Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

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robbierobbie
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Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby robbierobbie » Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:43 am

Hi everyone!

I used to lurk on this forum in 2017/18. I was attending university at the time, majoring in Linguistics but also taking classes in French and German (as well as dabbling in a few other languages in my own time). I wrote the B2 exam for French, and although I didn't do the exam for German, my level in the latter was a bit higher than my French so I feel like saying I peaked at B2 with German as well is a fair assessment.

Unfortunately, my level in both has since deteriorated quite significantly. I think I'd still be able to pass a B1 exam, but I seriously doubt I'd be able to pass B2 at the moment, particularly the active portions of the exam (speaking & writing). I just haven't managed to incorporate languages into my life post-university. For context, when I visited Germany at the end of 2018, I was reading the fourth Harry Potter book. Between then and now, I've managed to make it to the 70% mark of the fifth book, which is next to no progress at all. It dawned on me recently that it's been nearly 3 full years since then, and I can't even claim to have finished a single German book during that time.

If it was up to me, I'd focus entirely on French right now. There's just something I find alluring about getting to a level where I can proudly say, "I'm a fluent French speaker." To be fair, German is cool too, and I've actually enjoyed German media more than French media (books, movies, series, etc.) but... I don't know. I guess I just romanticize the French language a bit more. I enjoy the feeling of having a conversation in French more than German. It's marginal though. I really do enjoy speaking German as well. I guess I've just had more opportunities to speak French, so the emotions attached to the language are stronger.

I also need to learn Korean for work, since I work with Koreans (I also work with some people from China & Taiwan, but there's no way I'm attempting to pick up 2 Category V languages at the same time. My Korean colleagues outnumber my Mandarin-speaking colleagues, so I'm going with Korean).

To be honest, I struggle with motivation to sit down and self-study Korean. I've had to schedule lessons with a tutor to circumvent this. I don't listen to Korean music and I'm not particularly interested in Korean media the way some of my friends are. This is not say I'll never find something to enjoy within Korean media, but I haven't been able to foster that interest yet. Maybe I need to watch Squid Game.

Anyway, the method & resources I've used to study languages has always been fairly consistent.

Pimsleur & Michel Thomas & Language Transfer
Assimil
Glossika
Native content ad infinitum.

In order to brush up on my French and German I've decided to revisit Assimil & Glossika, even if it's in the form of a speed run. I've found that just trying to pick up where I left off (reading books / watching movies) has one of two outcomes. I either end up feeling demotivated by how much ability I've lost, or I'm too stubborn to acknowledge that my level has gone down and refuse to look up unknown words ("I knew this word at one point in my life... not 100% sure what it means anymore... hmm... oh, whatever, I'll remember it eventually" *continues reading* :lol: )

French

I sat down with French Assimil again yesterday and wrote out the first 10 dialogues by hand. This slow-pace forced me to take note of words and phrases I'd forgotten, rather than sweeping them under the rug. Plan to do the same today.
I also watched about 3 street interviews from the EasyFrench YouTube channel, just to get used to hearing and seeing French again (in the form of subtitles).
I also started playing Skyrim in French (it's my first time playing Skyrim :mrgreen: I know, what year is it?)

Korean

I have a Korean lesson with a tutor tonight. It's the third time I'm meeting with her.

German

Haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do with German. I used to listen to German audiobooks while jogging, might try that again, or maybe I won't.
Last edited by robbierobbie on Thu Jul 13, 2023 11:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's Log (FR, KO, DE)

Postby robbierobbie » Fri Nov 12, 2021 6:12 am

Intended to keep up with this log weekly, but I didn't realize it's been nearly 10 days since my initial post.

Since my last post:

French
Rewrote 10 dialogues from Assimil New French with Ease.
Play Skyrim in French for 5 hours 10 minutes.
Listened to about 2 hours of French, mainly from the Easy French and innerFrench YouTube channels. These are basically just confidence-boosters. InnerFrench is entirely comprehensible, and EasyFrench as well (provided I pay attention to the French subtitles. Don't really need the English subtitles besides the odd word here and there, which is a good sign).

I need to read in French more.

Korean
Had another lesson with a tutor (60 minutes).
Studied for another 1 hour 40 minutes, mainly going through the first Yonsei Reader.

Esperanto
Lol, yeah. Don't know where this came from. Just started going through the Duolingo course, and now I'm halfway through unit 2.

