Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some German

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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:27 am

23Jan23–26Jan23

French
23Jan23: I continued reading L'Inconnue de la Seine.

24Jan23: I listened to an episode of French Expat and continued reading L'Inconnue de la Seine. I have the paperback version, but I ended up buying the ebook so I could read more conveniently. The beginning of the book was a little boring, but now the actual mystery element has been introduced.

25Jan23: I wrote 163 words.

26Jan23: I read more of L'Inconnue de la Seine.

Esperanto
25Jan23: I listened to an episode of Pola Retradio. I didn’t really understand much, but it was good practice deciphering numbers because they kept mentioning different years.

Later, I started Unit 8 of Teach Yourself Complete Esperanto. Now that I've reviewed the previous chapters and I feel a little less behind, I don't want to rush through the book. So I made flashcards for the vocabulary at the beginning and read through the first conversation.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Mon Jan 30, 2023 2:17 am

27Jan23–29Jan23

French
28Jan23: I had a 1-hour lesson with Kevin. We had an entertaining conversation about the pros and cons of being a woman. I did a better job at speaking than I expected, given that I hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks. I just made a couple of pronunciation errors, such as saying "emporter" rather than "importer".

Comments
I didn’t feel very productive this week, but I had a good French lesson which is mostly what matters! I need to think more about how to organize my goals moving forward, so I’m not going to post goals for the upcoming week yet…
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:53 pm

30Jan23–01Feb23

Spanish
30Jan23: I listened to El Hilo for 10 minutes.

French
30Jan23: I listened to Transfert for 20 minutes.

31Jan23: I spent a while reviewing my Anki cards; I had let a lot pile up again.

01Feb23: I listened to Transfert for 40 minutes.

Comments
Lately I’ve been itching to spend more time on Spanish. For one thing, I miss listening to podcasts and keeping up to date with current events in Latin America. I also met a woman who just moved to Boston from Ecuador and is still learning English. We exchanged a few messages in Spanish and I was frustrated that I kept second-guessing myself.

I might listen to my favorite Spanish podcasts more often, but I want to resist the urge to do more. Lately I really feel like I’m making progress in French. And between that, Esperanto, and writing, I don’t have time for another language!
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:01 am

02Feb23

French
I listened to another episode of French Expat and then watched an episode of The Ultimatum: France. I was able to understand it pretty well without subtitles!

Esperanto
I finished Unit 8 of Teach Yourself Complete Esperanto. Sometimes I feel like I should stop learning Esperanto, since it's taking my time away from more important projects. However, I've already gotten so far in the textbook that I don't want to give up. If I stop, I might never pick up Esperanto again. So I'm going to continue going through the book, but I'm not going to worry too much about developing my active skills for now.

Comments
Weekly goals aren't working for me, so I'll just go back to posting normally. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance all of these different hobbies with work and getting my master's degree. Tomorrow I took the day off from work, so I'd like to make some progress on my writing projects. I also booked another French lesson for Sunday.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:55 pm

03Feb23–05Feb23

French
03Feb23: I watched another episode of The Ultimatum: France.

04Feb23: I recorded myself speaking for 10 minutes. I just rambled about random things, so it didn't feel very useful. I planned on doing some of the speaking exercises in Édito later, but I didn't get around to it.

05Feb23: I had a one-hour lesson with Marylène. We discussed Girl Scout cookies, the conference that I attended last week, and weddings. I didn't feel happy with my speaking skills, but we still had a fun conversation! I need to practice speaking more often. :/

Writing
03Feb23: Today I made a list of very general ideas for my next novel project. I also wrote down ideas to improve a short story I wrote a while ago. I made sure to do this before I did anything language-related, and I was able to focus for an hour or so. I think my usual problem is that I get too excited about French and Esperanto, and then it's hard to get into a creative headspace.

04Feb23: I looked through the file where I keep old ideas and pulled out the ones that I might want to use for my next novel. I kept getting distracted, but at least I made some progress!

05Feb23: I took some more notes on the short story. I think I'm ready to write the second draft! I didn't spend long on writing today, but I was proud of myself for successfully setting aside time to write three days in a row. I always considered myself more of a nighttime writer because I have more energy at night, but I think I'm also more distracted then. I want to try establishing a morning writing habit, which might be more difficult when I have work.

