Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

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MorkTheFiddle
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Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:54 am

The amount of writing that you are doing is very impressive, no matter the level.
As for Le petit Prince, lots of folks rave about it, but I could never get past the first few pages. :( I preferred his Pilote de Guerre, though that's probably beyond your current level.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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eifrose
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eifrose » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:14 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:The amount of writing that you are doing is very impressive, no matter the level.
As for Le petit Prince, lots of folks rave about it, but I could never get past the first few pages. :( I preferred his Pilote de Guerre, though that's probably beyond your current level.


Thanks a lot! :)

I'll add the book to my reading list for once I'm able to read at this level. Thanks for the recommendation!
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eifrose
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eifrose » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:23 pm

Hello! Another update on my French journey! :D

I still write a lot and post on Journaly. I’ve posted 4 new entries since the last update. However, this doesn’t count my private entries and writing as an assignment for my tutor.

I’m progressing with Speakly, but I limited the new words to 10 words per day. I felt like I was going too fast when compared to my textbook/grammar.

I’m not sure if I want to continue with Le Petit Prince. I suffer too much reading it :D I bought Le mystère du train de la nuit by Marc Thil. It’s supposed to be for 8-year-olds. I went through the first two chapters, and it was okay. I’d like to find a book that I would actually finish, but I haven’t found anything enjoyable yet. If you have any recommendations, let me know. :)

I finished the first half of my textbook, which means I should be around A1 now. So, I decided to do the DIALANG test to see how I’ve progressed. The results surprised me:

- Listening: A2
- Writing: B1
- Reading: B2
- Structures: A2
- Vocabulary: A2

It seems that, for some reason, I’m already around A2. I think that my writing attempts have something do to with that because I need to actively search and use new structures and vocabulary. Saying that, I believe that my most significant weaknesses are listening and speaking. It’s okay to write something and look things up, but it’s harder to improvise on the spot. My tutor has already decided the time has come to speak entirely in French. I can usually only get the general idea of what she says. :lol:

Of course, I still do Anki, mainly the new words from the textbook. I tried Clozemaster and Memrise, but nothing has stuck as much as Anki for me.

I also realised that I underestimate the time and effort I put into learning French. It’s been a month and a half now. The fact that, in the traditional setting, it would probably take a year to get to the level I’m at blows my mind. I’m saying this because I’ve realised that French has become my part-time job now. If I look at the numbers, I actually spend around 15-20 hours per week on French. I'm looking forward to taking a break from a formal study in July! :D

I hope your learning is going well and see you later. :)
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chove
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby chove » Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:41 am

eifrose wrote:I bought Le mystère du train de la nuit by Marc Thil. It’s supposed to be for 8-year-olds. I went through the first two chapters, and it was okay.


I'm going to have a go of this book and see how much I can understand! (I know only very very basic French but I can guess a lot more from knowing Spanish.)

Interesting log, it seems you are doing really well. Inspiring!
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eifrose
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eifrose » Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:07 pm

Hi, another update incoming!

I still do the same things. A few days ago, I attempted to write a short story (two pages) in French, and my tutor corrected it. I've just learnt l'imparfait and le plus-que-parfait, so I wanted to see the tenses in action. It wasn't so bad. The story is fairly ridiculous... it's about a family that moves to a bizarre town full of humanoid creatures, but the father is a xenophobe (doesn't like foreigners or humanoid creatures at all) who became blind at the age of 12, so he doesn't know anything about the romance between his son and a giant cat (who, unfortunately, doesn't understand human language and only meows), or about his neighbours M Frankenstein et M Vampire who have been happily married since forever... of course, the romance between the boy and the cat would not be possible without their friend Mme Cow who speaks the human language and can interpret between the boy and the cat. Well, you can imagine the disaster. :D

Anyway!

I'm going to take a break for two weeks from formal study. I will listen and watch French Youtube and TV and try to read more, but I will take a vacation from Anki, Speakly and the coursebook. I downloaded the add-on for card postponing to Anki, and I hope I won't forget everything in the two weeks! :D

My tutor also assigned me to do a little bit of writing, something like a travel log.

I am almost finished with the first textbook that should take me to A2. So I have only three lessons (three weeks) left. But since I'm taking a break, I'm going to finish later.

I hope your studies are going well and I will see you in two weeks! :)
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eifrose
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eifrose » Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:08 pm

chove wrote:
I'm going to have a go of this book and see how much I can understand! (I know only very very basic French but I can guess a lot more from knowing Spanish.)


Great, let me know what you think! I haven't finished yet, but I probably will on vacation. :)
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eifrose
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eifrose » Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:03 pm

Hi all! I'm back from vacation and started with French again three days ago.

For some reason, I had some backlog in Anki even though I pushed the cards (I used an add-on), but I made it through. Surprisingly, I remembered the majority of the words and grammar. Thanks, SRS! I am continuing with the coursebook, and I'll be finishing in three weeks. I posted something on Journaly as well. Unfortunately, I didn't do any of the reading I set out to do... I only read the French newspapers. Better than nothing, I guess!

The only change is that I had to cancel my tutoring... :( I had some unexpected financial burdens, and the tutor became too expensive for me. I'll be now switching to Italki for informal tutoring because it's cheaper. I have to figure out how to organise the lessons, so if you have any advice, I would be grateful! I was thinking of having two community tutors per week, but I'm not sure if I'm leaning towards 30 or 60 minutes per session. I would like to really focus on speaking and get myself used to decent output. Also, how do you structure your lessons? Do you agree on a topic with the tutor before and prepare for it? Or do you converse about anything? I want to get the most out of the lessons, so any advice/experience is appreciated! :)

I hope that your learning is going well! I actually missed learning French, so it's good to be back. :D
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eido
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Re: Eifrose's Journey to Understand and Speak French

Postby eido » Sat Jul 24, 2021 3:58 pm

In my italki lessons, because I’m on the cusp of C1 in Spanish, my regular tutor and I and just wing the conversation. It’s rare that we plan. But maybe because you’re at a lower level than this in French, it’d be better to find someone who’d be willing to map out a learning guide for you. However, italki’s community tutors usually don’t do planning, because it’s a side job. That’s probably why me and my tutor just launch into español, not my ability... haha.

Just my experience. Take it with a grain of salt.
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