Lilly's log - French, Russian, Spanish and Italian
Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 5:40 pm
A bit more than 2 weeks ago the language learning bug caught me again and I started learning French.
I have already tried to learn a few languages, English and Spanish successfully in a school / language school immersion setting, and I've also attempted Italian and Russian. So far all my attempts to learn a language by myself kinda failed though. I powered through A2 Italian in 3 months memorising a whole university level course book that's supposed to last a year, all in order to pass my A2 exam required by the university at the end. I did, but unsurprisingly memorising a grammar heavy classic textbook kinda ruined the language for me. It was way too much and I didn't really have a choice in the matter. After passing the exam I never touched Italian again, I was just too sick of it. My Russian attempt lasted also about 3 months and I totally burnt myself out with that one as well. I blame Anki and a couple of pretty dismal classic textbooks that were not only boring but also going over everything way too quickly. Finally I realised that I was probably trying to run before I could walk. Instead of trying to learn such a difficult language by myself I should really try to tackle something more manageable first to figure out what works for me.
At least one thing I definitely learned though from my Italian and Russian failures: Front-loading grammar and vocabulary only makes me want to tear my hair out. Yes, it works, and years after my bout of Italian I realised that I could somehow understand spoken Italian quite well, despite never having used Italian after my exam or even attempted to understand spoken Italian while I was studying for it! That Italian is just sitting in my brain somewhere waiting to be reactivated. Nevertheless, if something makes me hate the language it can't be right for me.
So, French! With Spanish and Italian grammar already lodged in my brain French shouldn't be hard and of course Spanish and English help a lot with the vocabulary too. This time I decided to go with Assimil. I've heard plenty of good things about it and it's the opposite of the previous approach that made me quit. I'll also skip Anki this time apart from going through Gabriel Wyner's French Pronunciation trainer right at the beginning. This one really helped me while studying Russian and it's pretty much just 10min a day for 3 weeks. I'm almost through with it already.
I think what really broke my neck with the Russian was that I wasn't having any fun with it. Even children's books were still too difficult for me after 3 months and the movies that interested me were even further off. With French I'm in a much better position : I pretty much started watching the Simpsons in French with French subtitles after 4 days of Assimil and started reading children's stories with LWT after 10 days without any major problems. After a season of the Simpsons I can already pick out full sentences here and there, although there are of course always things I miss. I always get the general gist though and can watch without feeling lost.
My goal this time is to stick with it and finish the Assimil course. If the Duolingo gets too repetitive I might drop it, but if I can stand it I will finish the tree and might also attempt to do the reverse tree. This time I will try to keep the tedious parts to a minimum. The only part that I won't drop no matter what is Assimil.
Why French? Well, apart from the ease factor of being another romance language I actually very much enjoy French philosophy. Being able to read that in the original would be great! Lofty goals, I know, but why not? Also, French movies and comics!
So the plan for now:
French Pronunciation trainer (81% done)
Assimil French with Ease (Lesson 18)
Duolingo (29 / 78 skills)
at least 22 seasons of Simpsons episodes dubbed in French with French subs (I'm on 2/22)
read 4 children's stories (2 / 4)
Afterwards:
FSI French Phonology
MT French all levels
Assimil Using French
Duolingo reverse tree and/or Practice makes Perfect Complete French Grammar
Stargate French dub no subs (22 seasons)
Harry Potter in French
By the way, first post here
I have already tried to learn a few languages, English and Spanish successfully in a school / language school immersion setting, and I've also attempted Italian and Russian. So far all my attempts to learn a language by myself kinda failed though. I powered through A2 Italian in 3 months memorising a whole university level course book that's supposed to last a year, all in order to pass my A2 exam required by the university at the end. I did, but unsurprisingly memorising a grammar heavy classic textbook kinda ruined the language for me. It was way too much and I didn't really have a choice in the matter. After passing the exam I never touched Italian again, I was just too sick of it. My Russian attempt lasted also about 3 months and I totally burnt myself out with that one as well. I blame Anki and a couple of pretty dismal classic textbooks that were not only boring but also going over everything way too quickly. Finally I realised that I was probably trying to run before I could walk. Instead of trying to learn such a difficult language by myself I should really try to tackle something more manageable first to figure out what works for me.
At least one thing I definitely learned though from my Italian and Russian failures: Front-loading grammar and vocabulary only makes me want to tear my hair out. Yes, it works, and years after my bout of Italian I realised that I could somehow understand spoken Italian quite well, despite never having used Italian after my exam or even attempted to understand spoken Italian while I was studying for it! That Italian is just sitting in my brain somewhere waiting to be reactivated. Nevertheless, if something makes me hate the language it can't be right for me.
So, French! With Spanish and Italian grammar already lodged in my brain French shouldn't be hard and of course Spanish and English help a lot with the vocabulary too. This time I decided to go with Assimil. I've heard plenty of good things about it and it's the opposite of the previous approach that made me quit. I'll also skip Anki this time apart from going through Gabriel Wyner's French Pronunciation trainer right at the beginning. This one really helped me while studying Russian and it's pretty much just 10min a day for 3 weeks. I'm almost through with it already.
I think what really broke my neck with the Russian was that I wasn't having any fun with it. Even children's books were still too difficult for me after 3 months and the movies that interested me were even further off. With French I'm in a much better position : I pretty much started watching the Simpsons in French with French subtitles after 4 days of Assimil and started reading children's stories with LWT after 10 days without any major problems. After a season of the Simpsons I can already pick out full sentences here and there, although there are of course always things I miss. I always get the general gist though and can watch without feeling lost.
My goal this time is to stick with it and finish the Assimil course. If the Duolingo gets too repetitive I might drop it, but if I can stand it I will finish the tree and might also attempt to do the reverse tree. This time I will try to keep the tedious parts to a minimum. The only part that I won't drop no matter what is Assimil.
Why French? Well, apart from the ease factor of being another romance language I actually very much enjoy French philosophy. Being able to read that in the original would be great! Lofty goals, I know, but why not? Also, French movies and comics!
So the plan for now:
French Pronunciation trainer (81% done)
Assimil French with Ease (Lesson 18)
Duolingo (29 / 78 skills)
at least 22 seasons of Simpsons episodes dubbed in French with French subs (I'm on 2/22)
read 4 children's stories (2 / 4)
Afterwards:
FSI French Phonology
MT French all levels
Assimil Using French
Duolingo reverse tree and/or Practice makes Perfect Complete French Grammar
Stargate French dub no subs (22 seasons)
Harry Potter in French
By the way, first post here