gzt's ambling log

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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:24 am

Long time listener, first time caller. I followed this stuff before even the HTLAL forum days back when it was that one guy's site. I did some French in school and have intermittently kept up with it (reading news, watching movies), I decided to write the log here because I'm trying to get back into it. I studied a little Russian on my own a long time ago but put it aside. I did two years of Sanskrit and one year of Attic Greek in school. And probably have, as my best language, Esperanto, but I have little occasion to use it.

I decided a few days ago to pick up my French again while trying to solidify the quality of my Esperanto -- the thing about Esperanto is that it's easy to get to a decent level but hard to actually be a good Esperantist. I bought a couple novels in it to read. I'm working through the FSI phonology course for French to get my ears and tongue used to it again. Reading French isn't so bad right now, but there are currently some big holes in my vocabulary and I need to be reminded of the subjunctive, things of that nature.

Current plan of attack:

French:
1. Finish FSI French phonology.
2. Maybe blitz through FSI French once that's done, at least until it gets sticky/my brain dies. This step may be optional.
3. Work through Assimil French at the same time.
4. Put on some French podcasts or news sometimes. Or maybe TV shows I know dubbed in French (not sure where to find).
5. French vocab on Anki (slowly).

Esperanto:
1. Read novels.
2. Listen to Pola Retradio, 3ZZZ, and kern.punkto.
3. Maybe someday find people to talk to.

I was tempted to try to learn Spanish or Mandarin instead of refreshing my French. Or refreshing my now quite stagnant Sanskrit or Greek. Spanish is useful because here in the United States it's what I'm most likely to run into, but I don't have anybody to talk to right now, so why start something new? Some regrets: while I was in grad school, I definitely had groups of Spanish speakers and Mandarin speakers to talk to if I wanted to, but those days are past.
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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
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: gzt's ambling log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Sep 24, 2022 5:59 pm

gzt wrote:Current plan of attack:

French:
4. Put on some French podcasts or news sometimes. Or maybe TV shows I know dubbed in French (not sure where to find).

From JackB's log, the popular series Kaamelott has French subtitles. English subtitles, too. Here is the first episode: .
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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

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:34 pm

For some reason got the idea to crank a lot of Duolingo this weekend to review some vocabulary and grammar. I've done the whole Esperanto tree and only a little bit of the French - not really a fan of it for anything but vocab and review. When I started French it was before stories and podcasts, which I think are good for learning. And for Esperanto I think the language is easy enough that it provides some good practice for learners if they get instruction elsewhere. I have a quite long streak where for most of it I was just doing one Esperanto lesson per day.
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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sun Sep 25, 2022 12:58 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:
gzt wrote:Current plan of attack:

French:
4. Put on some French podcasts or news sometimes. Or maybe TV shows I know dubbed in French (not sure where to find).

From JackB's log, the popular series Kaamelott has French subtitles. English subtitles, too. Here is the first episode: .

I'll give it a whirl!
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Amandine
Orange Belt
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2021 8:45 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B1/B2), Russian (B1), Romanian (A1, casual playing on Duolingo), Yiddish (ditto)
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby Amandine » Sun Sep 25, 2022 11:49 pm

4. Put on some French podcasts or news sometimes. Or maybe TV shows I know dubbed in French (not sure where to find).


If you have access to the Disney Plus streaming platform, there are a lot of well know American TV shows and movies with French dubs on there. I think because OG Disney was always a global company working in a lot of different language markets and it has gobbled up so many other companies over the years its library is vast and more important than size, most of them have other language options available. I'm on a mission to watch all of The X-Files in French dub on Disney. Netflix has a certain amount of course, but Disney has an awful lot more, and many more familiar classics.
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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:41 pm

I don't have Disney plus but I might check it out for that reason.

A combination of using double XP boosts and having some stuff at level 5 I could do "legendary" on very quickly got me the most useless accomplishment in my life: #1 in diamond league. I can now mostly jettison duolingo and use real sources.
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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Tue Sep 27, 2022 2:47 am

Looked at the Dialang tests for French, took the listening and reading. Estimates of B1 and B2 respectively, about what I expected -- my audio comprehension is quite rusty right now, reading vocabulary is a little rough. Not sure if I'll take the other tests, it's a lot of work and I should save some for later. I don't know how well calibrated the tests are (definitely take with a huge grain of salt), but I do know how they felt: listening was just rough, reading I just have some holes in the vocab to plug.
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DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1968
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Sep 27, 2022 5:14 am

gzt wrote:Not sure if I'll take the other tests, it's a lot of work and I should save some for later. I don't know how well calibrated the tests are (definitely take with a huge grain of salt), but I do know how they felt: listening was just rough, reading I just have some holes in the vocab to plug.
TV5Monde.com have a mock TCF [Test de Connaissance du Français] test on their website. Next time you want to take a test you could try that one. Not now though! :-)
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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:38 pm

Starting to use lingq to provide sources of audio with transcripts. Not paying attention to the lingqs and vocab because they are annoying and I've already run out. I already feel like my ears are getting used to this again after a couple weeks. Still rough without the text crutch.
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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Thu Sep 29, 2022 3:13 pm

I will finish FSI French phonology tonight. Started reading La aventuroj de Alico en Mirlando. Also started with an audiobook of the French Alice in Wonderland but I'm not sure if I'll keep it up, the voice of the reader is pretty annoying. Will stick with other French audio content for now.

Started watching Kaamelott per the recommendation above. Not very far in because I'm trying to understand it well and it's hard audio -- fast, slangy, but also words outside of usual vocabulary (eg, first episode: now I know what a female hare is called!). Somebody elsewhere pointed to the Language Reactor extension which is really helping -- you can stop and go line by line and repeat things. Divided about whether to try to hear it all and really break it down line by line until I understand before looking at subtitles or let it all wash over me as I read the French subtitles. Currently doing a bit of both. At the very least I should always go once without subtitles, because otherwise I'm tempted to look at the subs and my brain will tune out the audio. I like how it's a lot of very short episodes. But, generally, I feel like my listening comprehension is catching up more to my reading comprehension every day.
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