Matilda's French Log

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golyplot
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: My French Language Log (Miss_French_2020)

Postby golyplot » Fri May 08, 2020 3:39 pm

Have you considered trying the FSI French Phonology course? (Not the same as FSI French Basic). I found it very helpful for improving my French pronunciation and getting the confidence to speak more.
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Miss_French_2020
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Re: My French Language Log (Miss_French_2020)

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Sat May 09, 2020 12:11 pm

golyplot wrote:Have you considered trying the FSI French Phonology course? (Not the same as FSI French Basic). I found it very helpful for improving my French pronunciation and getting the confidence to speak more.

Hi Golyplot! Thanks for the advice. I tried the first lesson of FSI Phonology today while taking a walk based on your suggestion. I can see it could be very useful and I also like that I can still follow it using only the audio. I've tried a bit of Hachette's "Les 500 exercises de phonetique" which also seems be good for pronunciation and perhaps better than FSI (in terms of audio quality at least) but I need to use the book with it and I struggle to make the time for sit down study time. I'm very happy to find things I can use while walking :D
1 x
Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000

golyplot
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: My French Language Log (Miss_French_2020)

Postby golyplot » Sat May 09, 2020 2:39 pm

I used the book to follow along and help with the explanations. But if you can do it purely by ear, more power to you.
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Miss_French_2020
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Re: My French Language Log (Miss_French_2020)

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Sun May 10, 2020 3:51 am

Weekly Update

I took the Dialang test this week and my results were B1 for all sections. I expect this is an overestimation as my tutor says my speaking level is about A2, however I'm feeling more confident that my goal to be a "real" B1 by the end of the year is the right goal and right time frame for me.

New this week:
    - I've been trying out FSI Basic and FSI Phonology (which were suggested by rdearman and golyplot). I particularly like the drills of FSI Basic and will probably skip over the dialogues sections.
    - Started to try to combine my French studies with my attempts to develop a better health and fitness routine. So I've been listening to French podcasts or using FSI on daily walks, Yoga using DownDog app with French directions, and guided meditation in French if I have trouble falling asleep.

What I did this week:
- Speaking - 2 hrs of italki. My plan is to use 3 teachers regularly going forward.
    - Tutor No. 1 - 1 hour lesson once a fortnight. She has a structured approach and is a very experienced teacher/examiner. I'm using her to work on my pronunciation and test for holes in my knowledge. She is using the Edito A2 textbook as the framework for the lessons.
    - Tutor No. 2 - 1 hour lesson once a fortnight. Conversation based. She doesn't give many corrections while I'm speaking but keeps track of my errors and gives me a summary and explanation in the natural breaks or at the end of the lesson.
    - Tutor No. 3 - 30 min lesson once a week. Structured conversation. She consciously directs the conversation to make sure I'm practicing different structures, tenses and conjugations. She is also teaching me the colloquial language in parallel.
- Listening
    - 2 hours of podcast "Change ma vie". My comprehension is at gist level.
    - 4.5 hours of TV and film (all dubbed).
    - 1 hour of yoga with French instruction using DownDog app
    - 1 hour of guided meditation in French
- Reading - Currently reading "Les 7 habitudes de ceux qui réalisent ...." along with the audiobook. I'm understanding the gist.
- Courses
    - FSI Basic French - Unit 1 and Unit 2 tapes 1-3 (drills only)
    - FSI French Phonology - Units 1 and 2
- Other - ~ 10 mins. Kwiziq and Yabla Scribe.

Changes?
I'm not going to make any changes to my plan yet since I'm quite happy with my new routine this week and I think it's relatively well-balanced and should be sustainable. It might be worth adding in some kind of review of my corrections and new words etc from the italki lessons (currently I just make a mental note and move on), but I would need to think about a good way to do this.
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Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000

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Miss_French_2020
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Matilda's French Log

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Sat May 16, 2020 3:33 pm

Weekly Update
The core of learning this week has been FSI Basic, italki, Tv and reading. I'm really enjoying the learning process and I find myself wanting to do more but I'm currently doing as much as I can fit in at the moment. Occasionally I also have feelings of mild frustration that I haven't felt much noticeable progress in a past month or so but I just need to remember to be patient.

