends back home but have failed to fill that gap with french acquaintances. As such, work and my partner are my only sources of communicating. And this is in English
My comprehension is pretty good. I can watch most french tv with a fairly good idea of what’s happening though radio is still a difficult.
I have accumulated many many different books on grammar, vocabulary, etc., signed up to Kwiziq, downloaded numerous apps and accumulated many many anki cards (I had to steep as everything I encountered was getting noted as card worthy), but these just seem to soothe my sense of discomfort for a couple of weeks before I start looking for something better. a few weeks ago I found a french teacher and set a goal of DELF B1 in 2020. She has been incredibly helpful but it’s only couple of hours a week.
She notes that there is a lot of very very basic stuff I’m still taxed by and wonders if my goal is right for me. That said, any test we do I usually come out at about A2, which she says is because my ability to understand - or at least appear to do so in DELF type questions - is good.
Reading so many articles about immersion, I feel that I have let myself down by not making more of the opportunity.
So, embarrassingly, here I am, in the home of French, with a french partner, trying to learn French, so I can continue my life in France, but not feeling I am making headway.
Soooo... following advice from many lovely people on my first post my plan this week is to focus on making time daily to work on French rather than simply think about it. One hour per day of grammar work (I’m still grappling with irregular -er verb endings for present indicative!) along with three hours of lessons with a teacher to build confidence for speaking.
(Following advice from reineke, I’m pasting my first post here from https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=12166, to start my language log)
I have been learning french independently for a few years. I didn’t study it at school but I managed to pass DELF A2 - (though that’s based on a lack of good foundations) last year. At the start of this year I moved to France with my french partner but as my work is online, and entirely in English, I haven’t been exposed to french in the way I perhaps imagined. Every week I communicate in English much much more than French because of work. I’m also doing (distance) postgraduate study - again in English.
We don’t have friends where we live, so communicating in french is usually in shops, with my partners family when we visit them, and my partner will speak french to me but I’ll respond in English.
Almost one year on, I feel pretty embarrassed. My French has moved on a little but I still feel very uncomfortable producing written or spoken language. If I need to write an email, it always goes through deepl. Phone calls are still out of the question. Trips to the doctor require that I translate a script in deepl and then memorise it. In general, my approach to interactions is to nod and smile and hope that a question doesn’t come my way.
I feel trapped between cultures, having lost frequent touch with all of my English speaking friends back home but have failed to fill that gap with french acquaintances. As such, work and my partner are my only sources of communicating. And this is in English
My comprehension is pretty good. I can watch most french tv with a fairly good idea of what’s happening though radio is still a difficult.
I have accumulated many many different books on grammar, vocabulary, etc., signed up to Kwiziq, downloaded numerous apps and accumulated many many anki cards (I had to steep as everything I encountered was getting noted as card worthy), but these just seem to soothe my sense of discomfort for a couple of weeks before I start looking for something better. a few weeks ago I found a french teacher and set a goal of DELF B1 in 2020. She has been incredibly helpful but it’s only couple of hours a week.
She notes that there is a lot of very very basic stuff I’m still taxed by and wonders if my goal is right for me. That said, any test we do I usually come out at about A2, which she says is because my ability to understand - or at least appear to do so in DELF type questions - is good.
Reading so many articles about immersion, I feel that I have let myself down by not making more of the opportunity.
So, embarrassingly, here I am, in the home of French, with a french partner, trying to learn French, so I can continue my life in France, but not feeling I am making headway.
Soooo... following advice from many lovely people on my first post my plan this week is to focus on making time daily to work on French rather than simply think about it. One hour per day of grammar work (I’m still grappling with irregular -er verb endings for present indicative!) along with three hours of lessons with a teacher to build confidence for speaking.