Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish and French (and now, Esperanto!)

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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:29 am

21Oct22–23Oct22

On Friday I was very tired after work, and this weekend I had a lot of homework for the master's class I'm taking. As a result, I didn't follow the schedule I made at the beginning of the week.

French
21Oct22: I continued reading Petite sœur during my commute and reached page 123.

23Oct22: I had a 45-minute iTalki lesson with Marylène. We discussed the British monarchy, beauty pageants, and veganism. I didn't do a great job speaking. :( I had forgotten so many words. After the lesson, I made a bunch of flashcards.

Writing
22Oct22: I finished the character sheet for the main character in the contemporary fiction novel. Lately I've been itching to write some short stories, which I'm not very good at. I think it would be nice to make myself some kind of curriculum: I'll read some short stories, study the ones I like, and try to imitate some of the writing techniques in my own writing.

23Oct22: I read the short story Melting Point by Shaelin Bishop and took some notes on the story structure and word choice. Later I'd like to analyze the characters more closely.
7 x

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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sat Oct 29, 2022 11:37 pm

24Oct22–29Oct22

French
24Oct22: This morning I got on the train and started to read the next chapter of Petite sœur, but all of a sudden there was an announcement that the train would be stopping due to an “electric issue” downtown. I had to get off the train and ended up walking 1.5 miles to another station, where I took two more buses to get to work. So I didn’t get much reading done. :lol:

Later, I went over Chapters 1–10 of Phonétique essentielle du français. All the rules about liaison are hard to keep straight, and the book only mentions a few of them. I thought of an interesting exercise to try sometime: I’ll annotate one of the transcripts from InnerFrench, then listen to the podcast to see whether I was right about when liaison would occur. A podcast with more casual speech might be better, but I need an accurate transcript.

25Oct22: I listened to an episode of Amies and an episode of Peak TV.

26Oct22: I read a few pages of Petite sœur and finished another page of Édito.

27Oct22 and 28Oct22: More Petite sœur. When I started this book, I honestly didn't expect myself to finish it. Or at least, I thought all the unknown words would frustrate me, and I'd end up buying the Kindle version to use the pop-up dictionary. However, it's actually kind of nice not being able to look up every word. The only thing that bothers me is sometimes not knowing how to pronounce words; that's why I should do the exercise I mentioned above.

29Oct22: I was supposed to have a lesson with a new iTalki teacher, but he cancelled on me because he wasn't feeling well. Instead I did another page of Édito.

Writing
25Oct22: I thought some more about the contemporary fiction novel but I only wrote one sentence of notes. NaNoWriMo is coming up in one week and it hit me how unprepared I still am. Well, I have a full outline, which is more than I've had for some NaNoWriMos, and this novella will only be 20K words, but I have no idea what the tone of the novel will be. I should probably try to write a bit before November 1. Starting a new novel is so daunting though, that I keep putting it off. :lol:

27Oct22: I tried to write a little bit and decided to write the novella in first person point of view, present tense. I think that makes the most sense given the genre and the story itself.
6 x

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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Tue Nov 01, 2022 2:22 am

30Oct22–31Oct22

French
30Oct22: I did three or four more pages in Édito. I only have three more pages left in Unit 2, but tomorrow is Halloween, so I'll be busy waiting for trick-or-treaters and watching horror movies.

31Oct22: I read a few pages of Petite sœur.

Plans for Next Year
I really want to learn Modern Greek. Originally I was planning to start it in January 2023, but I still need to improve my French. This year I got a little sidetracked due to my trip to Spain, but next year I want to focus on bringing my French to an upper intermediate level. I played with Autolingual's study time calculator, which suggested studying for 3–5 hours per week for 11 months in order to reach B2. I can’t confirm if that's accurate, but I bet it's doable if those hours are very output-focused. So that’s my plan for next year: focus on French, especially speaking and writing! Then in 2024, pick up Modern Greek.

Writing
31Oct22: NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, so I made an effort to do some more prep before work. First I took some notes on the opening scene. I’ve planned on 20 scenes, with 1000 words per scene on average. However, I don’t think the first scene will be that long. As I was thinking about that scene, I suddenly felt that I should write in 3rd person POV past tense, not 1st person present tense as I’d decided last week. I guess I'll see how I feel like writing tomorrow. :lol:
3 x

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October Results

Postby philomath » Tue Nov 01, 2022 2:32 am

October Results

Spanish
[X] Finish reading El tiempo entre costuras.

French
[ ] Do Chapters 6–21 of Phonetique essentielle du français.
(I did Chapters 6–10.)
[ ] Review Unit 1 of Édito B1 and finish Unit 2.
(I got close: I only have three more pages of Unit 2!)
[ ] Have at least two iTalki lessons.
(I scheduled two, but the second teacher had to cancel on me.)

I studied French for 24 hours this month! Besides going through Édito, I spent most of that time reading Petite sœur.
4 x

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November Goals

Postby philomath » Tue Nov 01, 2022 2:49 am

November Goals

November will be a complicated month for language-learning. First, I want to participate in NaNoWriMo, although I'm planning to write 20,000 words instead of 50,000. Also, I'm going to go on vacation for a week, so I probably won't have any time for languages then. However, I'd like to make a lot of progress in Édito and finish reading Petite sœur.

