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

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rdearman
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Fri Nov 09, 2018 11:11 am

What have I been doing? Not much. Over the last week I had 3-4 French language exchanges cancelled by my partner. However, I have managed 3 LE's in Italian so it wasn't a complete bust. I continue to whittle away at the Reacher book in Italian. but have only managed 50 pages. I did one language learning session with my tutor (and my neighbour) however these sessions are becoming less relevant for me. Typically we are just being asked for the translation of a French word and then make a sentence. But to be honest I could do this with Anki and not spend any money. I would like to make the sessions more productive, but I don't know how, and in addition I don't want to offend my tutor. She is a nice little old lady who lives nearby, so I can't be as forceful as I would with an iTalki tutor.

I haven't really done any work whatsoever on Setswana. But I have been getting fired up about Mandarin again. I've been watching a Singaporean show I used to watch called "Say It!" which used to be on YouTube but it seems to have been dropped off and I can only find two episodes. I did manage to find Maxtoons which is a channel from Singapore to teach Mandarin to children. So some might be interested in this.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDW_2 ... 3hxVbdZMmg

They have clips about various topics like Public Speaking (below)

Cartoons (Obviously)

Kids as reporters programs


So basically I've just been watching some videos and listening to some French radio stations on radio.garden while I'm on the computer.

I've stopped doing the nanowrimo, only did about 2 days. I might pick it back up again in a little while. I still need to do something with the French story, since my French friend is waiting for the next instalment. :)
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Tue Nov 13, 2018 9:36 pm

I'm still fired up about Mandarin, and I'm spending a lot of time watching Singaporean TV. I've found "Toggle" which is a great online resource of TV shows. You have to have a VPN or do some IP spoofing to watch the videos. https://video.toggle.sg/en/ but I'm really enjoying the variety shows. Because it is Singapore you can pick the sub-titles you want, English, Mandarin, Malay.

I've done some conversations this week in both French and Italian, and I did one Mandarin lesson with Dandelion Ma. I've also picked up my copy of "Le Chinois sans peine" and have done the first couple of lessons. I figure this helps with both French and Mandarin, so I plan to spend at least 20 minutes per day on this resource.

I spent 2 hours going over my French story with my friend and there were a lot of corrections. It was good because I could ask questions and she was telling my why I got something wrong, but also more "natural" ways of saying the same thing. Often my French tends to be directly translated English, and so having options for more natural language and word usage is very good.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Nov 13, 2018 11:21 pm

rdearman wrote:It was good because I could ask questions and she was telling my why I got something wrong, but also more "natural" ways of saying the same thing. Often my French tends to be directly translated English, and so having options for more natural language and word usage is very good.
Reineke linked to a website the other day where the learner described a similar thing, as his regular form of LE
Another of my favourite techniques is to tell something to a speaker of the language and have that person tell the same thing back to me in correct, natural form. I then tell the same thing again, bearing in mind the way in which I have just heard it. This cycle can repeat itself two or three times… An essential feature of this technique is that the text we are swapping back and forth originates with me, so that I control the content and do not have to worry about generating nonverbal images to match what is in someone else’s mind.

https://scottthornburyblog.com/2013/11/ ... king-cure/

You mentioned you that were unhappy about how your italian sessions with your neighbour were structured. Could you bend them to a format like that?
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:02 am

DaveAgain wrote:https://scottthornburyblog.com/2013/11/ ... king-cure/

You mentioned you that were unhappy about how your Italian sessions with your neighbour were structured. Could you bend them to a format like that?

That was an interesting read. Strangely my neighbour is Italian, but she is teaching me (and another neighbour) French. She lived in Belgium for years (she is 83). However, we did have a discussion about this this week, mainly because my other neighbour is also frustrated with the word translation exercises. So we've agreed to have conversations, but when we did this before it was always "tell me what you did this week", to which the answer is normally. "I commuted to work, I worked, I commuted home, I ate, I slept, I repeated." It was a very rare occasion when something interesting happened. So this time we've agreed to work with interview type open ended questions like: "Tell me about a time when you first travelled on an airplane.", "Tell me about a time when you had to give up something important". And things where you try to describe the plot of a film you've seen without giving away the name and see if they can guess the film.

That link had a lot of tips, so I'll try to incorporate some of that as well. Thanks.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:49 pm

rdearman wrote:So we've agreed to have conversations, but when we did this before it was always "tell me what you did this week", to which the answer is normally. "I commuted to work, I worked, I commuted home, I ate, I slept, I repeated." It was a very rare occasion when something interesting happened. So this time we've agreed to work with interview type open ended questions like: "Tell me about a time when you first travelled on an airplane.", "Tell me about a time when you had to give up something important". And things where you try to describe the plot of a film you've seen without giving away the name and see if they can guess the film.
I borrowed a book from the library the other week, that I think might have been designed with conversational classes in mind, "Cles pour la france".

