b2 french by december 2020

[theblackadder]

hello all
this will be a log of my attempt to get to b2 french by the end of the year 2020. i reckon i'm around b2 for reading -- i can read french novels relatively easily -- but my writing, speaking, and listening are definitely a2 or lower.
i'll be satisfied if i can get just my listening up to a b2 level. i'll be sitting the b2 delf hopefully at the end of the year once the apocalypse has ended.
i've signed up for the 2020/2021 double super challenge: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 21&t=14270.
i planning on using a tutor on italki two or three times a week. if anyone has any advice about getting the most out of languages tutors, i'd be very happy to hear it!

[DaveAgain]

Welcome to the forum; best of luck with your mission.

[lusan]

Welcome. Good luck. I will be following your journey.

[theblackadder]

today i did 30 mins of advanced yabla. i don't watch the videos; i just use the scribe functionality. i find this helps me train my ability to recognise french sounds and common french sound groups.
i also listened to a few hours of rfi journal en francais facile while i worked. i'm probably not a big advocate of passive listening, especial when you're focused on another task, but it's better than nothing.
and last, i read eleven pages of balzac's adieu.
i'm starting small, but hoping to gain momentum over the coming days.
is anyone else aiming for the b2 delf this year?

[Miss_French_2020]

Good luck with your goal

is anyone else aiming for the b2 delf this year?

Not this year, but next year. So I'll be very interested to follow your progress

[theblackadder]

today i did was using yabla again. this time though i was following the method outlined here http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... PN=0&TPN=1. i watched two three minute videos, repeating each sentence in them multiple times, sometimes at slower speeds until i could recognise each syllable and its relation to the transcript. then i watched the videos multiple times at normal speed.
these videos are conversational, so the french is very fast. i'm trying to keep an eye out (ear out?) for common sound patterns and words that are often merged together even if they are not merged lexically. for example, 'je' seems to be often merged into the word that precedes it, if that word ends with a vowel sound.
these are the biggest barriers for comprehension for me, as i can often understand the transcript 100% without looking up any words, and can pronounce them, but can't recognise them when they are grouped together in a phrase.
going through a three minute video like these (including adding the sentences to an anki deck) takes approximately half an hour for me.
hopefully, i can squeeze in a bit of french reading before bed, but i'm finding hard to give up the books i'm reading in english.

[DaveAgain]

today i did was using yabla again. this time though i was following the method outlined here http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... PN=0&TPN=1. i watched two three minute videos, repeating each sentence in them multiple times, sometimes at slower speeds until i could recognise each syllable and its relation to the transcript. then i watched the videos multiple times at normal speed.
these videos are conversational, so the french is very fast. i'm trying to keep an eye out (ear out?) for common sound patterns and words that are often merged together even if they are not merged lexically. for example, 'je' seems to be often merged into the word that precedes it, if that word ends with a vowel sound.
these are the biggest barriers for comprehension for me, as i can often understand the transcript 100% without looking up any words, and can pronounce them, but can't recognise them when they are grouped together in a phrase.
going through a three minute video like these (including adding the sentences to an anki deck) takes approximately half an hour for me.
hopefully, i can squeeze in a bit of french reading before bed, but i'm finding hard to give up the books i'm reading in english.

Can you understand the audio of the RFI journal in français facile when you listen to that?

[badger]

best of luck. do you have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it & call it a weasel?

[theblackadder]

Can you understand the audio of the RFI journal in français facile when you listen to that?

i can understand essentially everything that is spoken by the studio reporters, but the interviews and the in-the-field reporters are a little harder to understand. i used to listen to a lot of journal en français facile, but i'm not really a news junkie so it got a little boring after a while.

[theblackadder]

best of luck. do you have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it & call it a weasel?

thanks . and, yes, my plan is as cunning as a fox who has just been appointed professor of cunning at oxford university