Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

[philomath]

Can't help so here are my corrections:
Ce matin je me suis levé(e) a (à) six heures, j'ai mangé, et j'ai pris le métro au travail. Quand je suis arrivée au travail, j'ai acheté un café et aprés (après) j'ai commencé à travailler. J'ai travaillé dans le laboratoire pendant trois heures, et aprés (après) je suis allée a (à) une réunion avec des collègues. Aprés (Après) la reunion (réunion), mes collègues et moi, on est allé (allés)a (à) la cafétéria pour dejeuner (déjeuner). A une heure, j'ai rentré (je suis rentrée) au labo avec une collègue et on a travaillé jusqu'à six heures. Ensuite, je suis partie du travail et je suis allée au gym (à la gym). Là j'ai fait de l'exercise (exercice) pendant quarante minutes. Aprés le gym (Après la gym), j'ai pris une douche et j'ai rentré (je suis rentrée) chez moi. J'ai fait du français pendant une heure et je me suis couchée a (à) onze heures. Ç'était (c'était sans ç)un jour très bon (un très bon jour).

Nice to see that you are working in a lab, are you doing some research?

Thank you for the corrections! I definitely need to work on my spelling some more.
And yes, I work in a lab. It’s a process development position at a pharmaceutical company, so I do a lot of work with bioreactors.

[cmia11]

Nice! I'm more into physics stuff personally. Looking forward to see how you continue to work on your languages

[philomath]

I was busier than expected this week and did not end up doing much French at all. I had more free time yesterday, but I'm visiting my parents and didn't want to be rude by spending the whole time learning French (though they support my efforts ). Here is what I accomplished this week:

Goals for January 20 to January 26

Spanish
[X] Continue reading Harry Potter y la cámara secreta.
[X] Write two more journal entries in Spanish.

French
[X] Do one hour of listening practice (innerFrench podcast, French Netflix, etc.).
[ ] Practice speaking for 30 minutes.
[ ] Finish Colloquial French Chapter 4 and start Chapter 5.
[ ] Do Pimsleur French I Lessons 15-18.
[ ] Make a list of important verbs in French and practice conjugating them.
[ ] Schedule another iTalki lesson.
[ ] Write 250 words.

Accomplished

Spanish
- Read 15 pages of Harry Potter y la cámara secreta.
- Wrote three journal entries in Spanish, totaling 868 words.

French
- Did one hour of listening practice.
- Practiced speaking for 6 minutes.
- Did Pimsleur French I Lessons 15-16.
- Wrote 144 words.

So I didn't accomplish most of my French goals, but that's okay. Some weeks I'm more interested in pursuing my other projects, like the novel I want to write. I don't think I should stress too much about not learning French because that will make me burn out faster.

Anyway, I'm proud of myself for doing so much journaling in Spanish this week! Journaling is important to me because I want to keep a record of my life, especially at an important time like this when I've just graduated from university and started my first job. Sometimes it's hard to journal in Spanish because I need to write around phrases that I don't know. Yesterday I wanted to write "I was nervous to introduce my coworkers to him" and it was frustrating that I didn't know how to write that. I knew how to say "Estaba nerviosa" but I wasn't sure what word to use after--para? por? sobre? Also, I had heard the verb "presentar" used in sentences such as "Te presento a mi novio" but I wasn't sure how to use it in other ways. If any Spanish speakers are reading my log, does this sentence make sense?: "Estaba nerviosa por presentarles a mis compañeros de trabajo a él."

I've been keeping a list in my phone of the phrases and sentences that I get stuck on Spanish. Then when I have time I can post them on iTalki for help.

(Edited because I wrote the second to last paragraph in a rush and scrambled what I meant to say. )

[philomath]

Goals for January 27 to February 2

Spanish
[ ] Continue reading Harry Potter y la cámara secreta.
[ ] Write at least two more journal entries in Spanish.

