Rdearman 2016-24 You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.

[basica]

Also we're thinking about having some guests on in the new year if anyone is interested?

If you're looking for perpetual beginners, look no further. I'm your man

[PeterMollenburg]

Also we're thinking about having some guests on in the new year if anyone is interested?

And if you’re looking for someone to rant about the state of the world via crazy taboo political discussions (and a hint of French), look no further!

[rdearman]

Also we're thinking about having some guests on in the new year if anyone is interested?

And if you’re looking for someone to rant about the state of the world via crazy taboo political discussions (and a hint of French), look no further!

It might be interesting to get you to do an in-depth review of various courses you've used. Although a 3 way conference call between UK, USA, and Australia might be a little difficult to organise!

If you're looking for perpetual beginners, look no further. I'm your man

Perhaps, although to be fair Dave is much worse than you! He only ever learns 10-20 words and then moves on to the next language.

[jeff_lindqvist]

He only ever learns 10-20 words and then moves on to the next language.

Sounds like me...

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Perhaps, although to be fair Dave is much worse than you! He only ever learns 10-20 words and then moves on to the next language.

hahahahaha that's hilarious!!!!

[rdearman]

I've finally managed to complete my 5 times rescheduled French lesson. This was the lady who was recently married and hence all the shuffling about. I have very mixed feelings about this session. Firstly it was again "audio only" because she didn't use her camera. I understand this because I'm sure she gets a lot of people perving and doesn't need any more. But I find it very, very difficult to speak and understand French without any visual clues from the persons body language. She spoke at a normal native pace the entire time, she didn't slow down for me, nor did she ever use a single English word, other than typing a translation for a word I didn't understand in the textbox. She used a cartoon as an instruction medium and had me read it and paraphrase it back to her, and/or translate into English.

She seemed to have a set lesson plan she was pretty determined to use. It took about 30 minutes of this for her to realise I could read every word of the comic aloud and understand all of it with the exception of 2 words both slang. My problem isn't speaking, reading, my problem is listening comprehension! I think if I could just get her to knock off the "teaching" part and just talk to me, this would be a really good tutor for me. She has a no-holds-barred French only style, and she speaks at speed. Of course, the other problem with being able to understand all the text and translate it and paraphrase it, is it gives a very false impression of how much I understand when being spoken too.

At the start it also took about five minutes for my brain to realise: Shite, he is doing this French rubbish again and I'm not going to get any help from body language, so I need to switch into French mode and listen hard. It has been a little couple of weeks since someone went full French on me for an hour and it took a little while to warm up the brain cells.

I've done all my scheduled lessons now and I doubt I'll be doing any over XMas. I probably will not have the luxury of time in the new year to schedule them when I have the house to myself. This last lesson has shown me again just how little I understand spoken French and it is extremely frustrating. It occurred to me afterwards that I really should be recording these lessons and going back over the parts I don't understand. If I were to rate my lessons in difficulty from 1-5 with 5 being the hardest, and most incomprehensible, then this lesson would be a 4. Most of the others range from 2-3. My French really is skewed towards reading and speaking, while listening and writing are almost non-existent.

[Carmody]

Rick

Thanks so much for your very honest appraisal; it is tremendously helpful. I am setting up for my first Skype session with a teacher in Lyon, France in 5 hrs. and your guidance, as always, has been absolutely tremendously useful.

You have this mellow easy going quality that I believe is absolutely necessary for me to cultivate if I am going to really be able to converse. That is why your YouTube sessions are so helpful to me; they help me to learn how to chill.

I of course have different scripts prepared, but my main goal is to relax like Rick.

ps: loved your illustrations/photos for the recent YouTube session.

[rdearman]

I've done a holiday message, but a quick update about my plans for the next year. Basically, I don't have any.

I'm starting a new job in the New Year and I will be commuting via train this time. So this means that while I will not always be guaranteed a seat, I can now spend time reading. I'm planning on reading a lot of books either in French, Italian or English. I may start listening to some Mandarin pimsleur or similar, for the few minutes I walk from the train station to the office, but that will be it. I'm thinking French to work, Italian home.

I can also watch films on the tablet if I want, so the world is my Oyster as far as media goes and I'm not stuck with listening only while in the car. Since I'll be working in London it will also be easier for me to get to meetups and perhaps even that London based, French toastmasters someone mentioned.

I have been toying with the idea of learning Czech since I bought three films with Czech & French on them while in Slovakia last year. So I could do some subs2srs experimentally but dabbling in languages is a dangerous game. It can lead you down a path of which involves a lot of effort! Wanderlust really isn't a major problem for me, because now that I know the effort involved, I'm very disinclined to carry on. I have no interest in becoming a hyper-polyglot, or even a polyglot (What is the definition of a polyglot anyway?)

Now I need to update my log so it has 2018 in the title too! I can't be bothered to keep making different logs, so you'll all just have to keep reading this one.

[DaveBee]

Since I'll be working in London it will also be easier for me to get to meetups and perhaps even that London based, French toastmasters someone mentioned.

I came across a Language Exchange club the other day, Mundo Lingo, they have 3 weekly events in London: Camden, Clapham, and Shoreditch.

http://mundolingo.org/london

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =19&t=7351

[Peluche]

I'm not in some deep depression or anything, it is just that I have an anki card (actually 6 - one in each deck I make) which pops up on occasion and the only thing it says is: "Memento mori" which is Latin for “Remember death.” I want this more or less random reminder to hit me and give me occasion to think that if I were to die tomorrow, am I doing today what I'd want to be? It popped up this morning, and I took a little bit of time to sit down and to evaluate the things I'm doing and wonder if it is really what I want.

Language learning is bloody hard work, but I've met a lot of great people and experienced a lot of cool things because of it, but it it something I need to get to a C level? Don't know. So, I have been questioning what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I have another question dear readers, if you're reading this log and you have a C level in a language. Why should I continue if I'm going to continue to live in a mono-lingual English country? Is there a factor I'm not taking into account? Something which will need more than holiday French or Italian? I've no plans to live or work there, so why should I bother?

Given that you don't know how long you will live, it might make perfect sense to postpone (if not shelve) going to C1 for now. There might be other higher priority tasks you might want to accomplish, and once they are done, you can come back to working towards C1