The great push to C2 (Extra French Edition)

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tastyonions
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Re: The great push to C1+ (French)

Postby tastyonions » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:11 am

Salut whatiftheblog, juste un petit coucou pour te dire que je suis avec intérêt ton log. Merci pour le lien vers le podcast avec Anne Pingeot.
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Re: The great push to C1+ (French)

Postby whatiftheblog » Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:47 am

MamaPata wrote:Those all sound fascinating - let me know how they are and I may have to see about getting hold of them!


Will do!

I've also decided to change the title of this log to "the great push to C2", because I think it's time to start putting my newfound confidence to good use. The time I'm investing is really paying off, I can feel it, and now I have daily stretches of time where I just "fall into" French material (videos or books) almost the same way I would with English or Russian material, without thinking about it or worrying about words I don't instantly recognize or what the best way to memorize that elegant/useful grammar construct would be. This is good, but there's still a lot of work to be done, particularly when it comes to sticking to a daily schedule of recording myself speaking, as well as writing, which really isn't as hard as I've convinced myself it would be.

ETA: tastyonions - thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think about the podcast :mrgreen:
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby whatiftheblog » Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:01 am

This week has miraculously turned out very well for French time - I had a very large project to complete at work that required the absolutely mechanical assembly of a database, so I just watched French Youtube the entire time. One surprising thing is that I discovered all of these vlogs by French med students (of all people!), and I have no idea why, but they're just really soothing to listen to. I tried out some videos of mock interviews for the grandes écoles and couldn't help but get agitated over how I would answer the questions and how I think the interviewee is doing... I'll return to these a bit later because I know they'll be useful to help me organize my thoughts, though.

I've been at this seriously for about a month now, and based on the ease with which I now communicate with my dictaphone, I can already tell the massive video input has done me a world of good. Looking forward to seeing more!

My plan is to focus on writing next, since I have to put together a CV and write about my projet professionnel anyway. I have a very clear idea of what I want to do with this degree, so the substance shouldn't be too hard, and I have an old CV in French that I can rework.

Early next year, I'll try out an Italki tutor and see how that goes (anyone know of a great French one?). I've also decided that if I am invited for an interview, I'll go a week ahead of time and either take a few one-on-one classes at the Alliance Française or look into getting a straight up one-on-one prépa tutor, or maybe even both. All I'll need from them is general interview advice, since it won't be a standard concours and the focus will be on my professional experience. I've built a special compartment into my budget for this because I really do think it could make a big difference - after a day or two in France I always crawl out of my shell and become this strangely eloquent person, so maybe if two people push me really hard, it'll be even better.

eta: edited because I can't type, evidently.
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby Marais » Sat Oct 29, 2016 6:09 am

Off topic but i checked your blog out and i LOVE your cat.

I had an all grey tonkinese/house cat mix who was the most fantastic cat.

Yeah, just dropped by to say that :D
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tastyonions
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby tastyonions » Sat Oct 29, 2016 11:49 am

Je prends des leçons de temps en temps avec un prof d'Italki que j'ai connu grâce à l'ancien forum : https://www.italki.com/teacher/661527

Il est Québécois alors si la différence d'accent te gène ou tu as besoin de conseils par rapport aux spécificités françaises, mieux vaut chercher quelqu'un d'autre. Mais pour la conversation et les corrections il est excellent.
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby whatiftheblog » Sat Oct 29, 2016 2:15 pm

tastyonions wrote:Je prends des leçons de temps en temps avec un prof d'Italki que j'ai connu grâce à l'ancien forum : https://www.italki.com/teacher/661527

Il est Québécois alors si la différence d'accent te gène ou tu as besoin de conseils par rapport aux spécificités françaises, mieux vaut chercher quelqu'un d'autre. Mais pour la conversation et les corrections il est excellent.


Gros merci! L'accent québécois ne me gène pas du tout, vu que presque toute ma musique préférée vient de Québec :D (Par ailleurs, quelqu'un m'a dit que la phrase "gros merci" est plutôt québécoise?)

Marais, thank you so much! Mine was a dumpster cat found in a box, but our vet insists he's a Korat. He has not yet, sadly, begun responding to "arrête!"; he thinks his name is actually "enough already!" in Russian. My pronunciation of "out!" and "down!" must sound like "meow!" to him, because he just meows back at me. Multilingual animals FTW!
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby whatiftheblog » Wed Nov 02, 2016 2:16 am

Alors! Despite the fact that I had a crazy load of work to complete on the side, I still managed to squeeze in 2-3 hours of French Youtube or the radio every day. Tomorrow I'm going to start really focusing on writing, aiming to produce ~3,000 words a day, including answers to a list of possible interview questions. I'm trying to compile this giant document that would basically have all of the things I want to cover as bullet points, including elegant turns of phrase that I magically come up with in the shower. The idea would then be to rework it over and over again and create - I can't think of the word for this in English - fiches for each broad topic (parcours scolaire, parcours professionnel, pourquoi voulez-vous intégrer notre école, etc). No rote memorization, just an outline of what I want to say.

