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

[jackb]

Jan 15
Kwiziq: 30 miinutes

Jan 16
Inner French #18: 40 minutes
Assimil 62, 64 30 minutes

The 15th was a long day of working at home so I had to really find the time to do kwiziq. Assimil is starting to pick up speed and it isn't too troubling to me. I would like for there to be a coherent story to follow. Oh well. Lesson 63 is a review so I just read it once and not re-reading it. It was a nice refresher but the info on kwiziq is better.

[jackb]

Jan 17
Kwiziq: 45 miinutes
Assimil 64, 65, 66 40 minutes

Jan 18
Inner French #19: 40 minutes
Assimil 65, 66, 67 30 minutes

Jan 19
Kwiziq: 30 miinutes
Inner French #21: 40 minutes
Balades #?: 15 minutes


Jan 20
Inner French #22: 40 minutes
Radio Foot International Podcast: 30 minutes
Assimil 66, 67, 68 30 minutes

I did a lot more listening today and yesterday. The inner French episode was weird for me. Normally, I can understand the podcast pretty well, but in this one Hugo reads an excerpt from the Horla by Maupassant. I had a really hard time for the first section of it. Not sure what is was, but I need to mix it up. So I decided to add a Balades and Radio Foot Internationale podcast.

The RFI podcast was very cool. There were 3 people talking about international football. Between everyone talking at the same time and the African/Spanish accents it was tough to follow. It felt like drinking from a fire hose, but I'm going to listen to it periodically.

Kwiziq has been giving me completely new stuff the last couple of days. It's slowed my pace considerably. Up to this point, everything has been grammar structures I have seen elsewhere. I just didn't know the rules.

[joecleland]

I think you're at the perfect level to start focusing on grammar. You're not far from where I left off using Assimil. At that point, I started to get burnt out, but I felt it was because I was using Assimil as a main resource. I like that you're using multiple sources to widen your exposure. On iTalki a tutor suggested https://www.emdl.fr/fle/espace-virtuel/ to use for learning French. You can select A1-C2 level, respectively. The site and its content is completely in French and used to create immersion. It may be a little tricky in the beginning but after a couple lessons it has become very fun. It does cost 25 euros a year or 2-3 euros a month for subscription.

Basically, it's broken down like a magazine. You will read about different topics, which some may be boring, but you watch small clips, answer questions, and have the ability to highlight words you don't know and it gives the definition in French and your native language if you enable. My tutor has the teacher version so after our lessons as homework I have to do the worksheet or answer questions and when I click submit, it sends my result to him which we correct in the next lesson.

I would say it's comparable to a good workbook but with the video clips, sound clips, and ability to highlight words and hear the word pronounced by a native makes me think the purchase is worth it! Also, its exercises are in line for those wanting to climb the DELF scale.

[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.

[jackb]

I think you're at the perfect level to start focusing on grammar. You're not far from where I left off using Assimil. At that point, I started to get burnt out, but I felt it was because I was using Assimil as a main resource. I like that you're using multiple sources to widen your exposure. On iTalki a tutor suggested https://www.emdl.fr/fle/espace-virtuel/ to use for learning French. You can select A1-C2 level, respectively. The site and its content is completely in French and used to create immersion. It may be a little tricky in the beginning but after a couple lessons it has become very fun. It does cost 25 euros a year or 2-3 euros a month for subscription.

Basically, it's broken down like a magazine. You will read about different topics, which some may be boring, but you watch small clips, answer questions, and have the ability to highlight words you don't know and it gives the definition in French and your native language if you enable. My tutor has the teacher version so after our lessons as homework I have to do the worksheet or answer questions and when I click submit, it sends my result to him which we correct in the next lesson.

I am doing grammar with kwiziq. It was much more fun when the grammar points were things that I had already seen reading or listening other sources. Now that it's mostly new, it's a bit of a slog. I'm going to push through because I think it's really helping me in my reading comprehension. It's a 'seat of my pants' kind of evaluation, but it just feels like it.

I'm actually liking Assimil more. I'm not using it as intensely as some others (or you may have). With kwiziq grammar, it is more comprehensible upon first read and a review of the previously covered points.

Thanks for the pointer to espace-virtuel. I'll check it out, though my language learning budget is basically zero after kwiziq.

[jackb]

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.

Thanks for the link to the channel. I watched part of the first one and it's pretty good (and fast!!). I've added it to my list. I generally listen to audio only so I don't have to be in front of a computer. That way I can do it in the car during my commute or walking the dog.

