Hestia's Log (FR, JP)
Posted: 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
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