Super Challenge Progress
Reading - 380 pages / 5000
Film and TV - 750 minutes / 9000

Speaking - 2hrs
- 1hr conversation describing my town and about language learning. My main errors were feminine/masculine errors and linked pronunciation errors e.g. dernière vs dernier, verbs + de/à, COD/COI. I used pretty simple sentence structures and spoke slowly, though she said I'm easy to understand and my pronuncation is relatively good.
- 30mins conversation describing my job and using the conditional tense. I really need to think very hard to form the correct conjugations when speaking and so I speak very slowly and it is quite taxing.
- 30 mins conversation describing a previous holiday. He said I should try growing my vocabulary as I speak correctly but very simply. He also said my listening comprehension is not bad as he speaks to me how he normally would to a francophone and I understand for the most part.

Listening
- 2× 3 or 4 mins videos on yabla ( dictée) intermediate level. A 3 minute video takes me about 20 minutes to transcibe.
- 480 mins of TV (no subtitles) - "Les filles d'à côté" and "Grace and Frankie". Going for quantity over quality for this.
- 40 mins of yoga instruction.

Reading
- Finished reading / listening to "Les 7 Habitudes..." 380 pages. I understood the main points but not the details. I might reread this in a few months to see if I've progressed.
- Found a trashy YA romance for my next book and read a few chapters. Not my usual genre and still many unknown words but it seems quite comfortable to follow at my level and has normal everyday language.

Courses and Grammar
- FSI Phonology Unit 4, 5, 6. I skip ahead alot as there is so much repetition in this course that I don't have patience for, so I'm probably doing less than 50% of each tape.
- FSI Basic Unit 2 and Unit 3. Skipping the dialogs. I find the drills to be very useful. So far I haven't had any issue getting the answer in the provided space but it's getting more difficult. The inversion structures trip me up but I'm not bothering to work on this as it seems this is not that common anymore anyway.
- Kwiziq is now up to 75% of A2 and 20% of B1.
6 x
Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000

humerusthings
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Re: Matilda's French Log

Postby humerusthings » Sun May 17, 2020 2:49 pm

Hi Matilda! Your log is really interesting! :) as a perennial beginner of french haha i'm really amazed that you progressed so fast!

wondering if you could share here (or on dm) which are the italki french teachers you found that were good! I'm always up to try more varieties of of italki teachers haha.

and also out of the resources you used, which did you feel was most helpful to you and which was the most enjoyable? :)
2 x
: 19 / 40 Coffee Break French S3
: 88 / 113 Assimil French With Ease
: 3 / 16 Easy French Step by Step
: 33 / 100 Assimil German With Ease
: 4 / 20 Easy German Step by Step

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Miss_French_2020
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Languages: English (Native), French (B1-ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 57#p165355
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Re: Matilda's French Log

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Mon May 18, 2020 1:48 pm

humerusthings wrote:Hi Matilda! Your log is really interesting! :) as a perennial beginner of french haha i'm really amazed that you progressed so fast!

wondering if you could share here (or on dm) which are the italki french teachers you found that were good! I'm always up to try more varieties of of italki teachers haha.

and also out of the resources you used, which did you feel was most helpful to you and which was the most enjoyable? :)

Hi! Thanks for the comment and the words of encouragement! Your log is really cool and nice to read too! I'm just so impressed with the people here like you who are learning multiple languages at once! Just one is alot of effort for me so I couldn't imagine it :D

For my italki teachers, I'll send you a dm within the next day with links to a couple. I think I've tried more than 10 different tutors now, and I've only had positive experiences as they all brought different things to the table, though I do have a few favourites.