It's just nice to have a low-stress language like Esperanto on the rotation. French is medium-stress since I'm trying to bridge the gap between intermediate and advanced, and Korean is just plain challenging.

All in all, nothing crazy in terms of hours spent working on languages. It's okay though. Language learning is just one of my hobbies, and overall I've been making progress with all my hobbies at the same time, as well as working a 9-5 job for the first time in my life.

At the very least, languages are on my mind more than they've been over the last 1 - 2 years. The fact that I even considered starting Duolingo Esperanto during some of my deadtime as opposed to simply scrolling through Reddit is a testament to that.
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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's Log (FR, KO, DE)

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Nov 15, 2021 12:06 am

Mini-update, did quite a bit of language learning since my post a few days ago, but main news to report is that I finished unit 2 of 4 for Duolingo Esperanto.

I've never actually finished a Duolingo course before, so I'm excited to just get to the end and ticket that off my bucket list. Chances are I'll continue with Esperanto in some way, shape, or form. Finishing the Duolingo course would mean I still only have 1 crown for each skill, and as far as I know they go all the way to 5 or 6. Not sure if the motivation to use Duolingo specifically will last long enough to gild the entire tree, but the option always exists.

French

Had a few solid days in a row where I was averaging an hour or more. Still using EasyFrench and innerFrench as my primary resources. Might start watching Code Lyoko in the original French. This was something I did in ~2017 when French was more of a priority, but I think I barely finished season 1. Revisiting this show will be a good way to gauge where I'm at in relation to where I was.

Korean

Have a lesson scheduled for Wednesday. Trying to talk with my colleagues in Korean more and more. Making steady strides, but definitely could be doing much more.
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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's Log (FR, KO, DE)

Postby robbierobbie » Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:50 pm

Quite pleased with how much I was able to work on my hobbies this past week. This includes, but is not limited to, my languages. Of my languages, French definitely received the most attention, and I imagine it'll continue to look this way in the coming months.

Monday, 15 November - Sunday, 21 November

French

Watched French TV for a total of 5 hours, 40 minutes. This was mostly Code Lyoko (no subs), although last night I also started rewatching La Haine with French subs.

Started intensively reading a novel in French, Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan. Maybe one hour of total reading so far.

Rewrote 15 dialogues from Assimil's New French with Ease.

Played Skyrim in French for 1 hour. I changed the interface language of my entire console, so I guess I was interacting with French whenever I turned the console on. However, I'm only counting Skyrim because I stop and note down unknown words while playing. There's also the sheer amount of NPCs you can interact with, books you can read, etc. which is pretty much unrivaled in any other games I play.

Korean

Had a 60 minute lesson with a tutor.

Studied for 40 minutes.

Tried to speak Korean with my colleagues.

Esperanto

Finished the Duolingo tree. I've gone back to the beginning and I'm going to try and gild the tree. I'm kind of studying Esperanto when my mind is already switched off, sort of half-paying attention, so I'm not sure how much I'm actually learning. I get the answers correct, so that's something, right? Will be interesting to see where my receptive skills are at when I gild the Duolingo tree (if I get that far. Not going to torture myself with Duolingo, I'll move onto other resources if the content becomes too stale).
Last edited by robbierobbie on Tue Nov 30, 2021 5:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
6 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's Log (FR, KO, DE)

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Nov 29, 2021 4:37 am

Monday, 22 November - Sunday, 28 November
The Numbers

Rewrote 25 dialogues from Assimil's New French with Ease.

Watched French TV for 15 hours 10 minutes.

Intensive reading of a book in French (Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan) for 4 hours 30 minutes.

//

Immersion time alone (reading & listening) adds up to 19 hours 40 minutes, so when I include the rewriting of Assimil dialogues, I've easily spent more than 20 hours with French this past week!

The shows & movies I've watched over the last week are :

Code Lyoko (usually 2 episodes a night, just finished season 1)
La Belle Personne
Road to El Dorado (French dub)
Jumper (French dub)
Dragonball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (French dub)
Les Petites Meutres d'Agatha Christie (ep 1 & 2)
Bojack Horseman (ep 1, 2 & 3).

Why all the dubs? I took advantage of a Black Friday special and purchased a VPN, and it was too enticing to watch some dubbed Netflix. I don't really see a problem with dubs. I know they're easier than live-action French originals, but at my current level I think it's a nice bridge between where I am and where I want to be.