Speaking of fiches, I have migrated through Youtube beyond French med students, through French journalism students, across students of écoles de commerce, and I'm now on French startup conferences. This really is a bottomless well. I can't imagine being happier!

We're moving a little bit closer to application time, so I've asked my mom to have my undergraduate transcripts and diploma translated into French (cheaper for her to do it Russian -> French in Russia than to have to pay someone here to do it Russian -> English -> French). The beast shall be in my possession soon!

For the rest of the night, though, I'm going to finish this startup video and continue reading the still wonderful but woefully neglected Promotion Ubu Roi. The thought of typing any more after having produced 100+ pages of narrative text over the past 10 days gives me hives.
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby whatiftheblog » Sun Nov 06, 2016 2:48 pm

I had a really good week with French, and I'm hoping next week will be more of the same. I'm finally done with my big batch of side work and I have no new assignments to complete, which is extraordinary. So much free time!

Although I wrote exactly 0 words again (this may change today, I hope!), I watched hours and hours and hours of Youtube - I particularly enjoyed the second debate in the primaries of the right & center. Can't wait for the primary season to really take off next month.

I also want to watch Engrenages, which I keep hearing is excellent. I tried it once at the gym, but I think I was in the wrong mindset for it. Need to try again. Yesterday I discovered the existence of L'école du pouvoir, which looks AMAZING. Big plans for today!

I'm definitely feeling progress when it comes to speaking (to myself/my phone/my cat), especially after hours of immersion. I spent like 6 hours glued to French Youtube yesterday and then had to go to a party, and English was suddenly really hard, heh.

I've also decided to really focus on speaking over writing for the time being, because there's no written test for me to pass to get into my program, it's all going to depend on my application packet and my interview. I'll have the time to practice writing later, but for now, since I more or less know what's going to be expected of me in the interview, I need to focus on that. I'll probably start Italki in December.
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby Marais » Sun Nov 06, 2016 2:56 pm

whatiftheblog wrote:I had a really good week with French, and I'm hoping next week will be more of the same. I'm finally done with my big batch of side work and I have no new assignments to complete, which is extraordinary. So much free time!

Although I wrote exactly 0 words again (this may change today, I hope!), I watched hours and hours and hours of Youtube - I particularly enjoyed the second debate in the primaries of the right & center. Can't wait for the primary season to really take off next month.

I also want to watch Engrenages, which I keep hearing is excellent. I tried it once at the gym, but I think I was in the wrong mindset for it. Need to try again. Yesterday I discovered the existence of L'école du pouvoir, which looks AMAZING. Big plans for today!

I'm definitely feeling progress when it comes to speaking (to myself/my phone/my cat), especially after hours of immersion. I spent like 6 hours glued to French Youtube yesterday and then had to go to a party, and English was suddenly really hard, heh.

I've also decided to really focus on speaking over writing for the time being, because there's no written test for me to pass to get into my program, it's all going to depend on my application packet and my interview. I'll have the time to practice writing later, but for now, since I more or less know what's going to be expected of me in the interview, I need to focus on that. I'll probably start Italki in December.

Engrenages is a brilliant series. Although good luck understanding Thierry Godard. I can't catch a single word he says he mumbles so badly.

If you PM me i will send you a link for the entire series online.
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tastyonions
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Re: The great push to C2 (French)

Postby tastyonions » Sun Nov 06, 2016 4:48 pm

whatiftheblog wrote:Yesterday I discovered the existence of L'école du pouvoir, which looks AMAZING. Big plans for today!
J'ai tenté de regarder la bande-annonce mais la vidéo n'était pas synchronisé avec l'audio alors je l'ai écoutée et ça a l'air intéressant. Merci pour le lien.

(Au passage, savais-tu qu'au Québéc on "écoute" un film au lieu de le "regarder?" J'ignore l'origine de cet usage mais c'est l'une des différences marrantes que j'ai découvertes en discutant avec le prof dont je t'ai parlé.)

http://blogues.lapresse.ca/moncinema/siroka/2011/01/24/%C2%ABecouter%C2%BB-un-film-ou-lexception-quebecoise/
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