It's a bit hard to say what the most useful resource was for me as I've been using a lot of different things. Probably too many! The only resources that I haven't enjoyed and didn't get much out of were Assimil and graded readers but that's just due to personal preferences i.e. if I liked them, they probably would've been useful.
At the beginning, I found Pimsleur very helpful along with the innerFrench podcast. Hellotalk and tandem were great for language exchanges but it got overwhelming for me so I stopped and moved to paid lessons on italki. For learning grammar, I like kwiziq. I also think dictée's are a good addition to build listening comprehension and with Yabla Scribe, it's actually quite fun too. I started trying out FSI recently which seems to be a good continuation on from Pimsleur, but it's too early for me to say if I find it useful or not. Currently, my favourite resource is TV :lol:
3 x
Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000

humerusthings
Orange Belt
Posts: 131
Joined: Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:40 am
Languages: English (N), Chinese (GCSE A levels), Korean (~A2?), French (A1), German (Beginner), Icelandic (Beginner).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7372
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Re: Matilda's French Log

Postby humerusthings » Mon May 18, 2020 4:01 pm

Miss_French_2020 wrote:For my italki teachers, I'll send you a dm within the next day with links to a couple. I think I've tried more than 10 different tutors now, and I've only had positive experiences as they all brought different things to the table, though I do have a few favourites.
Currently, my favourite resource is TV :lol:


Thanks Matilda!! Yes I've tried many italki tutors too, I actually enjoy the variety of different teachers and different teaching styles!
Haha YES, TV is the best I feel! Watched into the night on netflix and the 3 hours literally just flew by in suspense. I didn't even bother to check the meaning of each word on my LLN app because the story was too exciting oops.
1 x
: 19 / 40 Coffee Break French S3
: 88 / 113 Assimil French With Ease
: 3 / 16 Easy French Step by Step
: 33 / 100 Assimil German With Ease
: 4 / 20 Easy German Step by Step

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Miss_French_2020
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Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2020 1:12 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (Native), French (B1-ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 57#p165355
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Re: Matilda's French Log

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Wed May 20, 2020 10:38 am

humerusthings wrote:Thanks Matilda!! Yes I've tried many italki tutors too, I actually enjoy the variety of different teachers and different teaching styles!
Haha YES, TV is the best I feel! Watched into the night on netflix and the 3 hours literally just flew by in suspense. I didn't even bother to check the meaning of each word on my LLN app because the story was too exciting oops.

Yeah, I also am someone who likes having variety in teachers and also learning methods, it keeps things interesting.
I'll have to add "Into the Night" to my list. I've only been watching rubbish so far because in my head I don't want to "waste" something that could potentially be good when my comprehension is so poor - rewatching seems out of the question haha
Also I probably should but I'm too lazy to look up words when watching TV. I'm just hoping something goes in through osmosis :lol:
1 x
Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000

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Miss_French_2020
Yellow Belt
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2020 1:12 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (Native), French (B1-ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 57#p165355
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Re: Matilda's French Log

Postby Miss_French_2020 » Sat May 23, 2020 2:19 am

Weekly Update

Super Challenge Progress
Reading - 588 pages / 5000
Film and TV - 1220 minutes / 9000

Speaking - 2hrs
- 30 mins language exchange - conversation about daily life, where we're from, cooking.
- 1 hr italki lesson - Unit 2 of Edito A2 (Souvenirs). I recounted my childhood to practice using l'imparfait, and phrases such as "je me souviens" etc. This teacher has me describe the photos in the textbook in detail. I find this exercise to be very difficult, maybe because I'm lacking vocabulary and have to use precise language to describe things and can't talk my way around my gaps like I normally do.
- 30 mins italki lesson with S.

Listening
- 2 videos on Yabla Scribe - intermediate level
- 470 mins of TV (no subtitles) - "Les filles d'à côté", "Grace and Frankie" and Harlan Coben's "The Stranger".
- 60 mins of yoga instruction videos.
- 120 mins of podcasts - "Autour de la question"

Reading
- Finished DIMILY#1 (416 pages). I read along with audiobook. I alternated between reading+listening and purely listening, so I'm only counting half the number of pages for the super challenge - 208 pages.

Courses, Grammar, Other
- FSI Phonology. I've kicked this out of my routine because I thought it was overkill to be doing both FSI Phonology AND FSI Basic, and the basic course is the more useful of the two.
- FSI Basic - finished Unit 4.
6 x
Double Super Challenge Books: 5302 / 10000 Film: 8416 / 18000


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