wwiding's French log

[wwiding]

Two twelve hour shifts down, two more to go. I did level 8 of DLI Basic French last night, I'm going to dictate the lesson today. I downloaded the audio and pdfs for offline use and tried to play the audio lessens in audacity but for some reason parts of the audio sound really high pitched while other parts sound fine. I don't know much about audacity but once I figure out the issue I'm going to play the audio using that so I can cut out the conversations and use them for review. I figure I can fit about 6 lessons into a single audio file if I only copy the conversations and leave the rest out.

[wwiding]

I finished dictating lesson 8 today. I did much better on this lesson which I hope means my skills are increasing. I'm watching episode 16 of the French in Action videos right now.

I really feel like dictating the lessons is taking me further than any thing I've done so far, at least in my working knowledge of French. I enjoy DLI much more than I did Assimil. If I had the time, I'd consider adding some parts of the lesson to my anki deck as well. I really could have gotten far by finishing the second wave of Assimil but I was just so bored with it by the time I hit lesson 50. It was hard enough to finish the passive wave.

[wwiding]

I'm doing some of the exercises at the end of DLI Basic French lesson 8. One of the exercises is on the use of "au" and "en" when used with "vais". An example from the pdf would be "Je vais en Suisse." For the most part this is easy, though I don't remember all the Countries genders, I can easily look them up. I'm confused about the cities though, I thought "à" was used with cities. I'm going to check my grammer book for answers.

[wwiding]

I've been informed by a kind user that I may be using the word dictate incorrectly. Maybe "transcribing" would describe what I do a little better. To clear things up for any one reading my log, here is what I do:

1) Listen to the sentence.
2) Repeat the sentence while I write it down.

[tastyonions]

"à" is indeed used with cities, with rare exceptions, e.g. "au Caire" (Cairo). Some people also say "sur Paris" and such (gross, but increasingly common usage).

[wwiding]

"à" is indeed used with cities, with rare exceptions, e.g. "au Caire" (Cairo). Some people also say "sur Paris" and such (gross, but increasingly common usage).

Awesome. I guess my memory is better than I thought

[Arnaud]

"à" is indeed used with cities, with rare exceptions, e.g. "au Caire" (Cairo). Some people also say "sur Paris" and such (gross, but increasingly common usage).

Cairo is Le Caire, so it's not an exception but the direct application of the rule: à+Le Caire=au Caire.

[tastyonions]

"à" is indeed used with cities, with rare exceptions, e.g. "au Caire" (Cairo). Some people also say "sur Paris" and such (gross, but increasingly common usage).

Cairo is Le Caire, so it's not an exception but the direct application of the rule: à+Le Caire=au Caire.

Yep, good point.

Interesting entry about gender of city names: http://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=1608

[wwiding]

"à" is indeed used with cities, with rare exceptions, e.g. "au Caire" (Cairo). Some people also say "sur Paris" and such (gross, but increasingly common usage).

Cairo is Le Caire, so it's not an exception but the direct application of the rule: à+Le Caire=au Caire.

Thank you Arnaud!

[wwiding]

http://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=1608

Hey thanks. I'll read the link on my lunch break.