Lilly's log - French, Russian, Spanish and Italian

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blaurebell
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Fri Jun 16, 2017 5:39 pm

French

Yesterday we finished Les Revenants and I have to say that on the whole I was a bit disappointed by this one. It starts off really good and then dissolves into a half-arsed story with very little logic to it. A shame, it could have been so much better! I can't complain about my progress with French in this context though, since I understood maybe 95-97% of it although people mumble like crazy and my husband kept asking me what they were saying. Watching some more series will definitely be useful, but I've already made quite a bit of progress just with dubbed series, podcasts and radio documentaries. By the way, I also finished the second French audio SC and I'm now at 304h of audio, 64 of which were native audio. I'm also doing fairly well with the reading part and I'm now at roughly 9400 pages with the end of Irène Némirovsky's Suite française already in sight. I also started to read the comic Le Monde d'Edena by Mœbius as bed time reading and I'm really enjoying it a lot. I think I have good chances to finish my French double SC by the end of June, just 600 pages to go!

French hours: 5.26h

Spanish

My doctor is certainly not going easy on me and we had a fairly involved discussion in Spanish about contemporary music yesterday. The good thing is that we've known each other for 1 1/2 years now and we're way beyond small talk, so our conversations tend to be a bit more complex. Definitely good practice for my Spanish! I'm also done with Unit 16 of FSI, which is 29% of the total. Until our trip to Barcelona I think I might be able to finish Unit 22. I also listened to an episode of La biblioteca de Trantor which is a sort of Sci Fi and Fantasy podcast in Iberian Spanish. There was also another episode of Mar de plástico and I'm inching my way forward with my Iberian Spanish audio SC, 143 of 150h done. Almost done, but not quite.

Today I also finally received my Argentinian Spanish course Macanudo in the mail. It doesn't have solutions, which makes it not ideal for self-study, but it makes up for that with a CD full of Argentinian audio with transcripts. My husband looked at the book and said that it looks pretty good, very Argentinian! The audio also sounds natural in his opinion, so now I have audio I can shadow to improve my accent, yeah! I'm planning to do this one after I finish FSI and GdUdE B to finish off the basics.

Spanish hours: 2.51h

General

It's been a pretty decent month with regards to good news. Not even a week ago I got notice that I have another 2 exhibitions lined up in the US and just now I got invited for another one in Germany in August, totally out of the blue. I go through months of having the photography blues and then everything comes together just like that. They could sure make an effort to spread it out a little more so that I don't go through months of waiting for motivation. Nothing like good news to get me shooting again. I'm not sure, I might even use the chance to travel to Germany to go see the exhibition since I haven't been to one of mine in person for a while.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Sat Jun 17, 2017 10:02 am

Well, I haven't had such a short study time in ages, just 3.5h yesterday! That's what happens when I get distracted and don't watch much TL language stuff with my husband. But then, yesterday I simply had a lot of other stuff to do and didn't even find the time to do my daily grammar. I was also inexplicably tired all day and fell asleep very early without being awake enough to read before bed. I guess I need a break after all. In any case, I have now already finished the actual story of Suite française by Irène Némirovsky and only have the additional material left to read. It's absolutely excellent and one hardly notices that it's an unfinished draft! Highly recommended! I actually really love the way she writes and it's super relevant for my PhD, so I ordered 3 more of her books and a biography. The books I just ordered make up another 1200 pages and I'm already at 9400 pages, so I'll be finished with my 10,000 pages very soon. Right now I feel like just following my new obsession with Irène Némirovsky to conclusion and see afterwards how many pages I end up with for my page counts, even if it's a couple thousand pages more than I planned. I definitely won't complain if I reach my reading goal for French - 20,000 pages -much earlier than expected. I thought that I'd be starting with Spanish reading after I hit 10,000 pages in French, but to be honest it's always a good idea just to follow my tastes. I can probably read most of Némirovsky's output easily without running out of steam and then already produce some text for my PhD, which will then give me a more natural conclusion for this effort rather than stopping halfway through and starting up again later like I have done it over and over with other authors.

