Hestia's Log (FR, JP)

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Xenops
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Hestia's Log (FR, JP)

Postby Xenops » Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:13 pm

I suspect this blog will last longer, since these are languages I want to learn. ;)

Background: I took three years of high school Spanish from 2003-2006. I had really good teachers for all three years. Then I took intermediate Spanish at the community college from 2006-2007. I have gone to Mexico for missions trips, and my college Spanish finished with a 9-day trip in Guatemala. I recently reviewed to up to a B1 level (according to one brief online test), and I decided that I was bored with the language. It's one the back burner for now, but I am tutoring a high-school girl once a week (she will be a future polyglot, no doubt).

I also took two college semesters of elementary Japanese. For personal reasons, this has also been put on the back burner, but I imagine I will return to it in the future.

Now, for French, I have many reasons I want to learn it: the first reason happened in high school. In English class, we studied The Little Prince, and a couple of my classmates had taken French, and could comment on the English translation. One of my goals is to be able to read this story in the original French. Other reason include being able to read all of the classic English literature, which often has excerpts in French that you are supposed to understand, but of course, I don't. Lastly, I draw comics set in Victorian America, and if the educated folk knew French, then I probably should, too.

For German, the interest isn't as high, but it's still present. Some works, like Faustus and Bonhoeffer's books, I would like to be able to read in the original. One of my cousins also spent a year in Germany, and I could practice with her on Facebook, or what not. Another source of interest is a rather odd one: Naoki Urasawa's Monster anime is set in Germany (and parts in the Czech Republic), and watching it gave me a curiosity about the country. Lastly, German is another language that educated Victorians learned, so it would be helpful if I understood some.

For resources, for starters, will be FSI French Phonology to work on pronunciation, since I really want to be able to read a new word as I encounter it correctly. I did part 1 of chapter 1 last night, and I can see myself doing the entire program. Now for beginner's materials...I really like the idea of using University of Austen Texas Français Interactif, but it's such a pain to navigate: I have to go to all of these different pages for the information, and it's not real intuitive. Maybe I'll use FSI for that, too: I'm not sure yet. I also have Pimsleur for French. I would like to try French in Action, at least with the older editions of the books (to save $$), but it sounds like it's best for people that have a basic understanding of French already, so I will wait on that.

For German, I also have Pimsleur, and the pace might be slower for German than French: we'll have to see how busy my schedule is. I do want to explore Duetsch Fokus and see how I like it. I'm finding that I am very fond of having a printed text and having all of my audio available in one place, rather than having to look for something each time.

Well that's it for now!

Xenops
Last edited by Xenops on Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:11 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Xenops
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:06 am

I finished the second half of chapter one FSI phonology tonight--I thought it was interesting that "ai" and "è" can be pronounced the same, as can "e" and "eu". The last combo was particularly interesting: isn't the "eu" often described as "pucker your lips and make an 'eee' sound?"

Might play with Deutsch Fokus later tonight. I got the book "Easy German Step-by-Step" and I really like it so far; maybe I'll use that for a bit. The nice thing about my local library is that we can renew things for two additional times! :D
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Xenops
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Fri Sep 16, 2016 1:04 pm

I haven't done much work in either language lately; mostly Pimsleur. German pronunciation is easier than French (I think I figured out how to say "ich"--it's like "sh", but you're...Actually, it's not like "sh" at all: maybe I should record myself). I still struggle with French R's, but I decided to go on to lesson two of French Pimsleur and continue to work on that.

I redid FSI French Phonology chapter 1 part 2, as it's been a few days since I worked on it. I'l need to make that a daily routine.

After the phonology course, I'm still trying to figure out what course to use: I'm very interested in the French in Action course, but do I need to do a really beginning course first? I'm wondering if I should try the Assimil French course first. Any thoughts? I'm hesitant to the Assimil just because it's expensive (the FIA I can buy used).
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reineke
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby reineke » Fri Sep 16, 2016 3:08 pm

Xenops wrote:I haven't done much work in either language lately; mostly Pimsleur. German pronunciation is easier than French (I think I figured out how to say "ich"--it's like "sh", but you're...Actually, it's not like "sh" at all: maybe I should record myself).