French
[ ] Do 2 hours of listening practice.
[ ] Finish Colloquial French Chapter 4 (which I'm more than halfway done with).
[ ] Do Colloquial French Chapters 5-6.
[ ] Do some more Pimsleur French I lessons if there's time.
[ ] Make a list of important verbs in French and practice conjugating them.
[ ] Make a list of spelling errors that I keep making.
[ ] Practice speaking and/or writing in French during three different sessions.

As you can see, I'm really eager to complete Colloquial French, and even prioritizing it over Pimsleur this week. I don't know why I was feeling bored of it a couple of weeks ago. I think it's hard for me to go through a language book with the mindset that I don't need to memorize every single phrase and sentence, but I'm trying to get into that mindset. I'll just make French --> English Anki flash cards for the sentences in each dialogue and do the exercises in the book without worrying about writing them down. I think it's important for me to finish Colloquial French soon so I can move on to more advanced resources and native materials.

Also, I think I should stop making monthly goals. It's too hard to plan specific goals a month in advance, and whenever I make weekly goals I find myself looking at the monthly ones to make sure they match up. But what if I've changed my mind about what I should be doing? I don't like leaving goals incomplete, but sometimes my monthly goals are no longer what I should be striving for. Next month maybe I'll write a little bit about the overall direction I want to go in, but I won't give myself really specific goals like X lessons or X words written.

[philomath]

I haven't had much time for French yet this week. But today I did a little bit of Clozemaster during my commute, and I also started studying French conjugations. I wrote out the present tense and imperfect tense of common verbs such as aller, devoir, faire, etc. I hadn't studied the French imperfect yet, but it seems very regular so far! So that's really nice.

While I was visiting my parents last weekend, I found a copy of Modern French Grammar: A Practical Guide in my old bedroom. I vaguely remember my Spanish teacher giving it to me when she found out I was interested in French too. I'll have to let her know that I'm finally studying it! We spent a lot of time after classes discussing different foreign languages; she herself has studied a lot and last I heard was starting Russian.

Anyway, this book seems more interesting than Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar. Maybe I'll take it to work with me for some light reading on the train?

[philomath]

Ugh, I'm definitely experiencing some burnout. This week I had a lot to do at work, and I was stressed out after work because I want to take an engineering certification exam and I haven't been studying for it enough. I don't need the certification for my work, but I would like to have it anyway. So I haven't felt like studying French much lately.

[philomath]

I’m on a business trip this week, my first one ever! On the flight here I finished Harry Potter y la cámara secreta. Time for book 3!

[philomath]

I was very busy last week because of the business trip I went on, so I didn't study French aside from doing Anki reviews. Tonight, however, I finally finished Colloquial French Chapter 4! I have an iTalki lesson with my French tutor tomorrow and I'm nervous that my French is rusty. I have to do a better job of studying consistently. This week I will try to study French every day, and I will post daily updates here to keep myself motivated.

[philomath]

On Monday I had a 45-minute French lesson with my iTalki tutor. Compared to our other lessons, this one wasn’t great. It had been a long time since our last lesson, I was tired from working and making dinner, and he kept pushing me to elaborate on what I said in French, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know enough words. It was frustrating, but it made me more motivated to study French! During the past couple of weeks I started to feel burnt out, but now I want to start studying again. I just need to find the time.

[philomath]

Wednesday night was a productive night for French. I'd been feeling like my pronunciation needed work, so I did Lesson 17 of Pimsleur French I. Then I reviewed all of my Anki flash cards and wrote 151 words about my day, which I posted on iTalki for corrections. Finally I listened to episode 2 of the InnerFrench podcast.

Last week I was burnt out, but now I want to make goals for myself again. This weekend is a long weekend because of President's Day on Monday, so here are my goals for the next three days:

Spanish
[ ] Continue reading Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban.
[ ] Write another journal entry.

French
[ ] Listen to another episode of the InnerFrench podcast.
[ ] Do Lessons 18-19 of Pimsleur French I.
[ ] Do Colloquial French Chapter 5.
[ ] Review iTalki notebook entries and write down common errors that I've made.
[ ] Write two more notebook entries.