Bylan's French Beginnings

[Bylan]

Je suis content d'avoir le livre de Linguaphone. C'est très bien. Il a une histoire de une famille canadienne. Les Delon. La famille Delon va à Paris pour quelque semaine, e jaque leçon un membre de la famille parle de la vie en France. Paul, c'est le fils de la famille, il a 16 ans e il n'aime rien. Ah, ce n'est pas vrai. Il aime beaucoup les jeunes filles française.

Dans le quatrième leçon, Olivier, c'est le père, il va manger avec son ami, Jules. Ils disent que ils sont amis depuis très longtemps, mais je ne sais pas combien de temps, ou comment-est-que ils ont connu. Ce n'est pas important. Mais je crois que Olivier e Jules sont amis de l'école. Je dois continuer lire parce que je voudrais savoir!



After finishing Michel Thomas Foundation, I opted to do the review, which is essentially every single sentence or phrase he asks his students to produce, without the teaching or the mistakes. It boils down to two hours and I was able to do it with relative ease. I learned a lot from his course, and I look forward to doing the advanced course down the road.

I am still working through the first half-dozen lessons of Linguaphone, slowly but surely. I am still having a hard time internalizing conjugation paradigms, but every time I write something I seem to recall things a little bit quicker. I can certainly understand a great deal.

I flipped through the first few lessons of Assimil and found that not only can I now understand those first few lessons, but I know how to pronounce the text! That's a big level up for me. My pronunciation is still that of a beginner, but I know what the intended sound should be.

I also watched a French film, Dans la maison, which was an interesting film. I was able to pick out some whole sentences, and quite a few phrases. Things are moving along.

I'm still looking for a good podcast to sink my teeth into. Any and all recommendations are welcome!

My Progress:

Pimsleur 1 - Complete
Pimsleur 2 - Lesson 18 (50%)
Michel Thomas Foundation - Complete
Michel Thomas Foundation Review - Complete
French In Action - Lesson 9 (0%)
Linguaphone - Lesson 5 (20%)
Assimil - Lesson 5


I forgot to add that my Portuguese study has been very satisfying recently. I've been reading short stories by Luis Fernando Verissimo, and they're a great resource. I just purchased 1808, a history of the Portuguese court moving to Brazil, written in Portuguese by a Brazilian author. I was quite surprised that I could understand it, reading extensively with very little reference to a dictionary. There are many cognates and the writing is not incredibly idiomatic, but the narrative is compelling and the research seems quite solid. I almost want to start a Portuguese log on this website as well to talk about it. Oh well..

[Bylan]

Finalemente, j'ai un ami français! Je suis aller a une Meetup. Je vais demain aussi pour rencontre cet ami, et parler français, naturellement! Je vais parler beaucoup, beaucoup de français parce que j'ai l'opportunité maintenant.

Let's see, I've been keeping up with the studying, but time has been fleeting with my band doing a number of things (shows, recording preparation, writing, etc). I've been keeping up with Linguaphone and am on Lesson 8 now, and I've decided to go ahead and do Michel Thomas Advanced, which I'll be starting tonight on my commute home.

I went to two French meetups and I really surprised myself. I was able to speak! I could introduce myself, talk about what I do and how I learn French, why I learn French, and was able to ask questions of others. The first meetup was dominated by some fairly fluent speakers so I was happy to listen for the majority of the time - I was also pleasantly surprised that I was able to follow much of the conversations they had, often times getting more than just the gist. The second meetup I met a couple beginning learners like myself, and we had a great hour and half conversation, with a French native jumping in towards the end to help us all out. Looks like we might all go out for a beer to help the French guy acclimate to his new city.

As far as Portuguese goes, I'm really digging this 1808 book. The language is very readable and the content is fascinating. If you like history and Napoleon, and like learning flukes in history (the entire Portuguese court moved to Brazil to flee the French - an estimated 15,000 people - and not one of them died on the passage over), I highly recommend this book. In either the Portuguese original or the English Translation.

My Progress

Pimsleur 1 - Complete
Pimsleur 2 - Lesson 18
Michel Thomas Foundation - Complete
Michel Thomas Review - Complete
Michel Thomas Advanced - Chapter 1
French In Action - Lesson 9
Linguaphone - Lesson 8
Assimil - Lesson 5

[Bylan]

Bonjour mes amis! Il fait des temps que je n'ai écrit ici. Je continue étudier le français, mais je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps parce que mon groupe de musique est très active. Nous sommes allés dans un studio de musique à enregistrer quelques chansons.

J'ai rencontré une professeur de français. Elle m'enseigne une foi pour deux semaines, elle m'aide beaucoup.