I'm really happy that I've learned French! I've discovered so many great things since I started learning it and I was rather surprised to find how useful it turned out to be for my PhD. It has really had quite an influence on the final plan for the thesis and it's definitely helping me to get closer to what I originally had in mind. Now I only need to conquer that veritable mountain that is Russian and I'll be even closer!
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: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German

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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Sun Jun 18, 2017 9:25 am

Spanish

Right now I'm so close to finishing my Iberian audio SC, that I just want it to be over! It's of course silly, because I could just be patient and finish it with Mar de plástico, instead of wasting my time with mediocre Sci Fi / Fantasy podcasts. I simply want to have it done so that it isn't always lurking in the background as "another thing to do" though. Finishing this will conclude my first big mission for my Spanish to C1 push. I still have 2 more audio SCs to finish, Argentinian and Mexican, but I think these will actually be more fun than the Iberian Spanish mission. The last couple of days I was actually so focussed on the Iberian stuff that I have neglected FSI. 147 of 150h done, so close!
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Sun Jun 18, 2017 11:28 am

Just now I took some time to try a few dialang tests in Spanish and I remember now, why I didn't take it seriously last time I tried it. The listening test has too few options and I theoretically would have to do it again to make sure I answer in the correct form. Also, some questions are simply misleading. Also, the grammar test only goes up to B2, which means that it's useless for me, since I simply answer all questions correctly and that's it. Since I'm working on grammar right now there is no way of knowing whether I'm improving or not. I think my listening comprehension is fairly alright now and especially for Iberian Spanish it has improved a lot over the last 150h. So for now all I'm going to do is continue with my Audio SCs there to make sure I can deal with the most common accents for me. I will end up with 1000+h of TV shows and podcasts tracked, with 150h each in different accents, so that will be a solid basis for colloquial speech. After that I will have to continue with my reading goals until I have reached enough precision to listen to audiobooks and then I will add another SC of audio only, high brow content preferably, audiobooks, talks, lectures and so on. This kind of content is still my weakest point in Spanish and most of it is a vocabulary problem. A bit of intensive reading should sort that out fairly quickly.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Jun 19, 2017 9:08 pm

Spanish

Yesterday I finished the first season of Mar de plástico and I don't think I'll watch the second season just yet or at all. Ending the season with another murder seemed just stupid. Also, they really went out of their way to make everyone a suspect until settling on the most illogical one. Not buying it, sorry. What a fitting end to my Iberian audio SC. I watched some pretty atrocious TV with horrifically bad acting and the worst plot decisions ever. Somewhat watchable if you're not a feminist was El tiempo entre costuras. The rest was completely trashy TV. The sci fi podcast I was listening to at the end was also so ridiculous that I was swearing at it at some point. Some "high" points: The guys making the podcast had apparently never heard of the British Empire and there was also this one statement about a book series that went something like this: So it's a trilogy, well, or maybe not because apparently there is a fourth book, but the dude hadn't read it because it wasn't translated into Spanish. These dudes are apparently monolinguals, so I was hoping for some sort of reference to Spanish language Sci Fi or fantasy. But no, nothing! So, basically it's a podcast about Sci Fi / Fantasy translations?! Thanks, but no thanks. After 2 episodes they even had to make a correction on the show because they were saying something entirely stupid about programmatic music.

So, my verdict on Iberian Spanish TV and podcasts so far: Apart from the clear jump in listening comprehension it was a proper waste of time. I was so desperate for some good content, that we binge-watched True Detective Season 1 yesterday. Refreshing to finally see some properly good TV again! But well, at least the Iberian audio SC helped with listening comprehension for Iberian Spanish. Now for some equally bad Mexican TV! My first attempt is the Netflix show El chapo.

I had another go at the Dialang test, after I figured out the proper form in which to answer the questions. There is still one question in the listening comprehension test which is simply broken, neither the question nor the response make any sense. So, the final result was: Vocabulary recognition: 601-900, which is advanced, one level below native. Active vocabulary was B1, which makes sense because I never practiced writing. Structures B2 - despite 0 mistakes, it simply didn't contain any advanced grammar, just simple present tense subjunctives as the most complicated structure. Listening comprehension B2 - but there was still one mistake less than it showed. Reading comprehension C1 - I felt like I was swimming somewhat, but apparently I got most of it right.

French

Since I was messing about with Dialang anyway, I decided to do the same tests for French too for comparison. I was simply curious what kind of results I would get after massive input heavy on reading. So, vocabulary recognition: 601-900, advanced, one level below native, same as with Spanish! Active vocabulary was A2, which is better than I expected, since I haven't done any output and only minimal grammar about a year ago. Structures was also A2, again, better than expected for no output at all and only passive stuff for grammar. Now comes the hilarious part though: Listening comprehension C1, better than my Spanish result!!! So, I've tracked 826h of listening in Spanish and have been living in Spain for years, but I got a better listening comprehension score for French! WTF?! I've actually spent 858h on French total, almost the same amount I spent only on listening for Spanish. In French I tracked only 304h of listening and I've been learning French for less than a year too. This result made me laugh. A lot. In case you ever wondered what you need to do to get to good listening comprehension: Apparently it's not listening, but reading! And speaking of reading: Reading comprehension C2 according to Dialang! Didn't make a single mistake and felt pretty sure about everything too.

