Vivian's Relearning Italian - Maintaining French log

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VivianJ5
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: Florida
Languages: English (N), French (C1), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1964
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Vivian's Relearning Italian - Maintaining French log

Postby VivianJ5 » Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:06 pm

Not the catchiest of titles, but have to start somewhere ;) .

So, another day, another introduction: I am part of a very mobile, multi-cultural family, so languages are a large part of our lives. Husband and kids are French, I'm originally from NY, but have moved about 20 times in the last 30+ years, both domestically and abroad. In past lives, I was a financial analyst, and an English/ESL teacher (not at the same time!), but currently travel with my husband on his business trips, and plan our next move, probably sometime during the next year.

I've been learning French since freshman year of university, and while I would never consider myself truly bilingual, I'm at a high enough level to keep the in-laws happy, and keep up with the rest of my family. Three grownup children, two in Canada, one in LA, we are currently in Florida, family in France, NY and elsewhere, so you can see why we travel so much. I actually learned Italian as my first foreign language, but never got to a conversational level, so....

My goals for 2016 are to reactivate my dormant Italian skills, so that I can at least get to a relatively comfortable in reading and listening. I'm not as worried about speaking and writing, since I find that tends to follow naturally once the receptive skills are solid. Goal number two: I also want to make sure to maintain my French, which tends to decline if I don't visit France regularly, and I'm too lazy to speak French regularly with my husband. The last Super Challenge was wonderful, as it allowed me to get back on track with extensive reading in French, and although I didn't get up to 100 films watched, I think I got to 75+, which I was perfectly happy with, and kept my French "ear" in good shape :D .

Since I'm not working, and life is relatively calm at the moment, I'm hoping to spend at least one hour per day on Italian, and at least 30 minutes on French, more if time allows. I abandoned a log at HTLAL, so want to be more consistent here. I've been talking about picking up Italian again for many years, (and have the language learning materials to prove it!) and I really, REALLY want to do the next Super Challenge in Italian, so need to get my basics up to speed. Wish me luck 8-) .
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VivianJ5
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: Florida
Languages: English (N), French (C1), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1964
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Re: Vivian's Relearning Italian - Maintaining French log

Postby VivianJ5 » Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:56 pm

Already behind on my goal of one hour per day of Italian, and one-half hour per day of French, but I did start doing something yesterday. Got through the first 6 lessons of Michel Thomas Foundation Italian, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I recognize of the language. Yes, okay, it's only the first 6 lessons of MT, and yes, I had almost eight years of Italian, on and off, from High school through grad school. But my last Italian course was over 30 years ago, and I wasn't sure how much had stayed lodged in my brain cells.

I think I'm realizing - as others on the forum have mentioned - there really is a premium in learning a romance language when you already know another one. Combining my dim memories of Italian with my vivid and stronger knowledge of French means that I'm understanding so much more than I would as a newbie. It's not EASY, exactly, since I'm seeing I'm going to have to knuckle down and revise the grammar, but some of the vocabulary, and the sentence formation, is making sense to me already. I bought a grammar book in Italy, many moons ago, which I've seen others use on the forum, La lingua italiana per stranieri,, so that will be my reference grammar.

And I've already started trying to read "Twilight" in Italian. Considering I already know the story practically by heart, words I don't recognize I can guess from the context or from my memory of the English. I bought the audiobook for the Italian version of Harry Potter, and I already had the Italian ebook, so looking forward to starting that.

Will post more revelations as I have them, but I'm feeling like relearning Italian is going to be a heck of a lot easier than trying to learn Dutch the last couple of years. I haven't given up completely on Dutch, far from it, but Italian has been calling to me for a long time now...
5 x

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VivianJ5
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: Florida
Languages: English (N), French (C1), Italian (Beginner)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1964
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Re: Vivian's Relearning Italian - Maintaining French log

Postby VivianJ5 » Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:32 pm

Well, I do have great news on the French side: spent four days in Paris with the in-laws, so got in lots of listening and speaking time. The listening is always fine, since I've been in the family now for so many years (we won't discuss how many :D !), but speaking easily when I haven't been speaking in a while is a bit of a challenge. Found myself scrambling for words that usually come easily; just shows I need to nudge myself to speak more often with the hubby in his language for a change...

I was also pretty happy that I discovered a way to purchase and download French ebooks. I've been trying to do it forever, and always hit a block when something about the transaction tipped them off that I'm not in France. Anyway, I now have a Kobo Glo HD, and initially registered it on the U.S. site. But while in France, went on the [url]FNAC.com[/url] site, put some ebooks in my cart, entered my American Visa info, and put in my in-laws French mailing address (with their permission, of course). And voila: was able to pay and download the books with no issue, and now, back in the U.S., my Kobo app (on my Macbook) seems to be linked to the FNAC site, and I can continue to purchase books from here. I was sure the transaction wasn't going to go through, since my in-laws French address is NOT my Visa's billing address, but there were no issues. Was able to download and load on my Kobo three books my father- and sister-in-law recommended, so I'm pretty pleased.

Not much has happened in Italian, but hoping to get back on track next week, since my traveling is over for a bit, and life will be calmer.
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munyag
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Re: Vivian's Relearning Italian - Maintaining French log

Postby munyag » Thu Feb 29, 2024 12:30 am

VivianJ5 wrote:Well, I do have great news on the French side: spent four days in Paris with the in-laws, so got in lots of listening and speaking time. The listening is always fine, since I've been in the family now for so many years (we won't discuss how many :D !), but speaking easily when I haven't been speaking in a while is a bit of a challenge. Found myself scrambling for words that usually come easily; just shows I need to nudge myself to speak more often with the hubby in his language for a change...

I was also pretty happy that I discovered a way to purchase and download French ebooks. I've been trying to do it forever, and always hit a block when something about the transaction tipped them off that I'm not in France. Anyway, I now have a Kobo Glo HD, and initially registered it on the U.S. site. But while in France, went on the [url]FNAC.com[/url] site, put some ebooks in my cart, entered my American Visa info, and put in my in-laws French mailing address (with their permission, of course). And voila: was able to pay and download the books with no issue, and now, back in the U.S., my Kobo app (on my Macbook) seems to be linked to the FNAC site, and I can continue to purchase books from here. I was sure the transaction wasn't going to go through, since my in-laws French address is NOT my Visa's billing address, but there were no issues. Was able to download and load on my Kobo three books my father- and sister-in-law recommended, so I'm pretty pleased.

Not much has happened in Italian, but hoping to get back on track next week, since my traveling is over for a bit, and life will be calmer.


How goes your Italian seven years down the line?
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