It's been a while, I've been busy with my band and work. But I'm trying to study every day. I'm slowly working through Linguaphone, finally reached the past tense in both Linguaphone and Michel Thomas. The French teacher I met is great, she's a native who speaks decent English, and has many students in an office downtown. She is giving me the "musician's discount" because she is an artist and a dancer, which is very kind of her. She's starting me on a conversation textbook called "Intro - Méthode de français", which we are working quickly through to find my level. I'm not 100 percent sure this was what she said, but I believe she told me that I'm the only student she's ever had who's brought themselves to a conversational level completely on their own. So kudos to me, and to this forum for encouraging language self-study

I've had two lessons with her, but nothing significant in grammar yet. Mostly just conversation and working vocabulary. She said we'll keep working quickly through the Intro textbook to find my level, and then dive into the grammar there. I'm patient, and just happy to have the conversation practice with her. Though because I'm paying for her tutoring, I cannot fall into the trap of excusing myself from continuous self-study. If anything, I need to be even more consistent to make the most of her lessons.

My Progress:

Pimsleur 1 - Complete
Pimsleur 2 - Lesson 18
Michel Thomas Foundation - Complete
Michel Thomas Review - Complete
Michel Thomas Advanced - Disc 2
French In Action - Lesson 9
Linguaphone - Lesson 10
Assimil - Lesson 5
Intro Méthode de français - Lesson 6


As for Portuguese, I'm still enjoying Verissimo's short stories and making my way through 1808, a history of the Portuguese court moving to Brazil. As for Korean, conversation with my boss and friends here and there. A friend brought the latest 좋은생각 (Positive Thinking), a small monthly magazine of reader's stories about moments in their lives that called for, or inspired positive thinking. I haven't started, but I'll try to read one of these stories a day

[Arnaud]

deleted

[Doraemong's Pocket]

Cool log going on here.

I'll second the Pimsleur course thoughts, it just became boring after a while. You're making good progress, keep it up. I wish I was anywhere close to your level at the same point of study. I found one thing that was very useful, if possible where you live, was getting membership at the local Institut Francais. Not too much money (60,000w here) and you get access to a true library of books, magazines, comics, DVDs and music. Plus the online copies of many.


You're C1 in Korean. How did you get to that level, if you don't mind me asking? I live in Seoul and have a shocking level of Korean for the fact I live here.

[Bylan]

You're C1 in Korean. How did you get to that level, if you don't mind me asking? I live in Seoul and have a shocking level of Korean for the fact I live here.

Thanks Doraemong, I think the aid of my Portuguese knowledge is helping French come along quicker than I imagined, though there are still aspects of French that very new and foreign to me (the past tense for instance).

As for Korean, I've been studying Korean for 7 years, initially at uni in the States, and then uni in Korea. After graduation, I did a year long English teaching gig in Seoul and all that time definitely helped.

As for my level, C1 is approximate. At my very best, at the end of my time in Korea I was definitely a C1, but I've lost a fair bit to lack of use here in the States. Studying other languages and music have become a priority :/ In 2011 I took the TOPIK and was 4 points shy of a 4, and that was before a huge growth period including heading to Korea the second time around, when I came into my own speaking and reading independently and semi-fluently. Now, I consider myself a high B2 on bad days, but I think Korean's get fooled because I tend to have a pretty good accent and still retain speed when speaking. On good days, I can get back to that C1 level, but it requires watching a few movies, reading a good deal, and just interacting with Korean.

I could write a whole separate post about how to study Korean, and it would include an amalgam of resources, a couple of good Korean friends, and a great amount of patience. But if you are in Korea, you have the opportunity to actually do it, if you have the motivation.

[Fortheo]

You're doing extremely well with your studies!

I noticed that you were looking for a podcast?

This is the podcast that I started using once I finished Assimil—actually, I still listen and read it now; it's a great podcast. If you know how to recognize the present tense, passé composé, imparfait, plus que parfait, conditional, and past conditional tenses then you can easily jump right into this podcast whenever you want. Also, she speaks very clearly and at a decent speed (not quite colloquial/casual speed, but faster than Assimil recordingss while maintaining clarity of speech). Another great thing is that she provides the text too, so you can basically do an assimil like L/R run through with these podcasts if you're so inclined—I've done that, but that's time consuming. The topics of her podcasts are very diverse, so you may find that some of them don't interest you at all, but there are like 140 episodes to choose from right now, so if you lose interest in one, then you can just find a different one.

Here's the link:

http://www.podclub.ch/sendungen/l-avis- ... ?start=150


I'm wondering if you can compare your Linguaphone course with your Assimil course? What's the major differences?

[Bylan]

Here's the link:

http://www.podclub.ch/sendungen/l-avis- ... ?start=150


I'm wondering if you can compare your Linguaphone course with your Assimil course? What's the major differences?