Now, wait a minute, with such results after 5000 pages intensive reading + 4500 pages extensive reading, shouldn't I be doing some intensive reading in Spanish now instead of wasting my time with more TV? Well, of course! It's just that I don't have the concentration for it right now because I'm already reading heavy amounts in French and Russian! I also need to understand more Mexican slang because I really want to visit Mexico City at some point. It won't be entirely useless.

General

Goodbye sanity, I'm stuck in bureauCRAZY mode involving 3 countries and apparently 2 different cities for one of those countries. Until I've got that non-sense sorted out my routine is shot because I'll be too busy worrying. Not expecting much for this week either. On Thursday we'll also travel to Barcelona for a couple of days which will be fun, but not conducive to work. I will listen to some French audiobooks on the train though, which will be lovely!
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Tue Jun 20, 2017 1:46 pm

Spanish

I've been spending some time trying to find more audio content to finish my Argentinian audio SC. I still have about 50h left and for now I won't get my husband to watch much with me I think. So, today I've been testing a podcast and found it mildly entertaining but quite challenging! It's 3 people having a conversation about relatively silly things, but they speak over each other, make jokes, get side-tracked and there is lots of slang. It also didn't help that I was listening with the bus in the background, so added background noise too. I think I'll keep this one up for a while and see whether I can improve my tolerance for chaotic conversations. This is exactly how my in-laws speak, all chaotic and disconnected, so this could be very good training for October. I also found a youtube channel with an old Argentinian literature program which is super enjoyable.

I also went for a quick chat to the photography school because I had to find out more about the new dates for the postponed course. All very natural and it was a conversation where my Spanish simply didn't pose a problem. This time it was a more goal oriented conversation than last time but we were still making a bit of conversation too and at the end of it I bought a couple of rolls of film for Barcelona because I needed something to shoot at night. Turns out that we're going to be in Barcelona for the Noche de San Juan and this means bon fires, fire jumpers and lots of picture opportunities.

I wanted to go take some pictures after my little conversation, but it's extremely hot these days 33°C, so I just finished off the roll I had in my camera and then I went off on one of my typical routes to see whether I can find anything unusual before catching the air-conditioned bus back. A couple blocks away I ran into an old Argentinian musician who was playing tangos on an electronic accordion rather than a bandoneon! Boy, could he play! We had a really nice conversation, apparently he studied music and lived in Hungary, and our conversation went around all sorts of topics from reasons for leaving your country, music, tango. At some point an almost 90 yr old guy joined the conversation and told us that his ancestor was an English pirate who was banned from England and then went to Germany which is how a Basque man ends up with a German name. Well, it was a wonderfully adventurous conversation and only after more than an hour I noticed that my concentration was fading a bit. In any case, I have the musicians number and I think I'll try to meet up with him a few times while he is in town, listen to some nice tangos and chat about music. It's funny, he comes here every year but it's the first time that I run into him, his favourite spots to play are not my usual spots for shooting, so I simply must have circled around him. Like most musicians he only comes here for the summer and then goes down south again too. Difficult to make proper friends when most people I tend to talk to only stay for the summer.

Last night I also did a couple of lessons of GdUdE B. As long as I'm distracted and not really able to concentrate much FSI is probably a bit much for me. I will try to keep it up despite my restlessness though.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby Systematiker » Tue Jun 20, 2017 2:59 pm

blaurebell wrote:I also found a youtube channel with an old Argentinian literature program which is super enjoyable.


Would you mind sharing that link?
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Tue Jun 20, 2017 3:42 pm

Systematiker wrote:
blaurebell wrote:I also found a youtube channel with an old Argentinian literature program which is super enjoyable.


Would you mind sharing that link?


