AroAro's log (languages, books, certificates)

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AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 354
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby AroAro » Fri Apr 07, 2023 8:07 am

French - I’ve already done two chapters from Le DALF 100% Réussite, listening comprehension and reading comprehension. I don’t really have problems with listening but the exam requires you to take notes while listening and that is something I don’t like doing because I would prefer to fully concentrate on one thing at a time. There are not that many multiple choice questions, you have to rather write down the answers. In this book, they advise to “répondre à la question sans reprendre son énoncé” or “answer the question without repeating the statement” but in the exercises that follow the answers are taken directly from the listening samples without much transformation, so I’m puzzled at this moment but probably my other books will clarify the matter.

My main source of listening material is composed of RFI and France Inter podcasts – apparently, this is what DALF uses mostly for listening part of the exam.

Occitan – I did two lessons only and that’s fine. I’m surprised that Occitan differs so much from French, I would expect more similarities between the two. I need to get used to spelling rules and pronunciation, it’s quite a challenge at this stage. But it’s so fascinating!

Bulgarian – revisiting Assimil course

Reading – I’m now reading Shusaku Endo’s “The Girl I Left Behind”, in Polish translation though. I can say at this point that he’s one of the best writers I’ve ever read. I also finished reading “Nirgendwo in Afrika” and “Danubio” in the meantime.

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#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 2456, mastered 2130 out of 19999 sentences
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guyome
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby guyome » Fri Apr 07, 2023 9:14 am

AroAro wrote:In this book, they advise to “répondre à la question sans reprendre son énoncé” or “answer the question without repeating the statement” but in the exercises that follow the answers are taken directly from the listening samples without much transformation, so I’m puzzled at this moment but probably my other books will clarify the matter.
Maybe the confusion comes from "statement" not being the correct translation of "son [=the question's] énoncé"? The instructions are about not repeating the words used in the question (the énoncé of the question).
Whether this means they want you to write a full sentence using different words or to write down only the relevant words, I don't know.
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AroAro
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Posts: 354
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby AroAro » Fri Apr 07, 2023 10:01 am

guyome wrote:Maybe the confusion comes from "statement" not being the correct translation of "son [=the question's] énoncé"? The instructions are about not repeating the words used in the question (the énoncé of the question).
Whether this means they want you to write a full sentence using different words or to write down only the relevant words, I don't know.


Thank you! It makes sense now that the book refers to the "question" and not the "listening sample".
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lichtrausch
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby lichtrausch » Fri Apr 07, 2023 7:29 pm

AroAro wrote:Reading – I’m now reading Shusaku Endo’s “The Girl I Left Behind”, in Polish translation though. I can say at this point that he’s one of the best writers I’ve ever read.

Have you read 沈黙 (Silence) by him? It's one of my favorite novels. I'll definitely have to check out The Girl I Left Behind.
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AroAro
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Posts: 354
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby AroAro » Sat Apr 08, 2023 4:30 pm

lichtrausch wrote:
AroAro wrote:Reading – I’m now reading Shusaku Endo’s “The Girl I Left Behind”, in Polish translation though. I can say at this point that he’s one of the best writers I’ve ever read.

Have you read 沈黙 (Silence) by him? It's one of my favorite novels. I'll definitely have to check out The Girl I Left Behind.


Yes, and I loved it! But I must admit I probably missed a lot when it comes to religious and philosophical discussions in the book:) last year, I read his "The Samurai" and think it was great as well. "The Girl I Left Behind" differs a lot from those two because it's a love story set in Tokyo after WW2 but it's just as much compelling.
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lichtrausch
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby lichtrausch » Sun Apr 09, 2023 7:45 pm

AroAro wrote:last year, I read his "The Samurai" and think it was great as well. "The Girl I Left Behind" differs a lot from those two because it's a love story set in Tokyo after WW2 but it's just as much compelling.

I stopped by a Japanese bookstore today and they had about a dozen of his books but unfortunately not those two. Incidentally, I find it baffling how Japanese bookstores (at least the ones I've been to) arrange most of their books by publisher rather than genre. Or maybe the American way is the outlier. I haven't been to a bookstore in Europe in over a decade so I can't remember how it is there.
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AroAro
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Posts: 354
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby AroAro » Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:45 am

Finally, here are the results of the Romanian B2 exam - I got 9,4 out of 10 points (they announced the overall results only, without the details of each part).

So next year, I will try my luck and sit the C1 level. Now I know at least what to expect.
Last edited by AroAro on Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DaveAgain
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:01 am

AroAro wrote:Finally, here are the results of the Romanian B2 exam - I got 9,4 out of 10 points (they announced the overall results only, without the details of each part).
That's a fantastic result, well done You! :-)
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cito
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Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby cito » Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:28 pm

Great job!
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50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI: 28 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 21 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 354
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1779

Re: AroAro’s log – preparing for DALF C1 in June 2023

Postby AroAro » Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:32 am

DaveAgain wrote:
AroAro wrote:Finally, here are the results of the Romanian B2 exam - I got 9,4 out of 10 points (they announced the overall results only, without the details of each part).
That's a fantastic result, well done You! :-)

cito wrote:Great job!


Thank you! I didn’t expect to get such a good result but I must admit it’s a very nice feeling :) I’m happy I did well on the speaking part that I feared the most, and that I can actually string a few sentences together in Romanian.


French – I did the chapter on writing part of the exam from Le DALF 100% Réussite. Good news is that for this part they give you 150 minutes for two assignments. I think that should be perfectly sufficient, especially compared to my recent Romanian exam where I had only 60 minutes. Bad news… well, there is no bad news luckily, apart from the fact that one of the two assignments is writing a “synthèse”. I remember form my university times that we had to write a lot, mostly essays but also even fictional stories in French, however, never did we have to write a “synthèse”. So this is something new to me but I think I can master it. What worries me is that the examples of essays and syntheses in the book are so good or even top-notch, and I’m sure I’m not able to write like that! I hope the DALF examiners don’t look for perfection. Now, it’s time for “production orale”.

I’ve also read 40 pages from “L’Express” so far. Some new words and expressions: prégnant, n’avoir cure de, avoir du pain sur la planche, le cabas.

Occitan – I’m at the lesson 10 from Assimil, the spelling rules are crazy but I’m starting to see patterns.

Bulgarian – revisiting Assimil (almost done), watching some YT videos

Reading – finished “The Girl I Left Behind” and I’m already halfway through “The Discomfort of Evening” (in Polish translation “Niepokój przychodzi o zmierzchu”) by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of International Booker Prize 2020. Very gripping but also, hmm, exhausting? I mean being halfway through the book, I’m curious to see what direction it will take or if it will just continue to be more or less the same, which would be disappointing.

Clozemaster
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 2536, mastered 2195 out of 19999 sentences

I started working with that intermediate Hebrew podcast. I listened twice to the first episode and could understand the general meaning of what was being said but I missed some crucial words. Anyway, I did better than when I try to listen to Israeli radio stations :) Reading the transcript was helpful, I added a bunch of unknown words to my vocabulary list. Next week, I will listen again to the first episode reading the transcript to make sure that my comprehension has improved.
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