maplevinegar's french log

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maplevinegar
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maplevinegar's french log

Postby maplevinegar » Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:46 pm

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to self-learning French.

About two months ago I decided to begin learning French on my own. I took French at school from the ages of 10-18, but didn't really learn a whole lot so I'm giving it another shot.

I've got a rough plan outlined which I've detailed below. At the moment I only have about 30-45 minutes a day to dedicate to active study, so I'm focusing a lot on the skills of listening and reading. I know eventually I will want to focus on conversation, but I'm trying not to be a perfectionist and just accomplish what I can in the time I have.

What I've already done:

-Pimsleur 1A and 1B - I spent about five weeks on the first 30 or so hours of Pimsleur, and I decided that the Pimsleur approach really isn't for me. I know some people really enjoy it, but after completing the first level, I decided to look for some other resources.

What I"m doing right now:

-FSI French Phonology - I'm on Chapter 4 of this course as of the writing of this post. I spend about three days on each chapter. I listen to the first tape twice, once on day 1 and once on day 2. Then on day 3 I move on to the second tape, reading practice and tests. If I really struggled with a section, I go back and practice sections of it as I have time.

-Duolingo Stories - I don't love Duolingo as a whole, however Duolingo stories are great listening practice. I earn enough Duolingo crowns to unlock more stories, then listen to them without looking at the screen.

-Dedicated listening practice - I know in the past I have really struggled with listening to French so I'm focusing a lot of my effort on this at the moment. Currently I aim to get about 10-20 minutes of listening practice in a day. It's possible as I move out of the beginner stage I can get in more listening, but that seems to be the sweet spot of how much time I can carve out and how much listening I can do without fatiguing. Right now I'm using "French Comprehensible Input" on Youtube. He has a playlist of A1 level videos that I've been working through. First I listen to the audio only with the video minimized. Then I watch it again either with French subtitles or without, depending on how well I understood the video.

What I'll be doing after I finish FSI Phonology:

-Duolingo Stories - Continuing with Duolingo, especially the stories, as long as I feel I'm getting benefits from it.

-Continued listening practice - When I finish up with A1 on "French Comprehensible Input" I've got a few more beginner-level Youtube channels and podcasts lined up - Alice Ayel, Lawless French and the Duolingo Podcast [This podcast is probably slightly more than beginner].

-French in Action Part 1 - I've got the textbook, workbook, audio and videos of Part 1, so I'll be diving into it as soon as I wrap up the FSI Phonology course. I'm not planning a whole lot past this because I'm not sure how long this will take. It's a dense course, and unfortunately my time is limited.

I know eventually I'd like to work on speaking, but adding in another resource or weekly commitment such as an iTalki lesson or finding a conversation partner isn't something I can commit to at the moment. It's possible my plans will change, but for now my current arrangement is working out pretty well so I'm going to continue down this path and see where I am in 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months time.
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Carmody
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby Carmody » Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:57 pm

Welcome to the Forum. You sound as if you have lots of materials that you are working with.

Since I am one of the very few people here who has actually done French in Action I would like to suggest that you not spend time with that. It was great in its time but times have changed and there are other materials out there that you could spend your time on far more efficiently.

Also you may wish to consider some reading materials in French literature. There is a section on the Forum called A French Book Reading Resources and it is located at
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10113
Starting on the first page of it and going through it should give you some good ideas of what to read.

Language learning is best done if it is mixed with enjoyable exercises and book reading can be very enjoyable.

Good luck with your journey and don't forget to keep it an enjoyable one.
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maplevinegar
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby maplevinegar » Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:12 am

Hello Carmody! Thank you for the kind welcome!

I am curious what it was about French in Action that you disliked? I am definitely open to other suggestions to start on once I finish the FSI Phonology course. I picked up FIA because the course appeared to have a strong emphasis on audio and reading, so thought it would be a good fit for me, but I'm open to trying something else out.

Thank you for the book list! I'm excited to take a look :)
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Carmody
Black Belt - 1st Dan
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby Carmody » Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:06 pm

Well, it has been a long time, many years in fact, since I did the course. So I cannot remember the entire list but I will mention a few.

To start on the positive note, I confess to my having fallen in love with the female star Mireille Darc. Although she passed on many years ago, she was definitely a bright spot on the show and cause for me to continue with it. Also on the upside were all the videos, and if you want to do just the videos then that is fine, but moving beyond that to the texts and the exercises seemed punishing to me after awhile.

If you wish, you could search this Forum on the topic and see what comes up for you, but I think you will find that most people have just not used it.

Many people have used Assimil and found it useful.

Assimil French With Ease Paperback – March 1, 2011
https://www.amazon.com/Assimil-French-Ease-Beginners-Book/dp/8183070221/ref=sr_1_14?crid=1SOQD0D3RJKJ6&keywords=assimil+french+with+ease&qid=1655556527&s=books&sprefix=assimil%2Cstripbooks%2C59&sr=1-14

Many of us on the Forum have used different sources for learning French and ultimately you have to choose which is best for you at this stage. There is no one size fits all when it comes to searching for The Tool to use.