Generally I watch without subs. This is easy going for the animated shows & dubbed movies, but quite a struggle for live-action French originals (e.g. La Belle Personne, and La Haine last week). Episodes of Les Petites Meutres d'Agatha Christie are also quite difficult, although it depends on which character is speaking. Sometimes I understand 60%, sometimes 80% or more.

Institut Français Placement Test

I know online placement tests are generally hit-or-miss, but I feel like the results it gave me aren't too far off.

Compréhension orale: B1.2
Compréhension écrite: B2.1
Grammaire: B2.2

As a result, they recommended I sign up for a B2.1 class, which seems about right that I'd need to climb the mountain back up to B2 after taking 2 - 3 years off from French study.

The low compréhension orale score is also why I'm putting an emphasis on listening, movies & TV. I think once I complete an audio Super Challenge (~150 hours or so) I'll re-evaluate and potentially flip it around. I do feel like I learn more by reading, but that could just be because it's more difficult to quantify progress with listening comprehension. When I'm reading, I can easily see, "wow, previously I was highlighting 10 new words per page, now it's dropped down to 5!" or something like that.

Plan of Action

I'd like it if I could keep cranking out 20+ hour French weeks.

I'd love to be able to read in French for 90 minutes a day, although my official goal is only 30 minutes a day of intensive reading.

I'm currently watching ~90 minutes of French TV a day, and I think that's a decent amount to maintain. I'd hit my goal of an audio Super Challenge (~150 hours) in just over three months (since I can manage more than 90 minutes on most weekends).

P.S. I had a Korean lesson with a tutor (60 minutes), and have another scheduled for this upcoming week. At this rate I'll never get good at Korean, but I'm just enjoying French too much at the moment.
5 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:29 am

Monday, 29 November - Sunday, 5 December
The Numbers


Rewrote 20 dialogues from Assimil's New French with Ease.
Watched French TV for 16 hours 40 minutes
Intensively read Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan for 4 hours 30 minutes.

The shows & movies I watched over the last week are:

Code Lyoko (2 episodes a night)
Les Petites Meutres d'Agatha Christie (ep 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7)
Troy (French dub)
Shéhérazade (French original).

When it's all laid out like that, it doesn't actually look like I watched that much. When you break it down though, I'm constantly chipping away at Code Lyoko (might finish season 2 this week). Les Petites Meutres is also over 90 minutes per episode. Troy was also nearly 3 hours long.

I watched them all without subtitles, except for Shéhérazade, which I watched with French subs. It was a good movie, and I really enjoyed the accents and slang. With subs my comprehension was good enough, but without subs I would've been totally lost, and would've maybe understood 30% if I was lucky. It felt even more difficult than La Haine, but I've also watched La Haine 3 or 4 times, so I can't be sure.

The Way Forward

I'd like to hit 20+ hours again this upcoming week. I'm also hoping to finish Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan this week. My Kindle says I'm exactly 66% finished, so that means I'm on track. I'm hoping my reading speed will go up, because my goals will take insanely long if it's taking me 3 weeks to read a book as short as this (312 pages). I know I'd get through many more pages if I opted for extensive reading instead, but there's just too many unknown words per page (10+) for anything other than intensive reading to make sense right now.
7 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:13 am

Monday, 6 December - Sunday, 12 December
The Numbers


Watched French TV for 20 hours and 2 minutes.
Intensively read Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan for 3 hours 30 minutes.

The shows & movies I watched over the last week are:

Code Lyoko (2+ episodes a night).
Les Petites Meutres d'Agatha Christie (ep 8).
Ready Player One (French dub).
Mortel Saison 1 (French original).
Miscellaneous YouTube videos.

All of them without subtitles, except for Mortel, which I watched with French subs.

I was pleasantly surprised by Mortel. I almost didn't watch it because of it's IMDb rating of 6.6/10, but it turned out to be perfectly binge-worthy. Some very decent performances by the young actors, in my opinion. Enjoyed it way more than some other Netflix originals that are rated higher. I was very interested in the voodoo, the deities, and the Creole spoken by some of the characters. I'm looking forward to watching season 2 this week.

The Way Forward

Aiming for another 20+ hour week. I did the bare minimum with regards to reading this week (30 minutes a day), and unfortunately didn't finish Percy Jackson as a result. I'm now 88%, so even if I only do the bare minimum this week, I'll definitely finish it.

