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

[philomath]

On Thursday I practiced speaking for 10 minutes. The speaking prompt I used was "S’il y avait une seule chose au monde que tu pouvais offrir à tes parents, ce serait quoi ?" While I spoke, I paused to look up phrases and write them down. I also wrote down some sentences that I said that I wasn't sure were grammatically correct. When I finished speaking, I wrote a paragraph on a similar topic and tried to use all of the phrases I'd looked up, as well as the sentences I wasn't sure about. Then I posted it on iTalki for corrections.

Today I had a 45-minute French lesson. It went pretty well! My French tutor just started learning German, so we talked about his study methods for a bit. I'm very interested to see how his German studies go, since it's the next language I want to learn. After my lesson I made 45 Anki flashcards.

[philomath]

Last week and this week I've been feeling a bit burnt out. I've just been super busy with work and studying for the graduate school admissions exam. Once I realized I was super behind on my French goals I lost motivation to keep working on them. :/ Perhaps five-week goals are a little bit too long? This time I'll try making shorter-term goals and see how well I do.

Goals for July 24 - August 16
[ ] Do 6 hours of listening practice.
[ ] Do Lessons 1-3 of the FSI French Phonology course.
[ ] Practice speaking for 3 hours.
[ ] Keep practicing conjugating verbs in the present tense, passé composé, imparfait, and futur simple. Also practice conjugating verbs in the present subjunctive and past subjunctive.
[ ] Make 150 flashcards.
[ ] Read for 3 hours.
[ ] Write 1,500 words.

As you can see, I've decided to go back to FSI French Phonology! I've been wanting to work on my accent lately and I think I'll start there. My first goal for later today is to catch up on my Anki reviews though! I'm about 200 flashcards behind.

[philomath]

These past few days I've just been catching up on my Anki reviews. I'd fallen so far behind! I had 180 flashcards today, but I'll only need to review 48 tomorrow, which is much more manageable.

[philomath]

Cette semaine j'étais très occupée. Je devais me réveiller tôt pour le travail et après le travail je me sentais très paresseuse. À cause de ça, je n'ai pas étudié le français. Aujourd'hui, j'ai eu une leçon avec mon prof de français. C'était ma première leçon depuis trois semaines. Je pensais que je ne pouvais pas parler très bien, donc je me sentais un peu triste. À la fin de la leçon, j'ai présenté mes excuses à mon prof pour ne pas avoir parlé bien. Par contre, il m'a dit que j'ai parlé très bien et qu'il peut me corriger moins souvent. Je pense que je devrais pratiquer la conversation seule pour être plus préparée la semaine prochaine.

[philomath]

I'm trying to get some of my motivation back... Today I reviewed my Anki flashcards, and then I took notes on the present subjunctive from Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar. Afterward I did the present subjunctive conjugation quiz on Conjuguemos. On my first try I got an 85% and on my second try I got a 93%, so I think I can mark that goal as complete. Of course, I need to practice using the subjunctive in conversation and writing some time.

[philomath]

Today I reviewed my Anki flashcards, and then I bought the audiobook and ebook versions of Le Petit Prince. Lately I haven't been very excited to read the French short story book that I bought. I think it's because in my head I don't view it as a "real" French book; it's just a beginner's book that I have to get through before I can read real novels in French. Then I realized I should just go ahead and read something I'm excited to read, even if it's more difficult. So Le Petit Prince seemed like a good place to start. Tonight I listened to the audio and read the first chapter three times. The first time I just listened straight through, the second time I listened on 0.75x speed and paused after each sentence to look up unknown words, and the third time I listened straight through at normal speed again. Without reading along I would've missed a lot of words, but there actually weren't many words that I didn't know.

[philomath]

Today I finished Lesson 1 of FSI French Phonology. Having studied French for a while now, this lesson was not very enlightening. However I still think it was good pronunciation practice. I also reviewed my Anki flashcards.

[philomath]

On Saturday I had another French lesson with my iTalki tutor. This lesson went a lot better than the one before. We talked about the new apartment I just moved into and his progress with German. I think I did a better job speaking since I'd studied French more that week.

Yesterday I listened to two episodes of the InnerFrench podcast during my commute. I want to study French more this week, but I've been so busy moving into my new apartment. On the plus side, I bought a new bookshelf for the apartment and now I have room for more language books!

This morning I caught up on Anki reviews: I had around 4 Spanish flashcards to review and 153 French flashcards. I'm a little bit worried about my Spanish skills deteriorating. Now when I review my Spanish flashcards I often pronounce the words with French pronunciation by accident, and a few times when I tried thinking in Spanish I got some words confused with French. I had reached a high enough level in Spanish that I'm pretty sure I'll never actually forget it, but maybe I should schedule in a Spanish review sometime? I'm worried that refreshing my Spanish will interfere with my French too much though. :/

[tungemål]

How long is it since you put Spanish on the shelf? I wouldn't worry, and just focus on French. When you get back to Spanish you'll pick it up again fast enough. In my experience even one year break shouldn't really be a problem.

...
I'm a little bit worried about my Spanish skills deteriorating. Now when I review my Spanish flashcards I often pronounce the words with French pronunciation by accident, and a few times when I tried thinking in Spanish I got some words confused with French. I had reached a high enough level in Spanish that I'm pretty sure I'll never actually forget it, but maybe I should schedule in a Spanish review sometime? I'm worried that refreshing my Spanish will interfere with my French too much though. :/

[eido]

I feel the language mixing bit.

Today I was fantasizing as I often do while I wait for something, and I was thinking how I’d translate important information for my job into Spanish.

The word “umbrella” was important in this particular situation—oddly enough. If I were to properly interpret, I’d need to know it, and I do, but the Korean word (우산 [usan]) came to mind in place of it. I think, as my Spanish tutor has been drilling into me from day one, it’s all about consistency of practice and patience.

I think a comprehensive review would do you good! It might help solidify any remaining Q&A.