Hestia's Log (FR, JP)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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Xenops
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Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Sun Sep 18, 2016 2:20 pm

I started on chapter two of French Phonology; I think I can tell the difference between nasal and regular vowels, but I will search on Youtube to verify, and also be able to pronounce.

I also sold one of my expensive things on eBay (yay!), so I will be shopping for Assimil French. :D I had played around with the Italian version that my library had where I previously lived, and I like the system.

I was watching the cartoon Danny Phantom (episode 13, season one) and they talked about Esperanto, and even had dialogue in it! I couldn't understand it, but it made me so happy! It makes me tempted to dabble in it again.
Last edited by Xenops on Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Xenops
Brown Belt
Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
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Re: Xenops Dates French and German!

Postby Xenops » Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:47 am

I started chapter 3 of FSI French phonology, and I think I'm getting closer to the French "R", still working on the "eu" sound: https://soundcloud.com/hestia-edwards/french-a-quelle-heure Still working on nasal vowels, too.

I discovered the show "Engrenages" (Spiral), and I was impressed with the quality: I had seen a couple of episodes of the Spanish "El Internado", and it was campy, at best. I'll be watching more of Spiral: it's also refreshing to see native material, as it spurs me to study!

The last French thing I did was start a French language group in my area (via Meetup): I want to see if there are other French speakers, and as far as I can tell, there are no current groups. I got the first meet up on the 30th, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Regarding German--not a lot of progress, I'm afraid. I can foresee the enthusiasm of French overtaking other language pursuits.

I'm still tutoring the teenage girl in Spanish once a week, and I quizzed her a lot on irregular verbs (salir, ir, hacer, dar, etc). I might need to review Spanish to make sure I'm ahead of her (she's starting second year Spanish, with emphasis in conversation). I gave her the link to FSI courses, and she and her friend are drooling over them: I did also give her the link for the question of the German course.
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tastyonions
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby tastyonions » Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:07 am

That R is sounding a lot more French to me. Keep up the good work!

I am also a fan of Engrenages. Even my wife likes it and she is normally reluctant to watch foreign language movies or TV.

That's awesome that you are starting a French group. I am lucky that there have always been good French Meetups wherever I lived. There is a decent Italian one here, too. If I learn Portuguese or Dutch one day, though, I may try starting my own Meetup.
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Xenops
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Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Tue Sep 27, 2016 2:33 am

Look at my pretty Assimil set:

Image

I'm excited to get started. :mrgreen:

I have found the FSI Phonology useful, but now I'm at the point where I can tell the sounds are different, but the course doesn't have guides on how to say them. I'll refer to French Sounds channel on Youtube to further my pronunciation.

Also working on Pimsleur on my short commutes; I'm about done with unit four.
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tomgosse
Brown Belt
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Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:29 am
Location: Les Etats Unis
Languages: Anglais (langue maternelle)
Français (A1)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1185
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby tomgosse » Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:17 am

Xenops wrote:
I have found the FSI Phonology useful, but now I'm at the point where I can tell the sounds are different, but the course doesn't have guides on how to say them. I'll refer to French Sounds channel on Youtube to further my pronunciation.

Another good resource is at the University of Michigan.
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Xenops
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Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Tue Sep 27, 2016 12:02 pm

tomgosse wrote:
Xenops wrote:
I have found the FSI Phonology useful, but now I'm at the point where I can tell the sounds are different, but the course doesn't have guides on how to say them. I'll refer to French Sounds channel on Youtube to further my pronunciation.

Another good resource is at the University of Michigan.


Thank you for the visit, Tom. :D And thank you for the resource! I'll check it out!
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Xenops
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Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Sun Oct 02, 2016 12:23 am

I've worked on leçons 1 and 2 of Assimil, and I'm liking it. Currently I'm trying to figure out how to much I want to commit to memory in the passive stage, but also that I could feel lost if I don't memorize them.

I had the first French group meet up today, and one person indicated interest but could not come due to illness, and I was the only one that showed up. Since not a lot of interest appeared on the Meet Up page itself, I was not surprised. I hope the one person will be able to come next time. If not, I have a couple of weeks to get a refund from Meet Up if I must cancel the group (it costs money).

A major relief has been the discovery of how to maintain B's in my medical laboratory science program. Studying sciences have been a challenge, but only because I was studying them wrong: I made book notes. Boring, and ineffective. Instead this past week I studied by making diagrams and cartoons, and earned a B on my quiz. This was a multiple choice-quiz where I only had a chance to learn 1/2 of the material by heart, but I still managed a B. What could I do if I managed to study 75% or more of the material? I'm ecstatic. :mrgreen: Although I acknowledge that this only applies to multiple choice, not exams where I'm supposed to supply the answers. Regardless, with this discovery, I can study French on the side, and not feel guilty about it.
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tastyonions
Black Belt - 1st Dan
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Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby tastyonions » Sun Oct 02, 2016 12:33 pm

I too have experienced the disappointment of a Meetup where no one else showed up! But in that case four people (including me) had reserved to be there.

You might have seen me mention it elsewhere, but my method of using Assimil is to do one lesson a day while reviewing past lessons every two weeks. So today for German I did lesson 95 and reviewed lessons 81, 67, and 53. So far this four repetitions method seems to be getting most all of the vocabulary and structures into my receptive vocabulary without any need for explicit memorization.
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Xenops
Brown Belt
Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
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Contact:

Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Sun Oct 02, 2016 4:36 pm

tastyonions wrote:I too have experienced the disappointment of a Meetup where no one else showed up! But in that case four people (including me) had reserved to be there.

You might have seen me mention it elsewhere, but my method of using Assimil is to do one lesson a day while reviewing past lessons every two weeks. So today for German I did lesson 95 and reviewed lessons 81, 67, and 53. So far this four repetitions method seems to be getting most all of the vocabulary and structures into my receptive vocabulary without any need for explicit memorization.


Thank you for the input. :) Probably what I'll do at the start is review past lessons each day or every other day, since I'm just starting .
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User avatar
Xenops
Brown Belt
Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
x 3559
Contact:

Re: Xenops Dates French! (and maybe German)

Postby Xenops » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:24 am

My pace with Assimil has been 1/2 of a leçon each evening, I'll see if I can pick up the pace. I confess I am a little frustrated with the "assimilation" process rather than giving me straight grammar to work with. I've wondered if I should supplement with other materials, but finding courses to be either too fast or too focused on phrases, I decided supplementation with Duolingo is just right: a little bit of sentence-making with Duolingo, and actual "work" with Assimil and getting used to the words and phrases.

Lately I've been exploring Youtube videos on French "R's", including the University of Michigan and French Sounds. I'm finding that my initial R's and R's after a consonant literally sound like I'm hacking, whereas R's at the end sound soft and natural.

What's interesting is that now I've decided to stick with French for now, I don't have wanderlust for other languages; I might momentarily be tempted, but I can brush it aside and work on French. It's like I've been dating multiple languages, but now I've found my steady in French.

For other activities, I've been reading the New Testament in English, and then listening/reading in French at this site: http://www.bible.is/FRNPDC/Matt/1/D The spoken French is very clear, unfortunately there is dramatic music at the appropriate times. xD

I'm also thinking about making SRS cards for nouns, for now, since don't know how to use verbs yet, and because it's easy to just use pictures for the meaning. I'll use Français Interactif for the vocabulary, since they also have the articles. Here is this site in case you are not familiar: https://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home

Lastly, here's an article I've read recently about changing habits: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2016/09/20/3-ways-to-change-behavior/ I'm applying this to school work and language learning. To fit French in my busy schedule, I need to move things around.
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