It's called "los siete locos". Not sure if it's still running, but my mother in law used to get up early on a Saturday to catch it, so it's actually very good. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/097locos/videos
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Wed Jun 21, 2017 1:24 pm

Spanish

I believe my Spanish has improved quite a bit over the last few months since I started to tackle all my gaps. My listening comprehension is pretty solid again in all sorts of accents and I've noticed a clear improvement in my speaking. I still make mistakes or sometimes don't know exactly how to express something correctly, but occasionally I catch myself just chatting away without much anxiety. As you might know, my whole mission consists of covering grammar, listening, reading, writing and speaking. The parts I'm working on right now is grammar and listening, where the goals look like this: Grammar - GdUdE A, B, C, FSI, Macanudo (castellano rioplatense), Practice makes Perfect Subjunctives and advanced grammar, Behind the wheel 3. Of those I have so far done GdUdE A and I'm currently working on FSI and GdUdE B. These days I find that I have a hard time concentrating, because I have to do all sorts of pretty urgent paperwork and we're also travelling to Barcelona tomorrow. I have therefore switched to GdUdE B for the last couple of days and I've now managed about 20% of it so far. Going back and forth like that might help to be less bored with it all. The GdUdE B exercises are so far also all below my level although it's probably a good idea to go over these things again, just to have them more present in my mind. I probably run into things that give me more trouble once I'm halfway through. As for the listening goals: At least 1000h in total, of which 150h are supposed to be Iberian Spanish (done), 150h Argentinian Spanish (66% done) and 150h Mexican Spanish (2% done). The idea behind this is to learn the most common slang in those accents and be able to parse any audio from those sources. Once I finish my audio SC goals, I will cut down on everything but Argentinian stuff and focus on reading instead. There will be more audio goals after making progress with reading, 150h of mixed audio (Colombian, Chilean, Cuban, etc.), 150h of audiobooks and 150h of lectures and documentaries, but for this I will need to have a bit more solid and less colloquial vocabulary in place. Right now I feel pretty illiterate in Spanish and I definitely want to change that as soon as I have this year's reading goals for French out of the way.

French

Today I finished Suite française by Irène Némirovsky. It's a brilliant book and I can only recommend it! With this I'm now at 9503 pages read and I will quite likely hit 10,000 pages over the next week. I bought myself the audiobook of Demain by Guillaume Musso for our trip to Barcelona and this one is already 440 pages long at 9.5h. That should keep me happy for most of the journey and will get me almost all the way to my page goal. I'm also taking Les Chiens et les Loups by Irène Némirovsky in case I'm not too overwhelmed by everything else. I usually don't have the concentration to read when I travel, but in case I get bored I'll have something to keep me amused. By the way, I'm not taking my Spanish grammar book on the trip. For the next couple of days I'm on holiday. The Irène Némirovsky is of course PhD reading, but frankly I'm enjoying it so much, that it doesn't really count as work.

By the way, Russian has been on hold for the last week because of all the stress with paperwork and organising things for our trip. I will get back to it as soon as we return.
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blaurebell
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:55 pm

We returned back home after a couple of mad days in Barcelona. It was fun, we walked a lot (one day it was 15km), I got to see a dinosaur exhibition and we got to know a few more neighbourhoods too. It was our second trip to the city and we're already thinking about our next trip. While we were walking about we were wondering whether we could live there or not. It's probably simply too hot for us in summer - we had 33°C the whole time and it isn't even properly summer yet! What I noticed was that pretty much everything was in Catalan, and reading the signs or announcements I could pretty much understand most of it. Spoken announcements were similar and I actually liked the sound of it. So learning that would probably be rather easy. But then, I would really only bother if we actually went to live there, which is very unlikely. Personally I would definitely put up with the heat, because I had lots of fun taking pictures there. My husband was more sceptical. But well, for me any real city would be better than our boring little tourist town. He himself doesn't care so much where he is, as long as he has his library.

Apart from some fun Catalan exposure, I didn't have much time for language learning. We were basically busy doing other things, going to museums, going for walks in different neighbourhoods and so on. However, on the train I finished the audiobook of Demain by Guillaume Musso and I actually enjoyed it a lot - 9.5h, 440 pages. I wasn't so sure why it had to be set in the US, but apart from that it was really an excellent story. The author definitely managed to surprise me without cheap weirdo plot twists, and that's quite something. Most books, even the mysteries are somewhat predictable for me, but this one wasn't. Recommended! In any case, I'm now up to 9943 pages read in French, almost done with my second French SC! I should be done with my first 10,000 pages very very soon! I still have 2 weeks left in my first year of French and I'm curious to see how much I can still manage in that time as well.

Apart from the French audiobook I also had about 2h of speaking practice in Spanish today and I didn't feel that I was struggling too much. I can definitely feel the improvement now and it's good to know that I'm on the right track! Tomorrow I'll get back to my routine with my grammar mission! It definitely seems to be helping!
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: 20 / 100 Дэвид Эддингс - В поисках камня
: 14325 / 35000 LWT Known

: 17 / 55 FSI Spanish Basic
: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German


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