The great push to C2 (Extra French Edition)
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 4:50 am
Hi everyone! I’ve been reading through everybody’s logs and I just loved the idea, so I wanted to create my own. My background is fairly vanilla – raised bilingual, took a bit of Spanish and then a lot of French, ended up taking to French much better, the whole thing kind of grew horns and fangs, and here we are.
Anyway, my focus right now is on getting my long-suffering French to C1+ level, particularly on the output side (I loved the idea of the output challenge, btw, so I assembled one of my own to see how the system works for me). My goal is to get into a specific postgrad program in France by next fall, so I don’t have much time and the stakes are pretty high. Gaaaaah.
In the interests of transparency, I had about 2 hours of French per week from age 10 – 16, then probably spent 2-3 hours a week just reading stuff in college, did a summer abroad program in Nice at 19 (it was spectacular and I would recommend this to absolutely everyone), and then went back to reading and doing academic research in French 2-3 hours a week. I’d say I was probably a B2 by that point. Continued this sort of unstable pattern all through grad school, where less of my research was in French and the French competency exam I had to take for my degree was laughable, so there was no pressure and I was lazy. Over the past 5ish years, I first started slowly doing more and more in French (well, trying to, at least), got the chance to work with it a bit, and then started intensively trying to bring it back into my life about 2 years ago, when this whole plan with the degree program was first set in motion.
Where I stand: I have absolutely zero problem with reading comprehension (can read academic journals, litigation, technical instructions, whatever), I’m usually at least 95% of the way there on listening comprehension (adjusting for thick accents, dialects, etc, but it’s rare that I have a problem), my writing is a little choppy but overall fine and googlable if not, but my speaking is just guuuunnnnhhhhhhnnnn.
I find all of your guys’ logs really inspiring, especially because it seems like all of you have lots of other commitments and engagements. For the purposes of this endeavor, I’m fairly lucky that I have the time to really devote to it. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
1. The little things: all my gadgets are set to French, I have French books on my shelves, etc.
2. I watch BFMTV online every day, usually at least in the morning, sometimes at night as well. I love it, it’s my jam. Once I get on the bus, I switch to either French music (this I’d been doing anyway) or French radio. This continues throughout the day as much as possible, though I can’t have French on in the background if I need to produce quality written work in English.
3. I watch a LOT of French Youtube/Dailymotion, usually a combination of documentaries and vlogs. Today I logged 4 hours, for example, but I try to go for as much as I can. This is my happy time, and I never have trouble convincing myself to do this - luckily, there is no shortage of material of interest to me. I’ve noticed that accents rub off on me very easily in all languages, though, so I have to be careful with what I watch here.
4. I strive to always be in the middle of some French book. I’m currently reading Bertrand et Lola and have two more coming in the mail next week.
5. I really, REALLY need to get myself speaking, especially off the cuff. I set a goal of 600 minutes of recordings to be completed by New Year’s Eve, and I’ve done 30 of those over the weekend. The trouble is going to be keeping up…
6. I have a TCF book I ordered 2 years ago and never really opened. I should probably work through it.
7. I also plan to implement what I call speedwriting, which is basically just forcing yourself to write about literally anything, even about how much you hate this task, for 5 or 7 minutes a day. I would imagine that really adds up quick. I’d love to get to 50,000 words, but we’ll see how it goes.
My approach is basically to drown myself in the spoken word, as well as to force myself to improvise and produce material in French. I’m really excited to see some real progress!
Anyway, my focus right now is on getting my long-suffering French to C1+ level, particularly on the output side (I loved the idea of the output challenge, btw, so I assembled one of my own to see how the system works for me). My goal is to get into a specific postgrad program in France by next fall, so I don’t have much time and the stakes are pretty high. Gaaaaah.
In the interests of transparency, I had about 2 hours of French per week from age 10 – 16, then probably spent 2-3 hours a week just reading stuff in college, did a summer abroad program in Nice at 19 (it was spectacular and I would recommend this to absolutely everyone), and then went back to reading and doing academic research in French 2-3 hours a week. I’d say I was probably a B2 by that point. Continued this sort of unstable pattern all through grad school, where less of my research was in French and the French competency exam I had to take for my degree was laughable, so there was no pressure and I was lazy. Over the past 5ish years, I first started slowly doing more and more in French (well, trying to, at least), got the chance to work with it a bit, and then started intensively trying to bring it back into my life about 2 years ago, when this whole plan with the degree program was first set in motion.
Where I stand: I have absolutely zero problem with reading comprehension (can read academic journals, litigation, technical instructions, whatever), I’m usually at least 95% of the way there on listening comprehension (adjusting for thick accents, dialects, etc, but it’s rare that I have a problem), my writing is a little choppy but overall fine and googlable if not, but my speaking is just guuuunnnnhhhhhhnnnn.
I find all of your guys’ logs really inspiring, especially because it seems like all of you have lots of other commitments and engagements. For the purposes of this endeavor, I’m fairly lucky that I have the time to really devote to it. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
1. The little things: all my gadgets are set to French, I have French books on my shelves, etc.
2. I watch BFMTV online every day, usually at least in the morning, sometimes at night as well. I love it, it’s my jam. Once I get on the bus, I switch to either French music (this I’d been doing anyway) or French radio. This continues throughout the day as much as possible, though I can’t have French on in the background if I need to produce quality written work in English.
3. I watch a LOT of French Youtube/Dailymotion, usually a combination of documentaries and vlogs. Today I logged 4 hours, for example, but I try to go for as much as I can. This is my happy time, and I never have trouble convincing myself to do this - luckily, there is no shortage of material of interest to me. I’ve noticed that accents rub off on me very easily in all languages, though, so I have to be careful with what I watch here.
4. I strive to always be in the middle of some French book. I’m currently reading Bertrand et Lola and have two more coming in the mail next week.
5. I really, REALLY need to get myself speaking, especially off the cuff. I set a goal of 600 minutes of recordings to be completed by New Year’s Eve, and I’ve done 30 of those over the weekend. The trouble is going to be keeping up…
6. I have a TCF book I ordered 2 years ago and never really opened. I should probably work through it.
7. I also plan to implement what I call speedwriting, which is basically just forcing yourself to write about literally anything, even about how much you hate this task, for 5 or 7 minutes a day. I would imagine that really adds up quick. I’d love to get to 50,000 words, but we’ll see how it goes.
My approach is basically to drown myself in the spoken word, as well as to force myself to improvise and produce material in French. I’m really excited to see some real progress!