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

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

Postby guyome » Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:47 pm

Juste quelques suggestions:
philomath wrote:Je pouvais passer des heures là-bas à regarder tous les livres. (...) j'ai toujours remarqué que les livres en français avaient l'air différent des livres en anglais.

philomath wrote:Donc je me demande comment les lecteurs français choisissent un livre quand toutes les couvertures se ressemblent.
Je n'avais jamais vraiment pensé à la différence entre les couvertures des livres anglais et français :D C'est vrai que celles des livres français sont peut-être plus sobres...J'avoue que je préfère ça parce que s'il y a une photo sur la couverture, c'est plus difficile pour moi de m'imaginer les personnages ou les lieux comme je le voudrais. L'image de la couverture s'impose.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:27 am

Today I listened to Episode 9 of the InnerFrench podcast. For the most part I listened without reading the transcription, but once in a while I checked the transcription if I was curious about a particular word. Then I made 23 new Anki cards and reviewed my old ones. The new Anki cards that I made were either from vocab I'd written down in my French notebook or from corrections I received on my writing. For example one card was for the phrase "C'est dommage" and another was a cloze deletion card that said "Je suis contente d'avoir trouvé la réponse à ma question".

Finally I practiced conjugating verbs using Conjuguemos. I still have trouble with irregular -ir verbs and -re verbs, so I definitely need to practice more.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Tue Jun 30, 2020 4:36 am

I had to work this weekend, so I didn't get much done aside from watching another episode of The Circle: France. Tonight I watched another episode and read a short story from French Short Stories for Beginners.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Thu Jul 02, 2020 4:32 am

Today I practiced speaking French, but I only spoke for three minutes before running out of things to say. It probably didn't help that my boyfriend was in the same room as me, so I felt self-conscious about talking to myself. I thought I might speak more if I pretended to be having a conversation with someone instead of giving a monologue about a random topic, so I tried that later. I spoke for six minutes but then I got interrupted. So I need to find some time to practice speaking French without interruptions!

I also practiced conjugating French verbs in the present tense on the website Conjuguemos. I did a lot better than last time! I should move on to the passé composé and imparfait soon.
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Fri Jul 03, 2020 1:04 am

Today I practiced speaking French for 15 minutes. I tried to pretend I was having a conversation, but it felt too unnatural. I need to listen to more French conversations to learn the phrases people say when making small talk. I'm sure my iTalki tutor can help me with that too. I haven't had a lesson with him in around three weeks, I think, so I'm looking forward to my lesson on Saturday.

I also read a blog post in French. I just Googled "Comment j'ai appris l'anglais" because I like reading blogs about languages, and I found a blog called "Cups of English Tea". It took me 45 minutes to read the whole post because I kept looking up grammar and words, but I think I learned a lot! For example, I learned the "ne _ que" construction for "only", e.g., "On n’a qu’une heure d’anglais par semaine", and I learned the word "malgré". I made a list of interesting words and phrases in my French notebook so I can make flashcards later.
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby DaveAgain » Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:50 am

philomath wrote:
I also read a blog post in French. I just Googled "Comment j'ai appris l'anglais" because I like reading blogs about languages, and I found a blog called "Cups of English Tea". It took me 45 minutes to read the whole post because I kept looking up grammar and words, but I think I learned a lot! For example, I learned the "ne _ que" construction for "only", e.g., "On n’a qu’une heure d’anglais par semaine", and I learned the word "malgré". I made a list of interesting words and phrases in my French notebook so I can make flashcards later.
Two videos I've watched where french people discussed their language learning are:
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Jul 05, 2020 5:48 am

Today I had a lesson with my French tutor. This was my 20th lesson with him! We started talking about Independence Day in the United States and then we talked about Anki. Apparently he's trying to collect some data on how many of his students use Anki and how well their Anki usage corresponds to their French progress. He wants to review my Anki statistics every week. Lately I've been slacking on my flashcard reviews, but I think this will motivate me to keep up with them! Today I had over 200 flashcards to review.

I also asked my French tutor for some suggestions on how I can improve my speaking when I practice by myself, and he gave me a list of topics to talk about. He also recommended I use a speech-to-text software to transcribe my speaking so I can look for grammatical mistakes later. I'm excited to try that next time I practice speaking.
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Jul 05, 2020 5:54 pm

Today I was most behind on my grammar and vocabulary goals, so I practiced verb conjugations using Conjuguemos for around 30 minutes. I did the quizzes for the present tense and the passé composé, and I kept retaking them until I got over 80% correct in each one. I would've liked to get 100%, but I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far.

Next I made 25 Anki flashcards from words I'd written down in my French notebook. I'd like to start making more cloze deletion cards rather than regular French-on-the-front/English-on-the-back cards. Before, I was having trouble finding good example sentences to use, but I think from now on I'll use Linguee.

Later I want to do some speaking practice, but it's really hard finding a quiet place in my apartment where I can speak French without feeling embarrassed. I'm moving in August though, so I only have to get through the next month!
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:30 am

Another update from today: I practiced speaking for five minutes, using the speech-to-text feature in Google Docs. It worked pretty well, but I'm not sure if it was actually helpful. I think it may be easier and more useful for me to pause when I don't know how to say something, write down what I want to say, and later look up how to say it. Or I might try recording myself and taking notes from the recording afterward about what I struggled with.

I also wrote 202 words and posted my writing on iTalki for corrections. That's all for today! :)
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Re: Amanda's 2020 Log: Spanish, French, and Occasionally Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:02 am

Today I studied French grammar for 20 minutes. I did the imparfait quiz on Conjuguemos until I got a score of at least 80%. I also reviewed the present tense. I'm still having trouble with some of the irregular verbs, but overall I think I'm doing pretty well.

I also watched an episode and a half of The Circle: France. I wanted to write down some vocab words from the subtitles and make Anki flashcards, but I didn't see any words that I really wanted to learn at the moment. Instead, I made five flashcards based on writing corrections I received on iTalki. Then I made 10 flashcards from a frequency list I found on Wiktionary. I scrolled down to the 500th word or so and made cloze deletion flashcards using sentences I found on Linguee. I should do that more often.
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