The format was two or three paragraphs about something. "metro, boulot, dodo" was one :-), then some questions on the text, to start a discussion.

There's a "french cultural icons" class at the instituit francias in london that I think must use this as their guide because all the icons mentioned in their blurb are in the book.
Do you know L’Abbé Pierre, Belmondo, Coco Chanel, Catherine Deneuve, Coluche, la dictée, Perrier, la Cocotte-minute, Canard Enchaîné, les grandes écoles, ‘Métro, boulot, Dodo’, la 2CV, Sempé, la pétanque, la rentrée, le Tiercé, Victor Hugo?
Improve your communication with French people
Join in everyday conversation in France with confidence
Understand the underlying cultural message of your French counterparts

Teaching approach: You will read and watch materials related to iconic symbols (celebrities, gastronomy, institutions, daily life and language). You will discuss icons with the support of quotes, opinions and questions.

https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/fr ... e-society/
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Fri Nov 16, 2018 11:47 pm

As I sat down tonight looking through the forum and moaning to myself about all the language learning I didn't do, I thought I would list all the stuff I did do this week. Actually I haven't done too badly.

I have had 2 language exchanges, one French one Italian. I've binge watched two Singaporean TV series in Mandarin and managed one lesson with my Mandarin teacher. I also watched about 4-5 hours worth of French TV trying to get a feel for how Brexit was being reported on the otherside of the channel. I watched a couple of debate shows and a lot of normal newscasts. I suppose as far as my languages go the real looser has been Setswana since I didn't actively do anything with it at all this week.

I have access to Botswana radio stations, so I need to make a point of listening for 30 minutes per day and trying to puzzle out what is happening. I need to get back to reading the bible in Setswana too.

I do have a tendency to do languages in fits and starts. Like recently doing a shedload of Mandarin with the others tailing off behind, previously it was Setswana that got all the attention.

On an interesting side note, I've been put forward for a job in Paris and should be having an interview in French soon. That should be a real experiance! I don't hold out much hope of getting the job but more for lack of skill in other areas than the language. But it would be nice to do a 6 month contract in Paris, that should improve the French a little. :lol:

One of the Mandarin shows I binge watched was about SINGese (Singaporean Chinese) which I didn't know was a thing. I have been to Singapore, I spent 2 months there working, and I knew about SINGlish but didn't realise they has a simalar thing going with Chinese. So the show goes through the entemology of these SINGese words and their origins. The show is a fun variety show, but very informative.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby Adrianslont » Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:28 am

Hi Rick. What’s the name of this Singaporean tv show? Where do you watch it? YouTube? It sounds interesting - even though I’m not learning Mandarin I somehow know a few dozen words and I’m generally interested in Singapore.

Every week you tell us how little you have studied and it’s always more than me! :(
Last edited by Adrianslont on Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby DaveAgain » Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:37 am

rdearman wrote: I also watched about 4-5 hours worth of French TV trying to get a feel for how Brexit was being reported on the otherside of the channel. I watched a couple of debate shows and a lot of normal newscasts.
I tried doing that a couple of months ago. On the plus side, a british RFI journo and a british Economist journo being on french telly while sounding very very english convinced me not to worry about pronunciation. :-)
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:43 am

Adrianslont wrote:Hi Rick. What’s the name of this Singaporean tv show? Where do you watch it? YouTube? It sounds interesting - even though I’m not learning Mandarin I somehow know a few dozen words and I’m generally interested in Singapore.

Every week you tell us how little you have studied and it’s always more than me! :(

The show is called SINGese and you can watch it on the Singapore catch-up TV toggle.

https://video.toggle.sg/en/

I had to spoof my IP address to be Singaporean because of Geo blocking.

They also have channel 5 English catch-up and some malay and tamil language shows.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Sat Nov 17, 2018 9:49 am

DaveAgain wrote:
rdearman wrote: I also watched about 4-5 hours worth of French TV trying to get a feel for how Brexit was being reported on the otherside of the channel. I watched a couple of debate shows and a lot of normal newscasts.
I tried doing that a couple of months ago. On the plus side, a british RFI journo and a british Economist journo being on french telly while sounding very very english convinced me not to worry about pronunciation. :-)


I noticed that too with a couple of English people taking part in the debates. One guy was quite slow and obviously needed some time to construct sentences. Although his vocabulary was larger than mine he was much slower. So fluidity isn't a major issue either it seems.
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