Who's on First? (Jack's French Log)

[willfr]

Day 5
kwiziq: 45 minutes
Inner French #14 – Comment créer le héros parfait: 40 minutes
I did a couple of the old weekend workouts and I think they will be helpful for me. Each workout has a writing practice for each level.

Day 6
kwiziq: 90 minutes
Français Facile podcast: 20 minutes (listening and reading)

Day 7
kwiziq: 90 minutes

I got it in my head to get 100% in A0 and A1. I finished A0 on Monday (Day 6) and A1 today (Day 7). Man, the quizzes really do hammer you. I got close multiple times only to miss one question, requiring several more quizzes to get to the elusive 100%. It was very frustrating, but after doing it, I feel like I know the information much better.

The bottom line is that I like kwiziq more than I expected. It is also linking up to Assimil nicely.

We are following a similar path as I’m also using Kwiziq and listening to Inner French. Your Kwiziq progress is impressive as getting to 100% is really tricky the moment you give an incorrect (or ´nearly’ ) answer!

I look forward to reading more about your progress.

[golyplot]

As a beginner in French, I watched the Youtube channel Joueur du grenier, which I really liked. Notably, I found the videos entertaining to watch even when I could barely understand them, since there's still the visuals (especially with the older videos, that don't have so many skits and are more VG focused), which made it easier to keep watching and build up my listening comprehension skills over time.

Also, I think videos are generally better for learning than pure audio, because the visuals help you build up a scaffold of meaning.


Here's an example JDG video. Skip to six minutes in to get to the actual gameplay.

[jeffers]

I'm on the look out for books to read when I finish it. Still not sure what my next step will be.

I absolutely recommend Le petit Nicolas and Les récrés du Petit Nicolas. The whole series is great, but I recommend those two because they have the best audiobooks. What I did was to listen to audiobooks through 3-4 times before beginning reading the books. The voice on the original CD is great (if a bit fast), but Benoît Poelvoorde's rendition on Les récrés is now the voice of Nicolas in my head.

When you have just finished Assimil etc, you will probably find parts of it a bit difficult. It has the advantage of consisting of short stories, so that they can be read in short bursts or long, and of being quite amusing, so that they can be read again and again.

EDIT: I read these on Kindle because the ability to quickly look up a word allows me to get a good flow of reading even if the book would ordinarily be above my level.

[jeffers]

Welcome to the Super Challenge! It sounds like a huge amount, but actually it is only 8.5 pages reading per day and 7.5 minutes watching per day!

When you get to Buffy, are you aware that there are fan-made French transcripts of the whole show? Several French learners have worked through the whole thing and said it did wonders for their comprehension. If I liked Buffy (sorry, not a fan) I would likely try watching and then reading each episode, and then it would count for the reading half of the challenge as well!

Also, since listening is allowed for the movie half, you could continue to use Inner French.


Edit: now that I've suggested the Buffy transcripts to you, I'm considering watching it myself! It's on Prime, I have Prime. Hmmm..... Edit again: Never mind, Prime only has English!

[todoslinguas]

Hi Jack,

I'm currently on a mission to be C1 by December. Fingers crossed. I read your log and you have some really good tips. I will check out the audiobooks with Le petit Nicolas. I'm also doing the Assimil series and I really like it. Its short format is easy to review several times a day when I'm not busy.

Do you happen to know of any native French podcasts or radio stations that include transcripts? I want to practice listening to people speak fast with slang or everyday language? Thanks. And good luck with your journey.

[jeffers]

I stumbled on a show called Déparages on Netflix. It's a French based show. I got kinda kicked in the face with the speed. The subtitles/cc didn't help much either, at least they're accurate. I think I'm going add this as a weekly watch. There are only 6 episodes. My plan at the moment is to work with the subtitles until I thoroughly understand it then watch it again. I figured out how to download the subtitles from Netflix and convert them in a usable format. Let's see how this goes.

Thanks for bringing this show to my attention. It looks good so I've added it to my list. The difficulty was finding it since Netflix (in the UK anyway) no longer shows the original names of most foreign shows. It is listed under the name "Inhuman Resources".

[Arnaud]

I got kinda kicked in the face with the speed.

The speed is normal but perhaps Eric Cantona's southern accent can be a problem if you're not used to it.

[mverse]

Hi jackb,

Nice journal! I'm also learning French. It's interesting that you went from extensive activities to more formal activities as I did the same thing and I've seen a few other users come to the same conclusions after doing mostly extensive activities in the beginning. I think the extensive activities made it easy for me to put time in everyday until I had the motivation and desire to do more intensive activities, so I don't regret it. I'll probably try to front load with more intensive activities for whatever language I learn after French though!

Also the music recommendation from earlier in your journal of Lous and the Yakuza is great! The other French speaking artist I know is Stromae which I totally recommend.

[overscore]

Et Manu Chao!



Aznavour, avec sous titres!

[MorkTheFiddle]

I realized that I don't have a French voice in my head. Not sure if that makes sense, but I'm going to give real shadowing a try.

Yes, this makes very good sense, actually. I've never tried shadowing, but that seems to be a good choice to try.