Comments
I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'm going to Paris for the first time next month! More specifically, I'm going to London for a week with my boyfriend, and we decided that we might as well take the train to Paris for a day. I'm excited to explore the city without committing to an entire vacation there. I've always heard that Parisians are very rude, even from other French people...
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:07 pm

06Feb23–08Feb23

French
06Feb23: I listened to an episode of Peak TV.

07Feb23: I listened to an episode of French Expat. I also started reading L'Inconnue de la Seine from the beginning, this time listening to the audiobook at the same time. I felt like I hadn't been paying enough attention, and listening to the audiobook might help me focus. I really need to pick up the pace with reading if I want to finish the Super Challenge! It's just tough because I'm also reading some books in English: Red Mars and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Comments
Lately I've been thinking about how to manage all of my hobbies, and I realized that instead of trying to stick to a schedule, maybe I should just embrace whatever interests me in the moment. For example last week I wanted to focus on writing, so I worked on that over the weekend. This week I’ve been more interested in exercising, knitting, and listening to French podcasts, so why not do that? If I feel like I’m neglecting a hobby too much, then I can make more time for it on purpose.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby jmar257 » Fri Feb 10, 2023 3:59 pm

philomath wrote:I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'm going to Paris for the first time next month! More specifically, I'm going to London for a week with my boyfriend, and we decided that we might as well take the train to Paris for a day. I'm excited to explore the city without committing to an entire vacation there. I've always heard that Parisians are very rude, even from other French people...

I'll say, as an American with mediocre French who's been to Paris 3 times, I don't really think that stereotype holds up. At least, I've not experienced anything I wouldn't expect in any random big city across the world. That said the one time I ventured outside of Paris (to Normandy/Bayeux) the people were definitely more friendly. I love Paris and hope you have a good time, have you figured out what all you're doing while there?

Also I sympathize with not being able to balance a bunch of different hobbies...
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby rdearman » Fri Feb 10, 2023 7:11 pm

philomath wrote:I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'm going to Paris for the first time next month! More specifically, I'm going to London for a week with my boyfriend, and we decided that we might as well take the train to Paris for a day. I'm excited to explore the city without committing to an entire vacation there. I've always heard that Parisians are very rude, even from other French people...

I would suggest you fly using a budget airline like RyanAir or Easyjet. The Eurostar train is quite expensive, I picked a random day to travel on their website, and it came out to $202.43 per person and I found flights for $256.22 for 2 people.

I did Paris in a day with my sister, lots of walking. I would recommend you spend one night there, it is a big city with a lot to see. :)

EDIT: if you do fly, be careful which airport they fly you into. Look on Google Maps because some of them fly you into the middle of nowhere "near Paris" and you have to take a bus. Flights to CDG (Paris Charles de Gaulle) are the best because you can just walk down and get on the Metro.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby jmar257 » Fri Feb 10, 2023 11:16 pm

rdearman wrote:EDIT: if you do fly, be careful which airport they fly you into. Look on Google Maps because some of them fly you into the middle of nowhere "near Paris" and you have to take a bus. Flights to CDG (Paris Charles de Gaulle) are the best because you can just walk down and get on the Metro.

I've only ever flown into CDG but I know the RER (not metro--important distinction :) ) goes from CDG through Paris (RER line B, specifically). Honestly, you can just plug your destination into Apple/Google Maps and it'll tell you which train to take, it's very good with walking/public transit in Europe. Also, keep your RER ticket because you need it to get out of the station, else you have to find a guard and ask them to open the gate.

I second the recommendation to stay the night (or more, ideally).
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Sat Feb 11, 2023 2:29 pm

Thank you for the advice! I was shocked at how much cheaper flights are. :o We decided to take the Eurostar after all, because my boyfriend really likes trains and that's one of the things he was excited for. (Maybe one day we'll get decent trains in the US...) But we did decide to stay overnight! I'm glad we'll have a little more time to explore. We don't have any specific plans yet, so I'm open to suggestions for what to do. :D
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