Wow, this podcast looks perfect! Unfortunately, it's still a few degrees above my level, at least in terms of using it profitably without parsing every sentence. But, compared to August when I was thinking about starting, this actually looks like it will be within reach in the next few months. I'll know it, because one day I'll open up that link again and BAM I will be able to read and listen simultaneously with functional comprehension. Because I'm still working out the kinks of the passé composé, I have yet to be properly introduced to the imparfait, plus que parfait, conditional, and past conditional, though I have been exposed to all of them. One tense at a time I guess... It took 3 months to finally settle into learning the passé composé in all my materials, and now that it's really happening, I can see a lot of unintelligible language I've come across strangely turning into language I can understand.

Let's see, Linguaphone and Assimil... My French experience with Assimil is really just a drop in the bucket, but my experience with the Brazilian Portuguese Assimil was quite deep, so I'll compare the two of those, and have the French Assimil book I've tried in mind.

Assimil is great, I am big fan. The reason I've not done French Assimil the way I did Brazilian Assimil is simply because I wanted to try Linguaphone this time around - there is not an old Linguaphone for Portuguese unfortunately (at least that I could find). I am continually impressed at Linguaphone's quality. The grammatical descriptions are insightful yet straightforward, the pace of the course is intelligent and well constructed, and the heart of the course - the dialogues and multiple stories - are actually engaging. I can see this family in Paris on holiday, and I feel like I get to know them better each lesson. In a sense, it's like I am there as well. The world is populated with the people they meet along the way, and every other lesson or so the focus will be on these people's lives in Paris. Because the situations are so varied, yet linear and intertwined, I find the language sticks better. I can recall the scenes when I'm out doing my daily routine, and the language seems to find its way to me. Vocabulary is not really that much of a hassle, because, again, it is taught in a smart, situational way that connects with other lessons.

Assimil is great because it is bite-sized chunks you can work over and over and get multiple layers of understanding out of, and grammatically it is a solid, if somewhat unusual, course. Some of the dialogues have some real wit that sticks with you weeks down the road, and the compounding effect of daily engagement with those kinds of slices of language really helps you work things out in your head. However, the complete absence of an overarching story produces a bit of an inconsistency for me. Will this next lesson be interesting, or will it be a dud?

The format of Assimil is such that they only have a short page or two to work a couple grammatical ideas in a brand new dialogue, and what they do with that is very inventive. But as far as that stickiness factor goes, I have to hand it to Linguaphone. Nearly every lesson engages me, and I enjoy reviewing the material to follow the story again. Plus the illustrations are quite good, very "slice of life", and the recordings every bit as professional as Assimil, despite being made back in the 70's. After a few lessons with Linguaphone, I cracked Assimil again and found that the first five or six lessons were suddenly very comprehensible. That's a cool feeling.

I feel like the two of them together is a powerful combination, and I do intend to use Assimil. But this time around, rather than one of my primary teachers, I think it will be more of a source for additional exposure and reinforcement. If/when I start a new language, I will absolutely seek out the old Linguaphone course for it, if it was made. It begs the question - why did Linguaphone ever revise those 70's courses, and why don't more companies make an effort to achieve that kind of quality?

One caveat is that Linguaphone demands a bit of a slower work pace. With Assimil, I feel like one lesson a day great, and sometimes two can be workable. Eventually you'll hit your limit and have to slow down, but the amount taught in each lesson is small enough that the highly motivated learner can work extra. But Linguaphone has some chunky language packed into each lesson, so that trying to take on more than one at a time can be very tough. Slow and steady is the better bet for Linguaphone I think, though it all comes down to personal style.

[Fortheo]

Thanks for the reply!

I know exactly what you mean when you mention formerly unintelligible language becoming comprehensive after studying some tenses for a bit. I spent the longest time doing as little grammar as possible, so basically I was reading a bunch of text and I was vaguely understanding it, but I'd often second guess myself like, "okay, is this the past conditional? or is it the plus que parfait?" Eventually I just bit the bullet and spent like a month solely drilling tenses and making sure to practice making my own sentences with them. Long story short—you'll get there if you continue with your schedule!

Thanks for the info on Assimil and Linguaphone. I used primarily Assimil during my early stages learning french, but I've seen the linguaphone courses and I always thought that they looked far more enjoyable—the art, the fact that it's one on going story, the grammar notes; it all just seemed like a great course. However, I was already at a higher level by the time I noticed Linguaphone, so I never really thought I'd get much use out of it.

Then again, there's always the next language. Hopefully I can get some use out of Linguaphone for German, even though there seems to be like 6 different books for it haha.

Anyways, keep up the good work and keep using French whenever you can.

[James29]

FYI, there is definitely an "old" Linguaphone Brazilian Portuguese course. I saw it several years ago in a local University library. I was looking for their "old" Spanish one which I could not find. The Portuguese one looked amazing.

Also, I may have missed it but, which Portuguese Assimil did you use? There is not an English based one that I am aware of and your profile suggests you are better in Portuguese than French or Spanish.