I'm not sure what to do about Spanish. I wasn't planning to completely drop it, but I haven't been in the mood to have iTalki lessons.

French
[ ] Learn the rules for liaison.
[ ] Finish Unit 2 of Édito B1.
[ ] Finish Unit 3 of Édito B1.
[ ] Have at least two iTalki lessons.
[ ] Finish reading Petite sœur.

Writing
[ ] Write a 20,000 word novella.
5 x

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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:28 am

01Nov22–05Nov22

Spanish
02Nov22: I listened to an episode of Hoy en El País. I also booked a lesson with one of my former iTalki teachers, Meliana. She went on vacation for a few months, so I haven't had a lesson with her since April. I'm looking forward to hearing about what she did during her time off.

French
01Nov22: I finished Petite sœur! I liked it, although it's hard for me to judge books that I haven't read in English. It was 228 pages, so it counted for 4.5 "books" in the Super Challenge.

02Nov22: I decided to try reading Vingt mille lieues sous la mer, but I don't think I have the patience right now. I would love to read it someday though.

03Nov22: I listened to an episode of Transfert.

04Nov22: Today the Alliance Française of Boston had their annual book sale. I went early and got two books: L'Étranger by Albert Camus and Le problème avec Jane by Catherine Cusset. Together they were just $2. :) There were more people at the book sale than I expected, and lots of French-speaking children! I was too shy to speak French to the women at the check-out counter.

Writing
01Nov22: Day 1 of NaNoWriMo! Since I'm aiming for 20,000 words, I only have to write 715 words/day on weekdays and 1429 words on weekends. (I've accounted for several days when I won't be able to write at all.) I wrote 122 words before work and finished the rest after dinner. :) I ended up with 734 words for the day.

02Nov22: I wrote 732 words after work. I used to be able to write pretty fast, but so far I'm writing so slowly. As in, it took over two hours for me to write 732 words. I definitely can't continue at this pace! I probably shouldn't be too hard on myself though. This is the first project I've worked on all year, except for some short stories I tried to write. Maybe keeping track of my writing in this log will help me be more consistent next year.

03Nov22: I wrote 759 words. I started around 8PM, took a break for dinner, and finished by 10PM, so that's a little bit faster than before! Honestly, I wasn't having much fun writing. I started to wonder if this project is even worth working on. But once I finished my daily word goal, I started to feel more positive again. I've already completed 10% of my goal.

04Nov22: I only wrote 327 words. I was having trouble starting the new chapter.

05Nov22: I wrote 1476 words! This chapter was pretty fun to write. I've now written 4028 words, so I'm 20% done with my goal. :D
5 x

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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish, French, and Italian

Postby philomath » Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:17 am

06Nov22–08Nov22

French
07Nov22: I started reading L’étranger during my commute. The copy I bought is used, and someone annotated it. It’s fun reading along and seeing their notes: for example, they underlined "J'ai eu un moment l'impression ridicule qu'ils etaient là pour me juger." Then in the corner they wrote again: "juger". It's been a while since I read a book with a more analytical mindset as opposed to just reading for fun. I'm enjoying it so far. Later, I did two more pages of Édito.

08Nov22: I reread Chapter 1 of L’étranger because I wanted to look up some words that I hadn't understood yesterday. Later, I finished Unit 2 of Édito.

Esperanto
08Nov22: Yes, a plot twist: Esperanto! Sprachprofi made a post challenging people to reach C1 in Esperanto. Except for a day or two in high school, I've never really considered learning Esperanto. However, I think I'll give this challenge a try because it's not much of a time commitment. Also, it sounds like there will be some kind of online study group, which would be fun! I bought the ebook version of Teach Yourself Complete Esperanto and did the introductory chapters (pronunciation and useful expressions). I made flashcards for all the words and phrases introduced. I really like how Esperanto sounds! And the pronunciation is nice and straightforward.

Writing
06Nov22: I wrote 1720 words. The first 1000 words or so were a real slog, but after that it got easier.

07Nov22: I have a busy week at work coming up, so I edited my writing plan (which I created using Pacemaker Planner). Now I just have to write 390 words/day during the next three days. I ended up writing 488 words today though.

08Nov22: I wrote 463 words. Today's writing went pretty fast, which was nice.
7 x

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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish and French (and now, Esperanto!)

Postby philomath » Thu Nov 10, 2022 12:39 am

Today I was riding the train, holding my copy of L’étranger, when someone said, “I love that book! Are you reading it in French?” When I said yes, she told me that she studied French in high school and sometimes practices speaking with someone she knows at work. Then she just switched to French and we had a little conversation! I admired her courage because I always feel self-conscious speaking my target languages with people other than teachers. However it seemed like we had a similar level of French, so I felt pretty comfortable. Unfortunately before I knew it, we reached my stop and I had to get off the train. I’ll probably never see her again. :(
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish and French (and now, Esperanto!)

Postby IronMike » Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:27 pm

Did you download the TY app? The Complete Esperanto audio is free!
0 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2022 Log: Spanish and French (and now, Esperanto!)

Postby philomath » Fri Nov 11, 2022 1:53 am

IronMike wrote:Did you download the TY app? The Complete Esperanto audio is free!

I did! It's really nice that it's free.
0 x


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