I think you should. From English speakers I've heard eek, itch, and eesh. It's one sound that can irritate even the most patient of listeners. Uh, did you figure out the German r?
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby tastyonions » Fri Sep 16, 2016 3:21 pm

Xenops wrote:I finished the second half of chapter one FSI phonology tonight--I thought it was interesting that "ai" and "è" can be pronounced the same, as can "e" and "eu". The last combo was particularly interesting: isn't the "eu" often described as "pucker your lips and make an 'eee' sound?"

"eu" is French "é" with rounded lips
"œu" or "eu" before "r" is French "è" with rounded lips
"u" is French "i" with rounded lips

There is often "supposed" to be a difference between "e" and "eu" ("deux" versus "de") but it is not always clearly pronounced in modern French and it will almost never be vital to understanding.

German "ch" in "Nacht" is basically the jota from Spanish, though often not quite as strong and guttural as the one from Spain. More like how one would hear it in most of Mexico. The "ch" of "nicht" is its own deal.
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Fri Sep 16, 2016 10:22 pm

reineke wrote:
Xenops wrote:I haven't done much work in either language lately; mostly Pimsleur. German pronunciation is easier than French (I think I figured out how to say "ich"--it's like "sh", but you're...Actually, it's not like "sh" at all: maybe I should record myself).


I think you should. From English speakers I've heard eek, itch, and eesh. It's one sound that can irritate even the most patient of listeners. Uh, did you figure out the German r?


Thank you for visiting my log reineke. :) Here's my attempt at Ich: I have an easier time with Ich than bichen: https://soundcloud.com/hestia-edwards/german-ich

I haven't gotten to the German R's yet. :?
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Xenops
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Fri Sep 16, 2016 10:25 pm

tastyonions wrote:
Xenops wrote:I finished the second half of chapter one FSI phonology tonight--I thought it was interesting that "ai" and "è" can be pronounced the same, as can "e" and "eu". The last combo was particularly interesting: isn't the "eu" often described as "pucker your lips and make an 'eee' sound?"

"eu" is French "é" with rounded lips
"œu" or "eu" before "r" is French "è" with rounded lips
"u" is French "i" with rounded lips

There is often "supposed" to be a difference between "e" and "eu" ("deux" versus "de") but it is not always clearly pronounced in modern French and it will almost never be vital to understanding.

German "ch" in "Nacht" is basically the jota from Spanish, though often not quite as strong and guttural as the one from Spain. More like how one would hear it in most of Mexico. The "ch" of "nicht" is its own deal.


Thank you for the log visit. :) Here's my attempt at the jota "ch": https://soundcloud.com/hestia-edwards/german-nacht

I haven't gotten to those vowels yet.
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby tastyonions » Fri Sep 16, 2016 10:42 pm

It's pretty hard to judge with the recording quality. Again it seems like some kind of phasing effect is happening. Anyway, it is like saying the jota sound in Spanish "reloj" or "carajo." Unlike Spanish, I don't think German ever has the sound in word-initial position or immediately after a consonant. German "China" and "manchmal" both have the "ch" from "ich."

Also, a note on "bisschen," both the "s" and the "ch" sounds should be pronounced. I sometimes have trouble with that! The first "ich" in your recording sounded pretty close to me.
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reineke
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby reineke » Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:04 pm

We have native German speakers here but I see that you'll need to work at Nacht, Dach, Loch. It sounds like you're stopping the air flow a little more with each word so that Loch sounds like lok to me.

Bisschen

http://forvo.com/word/bisschen/

Don't get discouraged.
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Xenops
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Sat Sep 17, 2016 1:53 am

tastyonions wrote:It's pretty hard to judge with the recording quality. Again it seems like some kind of phasing effect is happening.


The common denominator is that it's my computer, as I used Audacity for my French attempt, and directly used Soundcloud for the German attempts. :| I'm not sure how to fix this.
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