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

[jackb]

Hello March!

I February was kind of tough for me in a non-language study way so I dropped my posting. The first couple of weeks, I was just on automatic pilot and doing what I had done for January. I soon realized that the quantity of study during that time was good, but the quality wasn't. I decided to repeat the lessons and do them right.

I think this is one of the good things about learning a language on my own. I have to continually evaluate what and how I'm doing. It's making the process slower, but it may prove helpful for any other language I decide to study.

The last half of the month went better. I'm reading random twitter feeds in French and I am understanding more. News feeds are more comprehensible than normal people's, but less interesting.

I'm on lesson 95 with Assimil and 92% kwiziq score for A2 material. Less than 20 lessons to go to finish Assimil! I'm on the look out for books to read when I finish it. Still not sure what my next step will be.

The prospect of speaking to a person kind of freaks me out, so I'm just not doing it On the bright side, some French words just fall out of my mouth sometimes.

[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.

[jackb]

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.

Thanks for the recommendation! My local library has a few in the series. They are definitely on my list. I'm probably going to just read all of the elementary books they have in the library. They have a number of Tin Tin and others. I'm anxious to read something with a story. The short Assimil blurbs are getting old.

Today I read through lesson 97 (revision). It was pretty meaty and included a bit on subjunctive. I'm going to struggle with that on on kwizik!.

[jackb]

Still going it at it. I'm slowing down to really get the most of the last dozen lessons. They have gotten noticeably longer and faster. Kwiziq progress has stalled. I'm still at 92% and I'm spending less time on it than I had in the past. Part of it is because of the time is going to finishing Assimil and part of it is just frustration.

As the days get longer here the kids activities were really starting to kick into gear. Still haven't missed a day though!!

[jackb]

It's been a while since I posted. I still haven't missed a day.

Yesterday I finished Assimil French!!!!!

My next step was to read all of the French books in the library, but I've had to change due the closure of the libraries. I'm going to go back to Inner French and other podcasts. I plan to do listening and reading separately, but I'm not sure if that will work out.

During the 'social distancing', we've been keeping the kids busy with cleaning and yard projects. One of the books they found was an old 'French without Toil'. Not sure when or how I acquired it, but i think I'm going to read it NOT 'study it'. The language is noticeably different and the pace looks faster.

I recently realized that I haven't checked in to the challenge scoring thread.

If you are reading this, I hope you are safe.

[quasimind]

InnerFrench seems to be pretty popular. I really like that guy. He speaks super clearly and slowly. But I don't think it's too representative of the real French speakers who zip through like crazy.
I've also used Assimil, some grammar books (grammaire progressive du français), and Schaum's outline of French vocabulary, amongst other things. The upside to having a lot of time on my hands.

[jackb]

InnerFrench seems to be pretty popular. I really like that guy. He speaks super clearly and slowly. But I don't think it's too representative of the real French speakers who zip through like crazy.

I use his podcasts because of the pace and the availability of a transcript. I listen to InnerFrench intensively, meaning I look up every word or phrase I didn't catch. I try to write down the time of when I miss something and look it up later when I read through the transcript. I also listen without the transcript. I listen extensively to podcasts intended for native speaking audience (Radio Foot International, Le Tchip, etc).

I find that kwiziq hits the grammar I miss. Although it gets frustrating in the 95% area and I find I do it less.

[jackb]

I'm still here. I missed a day though, Friday April 3rd.

That week was rough as I was finished with Assimil, and was kind of wondering around (language wise), not really sure what my daily studying would feel like.

It took some fiddling, but I back in my groove. I started putting all of the sentences I get wrong in kwizik into Studies, My flash card app of choice. I don't add rules, just example sentences illustrating the rule. I'm in the B1 material and it is definitely more complex. Use of passer, qui/que, etc have been things that have stumped me when I've come across them. Also, I have all of my cards are first displayed in English and I have to produce the French. I realized this was painful for me, so I continued.

I'm still listening to at least 1 podcast a day. It depends on my mood. My favorites so far are:
RFI Grand Reportage
Kiffe ta race
Le Tchip
le monde devant soi

I got tired of the language learning podcasts and starting listening to stuff that interests me. I'm not picking up as much as I like, but it will get better, I hope. If there is something I partially catch and it bothers me, I'll look it up and add it to my flash cards.

The only thing I think I need to add it more posting here. I feel like I make better use of my time when I post more. I guess it's just thinking about learning helps learning.

[jackb]

I'm still working through kwiziq b1 material, 55% or so. I still have some more new stuff to get to before they ratchet up the difficulty. The flash cards are definitely helping.

I stumbled on a phrasebook using the top 2000 words or something. Some of the phrases were weird. It's like the writer goes through hoops to use all of the words. It was started to bug me. I looked at it for a couple of weeks, but I've decided to drop it. I started to feel bad about it, but I'm not doing this to finish books.

My podcasts have taken a turn. They must have gone through all of their prepared episodes because the last few have been produced from their homes. They obviously aren't together and the quality is noticeably worse, almost like calls on a radio show. It was really hard to listen to as my comprehension seems to have hit the floor. It can only help....right?

I've really be missing reading over the last few weeks so I ordered a 4 books; La Ligne Verte, Joyland, Crime de L'Orient Express, and Le Meutre de Roger Ackroyd. I haven't read any of them, but I know they are all good stories from prolific authors people seem to love. Hopefully this works out.

Stay safe and healthy!

[jackb]

So I did a thing.... I registered for the Super Challenge!!!

I really had no intention of doing it because I thought it was something for better language learners than I am. I was swayed by iguanamon's post. It basically gives the history of the challenge and why it exists:

A long time ago, on a forum that once was home for many of us, Cristina came up with the Super Challenge in order to spur self-learners into consuming native material and to stop over-reliance on learner-intended material. There was a perennial question at the time- "What do I do after Assimil?" "How do I learn with native materials?" The turth of learning a language to a high level is that structure can be a self-learner's best friend up to a point and then the law of diminishing returns kicks in when learner-intended material begins to have less impact.

The answers to those questions are usually short and curt- "Start reading, Start listening"... but to many people accustomed to having structured learning there was no guidance.

I realized that this basically describes me at my current level and that I should just go for it. I'm a little nervous because of the pace, but I can merge the 366 Day and Super Challenges together pretty easily. I think they will reinforce each other. I tend to get hooked on books and TV shows.

For resources, I'm planning on just reading the books/authors I wanted to read just in French. I've already gotten some Stephen King and Agatha Christie on the way so that should hold me for the month or so. After that I'll probably continue on with those authors, but only if I like them. I also plan on carrying over my normal reading rule. Keep reading a book until you are 100 pages in before deciding 'it's not for me'.

For the movie portion, I'm going to watch the Simpsons and Clone Wars on Disney Plus. I've seen most of the Clone Wars episodes, but I haven't seen very many Simpsons episodes. All 30 years is on Disney Plus, so I can crank though a bunch. After that I'm sure I'll end up watching Buffy. I've been a fan since it was on regular TV, so why not?

Thank you iguanamon and Cristina (who and where ever you are!).