Grammar and vocabulary are obviously essential and are needed as a foundation. A good place to look for resources is at
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2914

As this thread grows, more people will chime in and tell you what they like and why.

My only suggestion is that you remember to enjoy the journey and not get bogged down in the weeds.

And before I forget, I suggest you start a Language Log and fill in your profile so people can get a better idea of where you are going and what you need.
4 x

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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.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jun 18, 2022 5:51 pm

Carmody wrote:To start on the positive note, I confess to my having fallen in love with the female star Mireille Darc. Although she passed on many years ago, she was definitely a bright spot on the show and cause for me to continue with it.

Not a big deal, but many fans of the series fell in love with Valérie Allain rather than Mireille Darc?
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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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Carmody
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1747
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:00 am
Location: NYC, NY
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby Carmody » Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:52 pm

MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:51 am
Carmody wrote:
To start on the positive note, I confess to my having fallen in love with the female star Mireille Darc. Although she passed on many years ago, she was definitely a bright spot on the show and cause for me to continue with it.

Not a big deal, but many fans of the series fell in love with Valérie Allain rather than Mireille Darc?
I stand corrected. Yes, Valérie Allain !
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maplevinegar
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Languages: English (N), French (Beginner)
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby maplevinegar » Sat Jun 25, 2022 7:18 pm

My weekly update:

-Finished chapters 4 and 5 of FSI French Phonology
-Started chapter 6 of French Phonology
-Worked through a bunch of the videos on the A1 playlist of French Comprehensible Input on YouTube

Chapter 5 of FSI French Phonology really upped the difficulty. The first few chapters have four short sentences they focus on, and started in chapter 5 they introduce 6 sentences, some of which have multiple phrases. I'm still liking the course and planning on finishing it, but sometimes they focus too much on teaching the sentence and having you memorize it versus actually working on the pronunciation. The longer sentence / conversation memorization kind of detracts from the phonology learning which is ostensibly the goal of the course. Still, I do feel I'm learning a lot and I can hear the differences in my pronunciation from going through this course.

The French Comprehensible Input channel is an amazing resource, and I can't believe it exists on the internet for free.
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maplevinegar
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby maplevinegar » Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:55 pm

Another week, another language log:

-Finished chapters 6, 7 and 8 in FSI phonology
-Still working my way slowly through the A1 video playlist of French Comprehensible Input on Youtube

I really liked two of the videos this week from French Comprehensible Input. In the first video, the host had an informal Zoom chat with a French-speaking friend, and in the second video he explained some parts of the conversation in very easy French. I wound up watching the first video again after watching the explanation and felt like I could understand a lot more.
5 x

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maplevinegar
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Re: maplevinegar's french log

Postby maplevinegar » Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:08 pm

It has been a while since I was able to update. I spent two of the last two and a half weeks too sick to study anything, and the other half of a week has been playing catch up from being sick for so long. Anyway, I'm back to my routine.

I finished the FSI French Phonology course, and while I overall enjoyed it, I think my feelings about it are mixed. If I could do it all over again, I may have waited until I had more French ability to do the course, so maybe after doing a different beginner program.

Pros:
-There are a lot of exercises where they play examples of the right and wrong way to say something. The tapes do this not only for pronunciation but for rhythm and intonation as well. Having the right / wrong contrast was extremely helpful for me.
-At some points the book describes lip and tongue placement for difficult sounds. Anywhere that this was detailed in the book immediately made a huge difference in pronunciation.
-There was a lot of emphasis on counting syllables and recognizing the different types of nasal vowels. I believe it gave me a better ear for listening and imitating.
-I was able to correct some bad pronunciation habits I had, and I noticed a marked improvement of my pronunciation from start to finish.
-It's free!

Cons:
-Some of the tapes are not in great shape. This course is free, so I hate to complain, but I especially had trouble making out the conversations on tape 10.
-My biggest complaint: The length of the conversations got to be a bit ridiculous, and this is why I would recommend people waiting to do this course until they've got more vocabulary than I did going into it. As you progress in the course, the sample conversations get longer until there's 7-8 lengthy conversation lines to learn. The book expects you to memorize the sentences but not worry about the meaning too much. Well, the issue with that is you wind up just memorizing what is (to your brain if you're a beginner) nonsense sounds that you're trying to match to text. The memorization began to take away from the pronunciation focus when the sentences became much longer. If my vocabulary was larger going into this course, I wouldn't be trying to do both at once. This might not both some people, but I felt like I was sacrificing focus on pronunciation for memorizing sentences and wound up just working off of the written conversation at the beginning of each chapter for most of the time.

I haven't had much chance to work on the French Comprehensible Input youtube channel, but I'm hoping to start back on that this week. I am also hoping to start French in Action this weekend.
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