Making some real headway into my quadruple audio Super Challenge. I'll comment some more when I reach the 150-hour / 300-hour / 450-hour / 600-hour marks.
5 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Dec 20, 2021 4:14 am

Monday, 13 December - Sunday, 19 December
The Numbers

Watched French TV for 15 hours, 3 minutes.
Intensive reading of Percy Jackson et le Sort du Titan and Percy Jackson et la Bataille du Labyrinthe for 6 hours, 53 minutes.

The shows & movies I watched over the last week are:

Mortel Saison 2, and a re-watch of S1E1.
Code Lyoko (ep 61 & 62).
Dragon Ball Z Kai (ep 1, 2 & 3).
La Révolution (ep 1).
Lots of miscellaneous French-dubbed anime.

All the anime, including DBZ Kai and the animated Code Lyoko, were watched without subtitles. Mortel & La Révolution were with French subs. I then also watched S1E1 of Mortel again, but without subtitles this time.

Mortel season 2 was good, not great. There were some really good moments, but from what I hear the show was canceled before they even finished filming season 2, so there were some story-threads that felt rushed towards the end, Game of Thrones-esque. Some of those moments could have been the basis for a strong season 3 in my opinion, but the cliffhanger they went for in case the show magically got renewed was so much weaker than a lot of the other stuff that it felt like their heart wasn't in it, or like nobody really believed it would get picked up again. Overall I'd give the show an average rating of 7/10 (season 1 being 7.5 and season 2 being 6.5), but I can see why some people would give it less or dismiss it entirely.

Feeling kind of burnt-out with Code Lyoko, but I really do want to finish it. I'm nearing the end of season 3, and then I'll probably take a break before season 4. What's weird is that I enjoy it while I'm watching it, but before that I don't really feel the desire to put it on over something else.

Started watching French-dubbed anime. I'm really not an anime guy (I can count the number of anime I've watched on one hand), but there's just a mind-boggling amount of anime out there that it'd be silly for me not to tap into the resource for language-learning. Can't really name the anime I watched, because I'm just flicking through shows right now and trying to figure out what I like.

Revisiting Dragon Ball Z, which I've tried to re-watch a few times since I was a kid, but was never successful. During previous rewatch attempts it just felt like there was too much filler, which is why I decided to go for Kai, this time around. It's not as long and definitely feels faster-paced.

La Révolution had a decent opening. Looking forward to watching more this week.

The Way Forward

Watched less TV and did more reading this past week, but still managed to hit my goal of 20+ hours overall. That'll be my goal again this week.

I finished the third Percy Jackson, and am 35% through with the fourth. At a minimum, I want to reach the 66% mark this week.

I also started sentence mining with the third Percy Jackson, and putting the sentences into Anki. I'm only doing 5 sentence cards a day though. It's easy enough to add ~35 sentences on a Monday, and then be good for the rest of the week. I feel like I get enough exposure to French that I'd make progress without Anki, but it still felt like something was "missing" from my routine. There's a language learner on YouTube called Justin Armstrong who said, "lazy Anki is better than no Anki", and I agree.
5 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby robbierobbie » Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:11 am

I forgot it was the week leading up to Christmas, so I didn't manage to do as much as I wanted. Haven't tallied my reading & listening yet... this is going to be painful.

A FEW MOMENTS LATER

Watched French TV for 13 hours, 5 minutes.
Intensive reading of Percy Jackson et la Bataille du Labyrinthe for 1 hour.

Okay, not as bad as I thought. Obviously 1 hour of reading in a week isn't good, but 13 hours of French TV is not far off from my usual standard. I just knew that if anything was going to help me reach my 20+ hour goal this week, it was going to be listening and not reading. I was just too tired to do much intensive reading.

I basically only watched Dragon Ball Z Kai this week. I started the week with episode 4 and am currently on episode 39. Also rewatched S1E2 of Mortel, this time without subtitles.

The Way Forward

Hoping to get back on track and hit 20+ hours this week. Definitely need to read more this week. My minimum goal is to hit 30 minutes a day, or 3 hours 30 minutes a week.

I'm still working this week, so I'll probably wait until I'm on leave before I set some more ambitious goals.

Still doing Anki whenever I remember that I downloaded it again.
4 x
French Listening: 111 / 600

French Reading: 384 / 20000

French Writing Word Count: 1800 / 25000

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MorkTheFiddle
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Location: North Texas USA
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.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Once more into the fray // Robbie's French Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Mon Dec 27, 2021 6:16 pm

For the record, Christmas comes on December 25 every year. :) :) :)
Anyway, you're doing a good job with your studies, keep it up.
1 x
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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