[jackb]

Third post of the day!!!

Jan 21
Inner French #23: 40 minutes
Assimil 67, 68, 69 40 minutes

Jan 22
Inner French #24: 40 minutes
Kwiziq 45 minutes
Assimil 68, 69, 70 40 minutes

I'm feeling a little loopy from all the kwiziq. Today and yesterday was a lot of Passé Composé vs L'Imparfait. When to use which one. This is a question I've always had. Reading tenses generally isn't a problem. I can recognize them, but I had no idea how/when to use which. I still kinda don't, but I'm getting better.

I do 3 lessons a day, adding a new one every day. So I get each lesson 3 times before I'm finished. It may not be enough, but I plan on doing a lot of reading after finish Assimil.

I may be Assimilling wrong, but here is how I do it.

1. Listen to the lesson 5 or 6 times. On the first day, I just want to be able to listen and understand what is being said. The second day, I repeat what is said and note the things that aren't quite clear. I also try to hear the song of the phrases/dialog. The third day I listen and repeat. Shadowing doesn't quite work for me. I seem to only be able to listen OR speak, not both.

2. Read the lessons. Read the lessons aloud forward and backward. By backward, I mean reading from the end of the lesson to the beginning. I generally read them 3 or 4 times and do the exercises. On the last day of study of a lesson, I try translate the lesson from English to French.

3. Read and Speak. I try to read along with the audio recording. I don't worry about being perfect or right on in terms of pace. I just do it a couple of times until I'm satisfied.

Reading this back it looks weird. It makes sense to me because I do them at 3 different times of the day. I do #1 on my commute. It's usually 60 minutes one way so I have plenty of time. I read the lessons in the evening and #3 I try to do before I go to sleep.

OK. I'm done babbling. If you made it this long, thanks for reading.

[jackb]

Jan 23
Inner French #25: 40 minutes
Assimil 69, 71, 40 minutes

Jan 24
Inner French #26: 40 minutes
Kwiziq 45 minutes
Assimil 71, 72 40 minutes

Jan 25
Inner French #27: 40 minutes
Kwiziq: 20 minutes
Pronunciation practice: 40 minutes

Jan 26
Kwiziq: 30 minutes
Pronunciation practice: 60 minutes

Jan 27
Assimil 71, 72, 73
Inner French #28: 40 minutes
Kwiziq: 15 minutes

Jan 28
Assimil 72, 73, 74
Inner French #29: 50 minutes
kwiziq: 15 minutes

It's been a while since I posted. Mostly just more of the same. I took a couple of days off of Assimil this weekend to take another look at pronunciation. Assimil kicked the speed and new vocabulary up a notch and it felt like I was missing words that I should know. I figured if I work on my pronunciation, I'll be able to identify the words better.

I watched you tube videos from 3 users; LRC Michigan (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoEref ... qNIVaCy0xA), FrenchSounds (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2L9w7 ... w5ZjUPCOQA) and Learning with Alexa (https://www.youtube.com/user/learnfrenchwithalexa).

I tried to concentrate on the difference between two pairs of sounds [ɑ̃] --[ɔ̃] and [ø] -- [œ]. It was interesting to say the least. The UofM videos were really good with mouth/lip positioning but frenchsounds is good at explaining tongue position with her hand. It was fun. I'll continue to do them periodically. I really need to spend more time learning the IPA.

[jackb]

Jan 29
Assimil 73, 74, 75: 40 minutes
kwiziq: 30 minutes

Jan 30
Assimil 74, 75, 76: 30 minutes
kwiziq: 30 minutes

Jan 31
kwiziq: 30 minutes

Feb 1
Assimil 74, 75, 76: 60 minutes
kwiziq: 30 minutes

January is in the books. I'm happy I made it through the month without much of a problem. I decided that I need to buckle down and finish Assimil. It got tougher this week so I've been concentrating on it. I just might be able to finish it in Feb.

I'm kind of itching to get to some reading. Right now, I'm leaning to reading a some stuff out of my local library. I think they have some Tin Tin or Petit Nicolas. There's plenty of time to change so who knows.

[jackb]

Jan 29
Assimil 75, 76,77: 45 minutes
kwiziq: 30 minutes

I’m up to 80% on A2 in Kwiziq. Conjugate much? I don’t think I would be able to do all of the conjugations if I was doing this another way. I’m thinking of doing some review before I go into b1 material.