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 Apr 14, 2023 1:07 pm

12Apr23–13Apr23

French
I continued reading Claudine à l'école during my commute. Following rdearman's advice, I read around three pages intensively, looking up a total of ten words. Then I continued reading without looking anything up. I'll repeat that every 25 pages and see how that goes. So far, having a rule about looking up words seems to be helping me fight my perfectionism and enjoy reading more!

Lately I’ve been reviewing my Anki cards during my commute. However, I decided that it’s more helpful to review them at home, so I can say each card out loud. I also decided to finally try the AwesomeTTS add-on for Anki. After backing up my current decks, I got a free trial of the premium version and set it up with the “North America” voice for Spanish and the “Brigitte” voice for French, both from Microsoft Azure. And wow!!! The voices are really good, much better than the text-to-speech I had been downloading from SoundofText.com. The only issue is that some of my cards aren’t formatted right for TTS. For example, there is a card for “deceptionado/a” in my Spanish deck, and the TTS read out “/” as “barro diagonal”. :lol: That’s understandable, but I have a habit of making adjective flashcards in that format, so what am I going to do? It would be nice to use AwesomeTTS for all of my cards, not just the new ones I make. I’ll just have to reformat cards as I encounter them.

Anyway, this whole adventure made me realize how fond I am of my French deck. Unlike Spanish, Esperanto, and other languages I’ve studied, I’ve never deleted my entire French deck and started fresh. I have over 4000 cards now, and it’s fun to look back on the old ones and see my learning path. I know it’s silly to be attached to a flashcard deck though!

Anyway, I’m still amazed by AwesomeTTS. Technology is awesome!
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby jackb » Fri Apr 14, 2023 1:58 pm

I need to re-think how I use Anki for Esperanto.


I was overwhelmed at first because I was trying to flashcard all the unknown words, which ends up being a lot. Then I switched to only adding words from the dialog and writing/speaking. I went over the 2 conversations in the unit with a fine tooth comb, then just did the exercises. The words start to make sense and you end up adding fewer. If I find other words to I would use, I add them when I review the chapter.

The other thing I do is delete mercilessly. If I need the word again, I'll add it later.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:06 am

14Apr23–17Apr23

French
16Apr23: I had a 1-hour lesson with Marylène. We discussed my trip to London and France, a reorg at my work, and some TV shows. It was a lot of fun! However, I didn't write down many words because I didn't want to interrupt the conversation. After the lesson, I wrote 395 words and made flashcards for the words I had to look up while writing. I also wrote ~120 words in my journal later.

17Apr23: I didn't have to go to work, since it's Patriots' Day in Boston. Instead, I had a 1-hour lesson with Kevin. This one was also a lot of fun. We spent most of the time discussing my recent trip. Unlike Marylène, Kevin frequently stops our conversations to correct me or tell me an alternate way to say something. Therefore, I took lots of useful notes in this lesson. I also got lots of practice using the phrases "je risque de" and "pas tant que ça".

At one point in the conversation, I mentioned that I didn't know my level in French. Kevin insisted that I'm at least a B2. That's what Marylène had told me, but I still don't believe it! It gave me a little boost in confidence though.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:02 pm

18Apr23–23Apr23

French
I'm still enjoying Awesome TTS. I've been reviewing my flashcards at home, so I can say each card out loud. I've also been reading Claudine à l'école and I'm halfway done so far. I'm still looking up words, but only for 2 pages out of every 25.

In addition, I started re-reading Je te plumerai la tête because I was in the mood for a quicker read in French. The first time I read it, I highlighted all the words I didn't know. Now I've been going through and un-highlighting (in the Kindle app) the ones I've learned since then. I've reread 106 pages so far, and I'd estimate I've un-highlighted at least half of the words! It's a nice way to measure my progress in learning vocab.

On 23Apr23, I had another 1-hour lesson with Marylène. We spent some time discussing the question "Would you choose to be less attractive if you could live longer?" She tried to explain the difference between "laid" and "moche". Apparently, laid sounds less insulting because it is considered more objective? (I found this answer from Googling as well.) Anyway, it was a good lesson.

Writing
My goal for the week was to open Scrivener every day. (Scrivener is the program where I keep my writing projects.) It's such a small goal that it's impossible not to accomplish, and once I've opened Scrivener, I'm more likely to start writing. It worked a little bit; I did spend more time than usual thinking about my writing projects. However, I still didn't get much writing done. I think I need to pick one or two projects to focus on at a time.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby tastyonions » Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:16 pm

philomath wrote:In addition, I started re-reading Je te plumerai la tête because I was in the mood for a quicker read in French. The first time I read it, I highlighted all the words I didn't know. Now I've been going through and un-highlighting (in the Kindle app) the ones I've learned since then. I've reread 106 pages so far, and I'd estimate I've un-highlighted at least half of the words! It's a nice way to measure my progress in learning vocab.

That's always a great feeling!
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby CaroleR » Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:01 pm

philomath wrote:In addition, I started re-reading Je te plumerai la tête ….
Do you know that song? It was very popular when I was a kid. I used to think it was about the Montreal football team, the Alouettes. "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai." It's kind of a gruesome song about plucking out the eyes and feathers of a bird, but it was used to teach school children the French words for human body parts. Regardless, it was fun to sing.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Wed Apr 26, 2023 2:00 am

CaroleR wrote:
philomath wrote:In addition, I started re-reading Je te plumerai la tête ….
Do you know that song? It was very popular when I was a kid. I used to think it was about the Montreal football team, the Alouettes. "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai." It's kind of a gruesome song about plucking out the eyes and feathers of a bird, but it was used to teach school children the French words for human body parts. Regardless, it was fun to sing.

Wow, I actually hadn't thought about that song in years! When I was little I had some kind of toy that would play it. I definitely didn't know what the lyrics meant back then. :lol:
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby CaroleR » Wed Apr 26, 2023 4:01 pm

philomath wrote:I definitely didn't know what the lyrics meant back then. :lol:
I didn't either, thankfully. Imagine the trauma if we did. It would be interesting to know what was behind the choice of that lyric for the title.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby philomath » Fri Apr 28, 2023 12:03 pm

24Apr23–27Apr23

French
On the 27th, I finished rereading Je te plumerai la tête. That’s another 397 pages toward the Super Challenge! I'm still pretty far behind, especially in listening. If I want to win, I'll need to complete around 12 hours of listening and 325 pages of reading per month for the rest of the year. That's not too bad. I just don't know if I want to do the listening portion. I'm a little tired of podcasts lately, and I'm perfectly happy with my listening comprehension with podcasts. It's TV that I have trouble understanding, but there aren't a lot of French TV shows I want to watch.

Before I even finished Je te plumerai la tête, I started reading another book in French: Chéri by Colette. The French Library's book club will be discussing it in a couple of weeks.
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Re: Amanda's 2023 Log: Mostly French, Some Spanish and Esperanto

Postby DaveAgain » Fri Apr 28, 2023 12:31 pm

philomath wrote:24Apr23–27Apr23

French
It's TV that I have trouble understanding, but there aren't a lot of French TV shows I want to watch.
Two series I liked are Un gars, une fille and season 2 of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie.
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