Solanderdog's French Log

[solanderdog]

Right now, this is what I'm doing:

Skype - Conversations
90 minutes a week speaking French with a friend from France.
120 minutes a week speaking with language partners from Québec.

Study
Reviewing simple grammar with French Conversation Demystified.

Tongue Training & Accent (I hope) Correction
Glossika: 20 minutes or so a day doing GSR.

Listening
I listen to the "Journal en français facile" each day, plus a wide variety of other podcasts on a daily and weekly basis. Sometimes, I watch thew news on TV5.

Flashcards
I do a 15/20 minute session each day with the MosaLingua app on my phone.

Books
In French, I'm currently reading "Soul Breakers" by Christophe Lambert and "Le Rêve de Champlain" by David Fischer.

Writing
I try to write a paragraph or two each day on very basic stuff in a journal. Aujourd'hui, il fait beau, etc., etc.

I think that's it, at the moment, but French is really just part of my day-to-day life now and I've given up trying to track how much time I spend doing this or that.

[solanderdog]

Je viens de parler avec le boulanger ... en français ! C'était super ! Plus, j'ai des croissants au chocolat ! Miam miam !

[solanderdog]

Mes podcasts :

RFI
Journal en français facile
Livre international – a very recent addition
Chronique des droits de l’homme
Idées
Les mots de l’actualité
C'est pas du vent

Radio-Canada
L’heure du monde
Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on dit

F.Culture
Les chemins de la philosophie
Le journal des idées
La conversation scientifique

France inter
Géopolitique

Please let me know if I'm missing out on something great.

[solanderdog]

There's not much to say about this week. Things progressed as normal. I missed out on one conversation with a new language partner from Québec as his power was out. This is too bad as I really struggle with the Québecois accent and need all the practice I can get. Regardless, I did manage to talk for around 150 minutes, in French, with my other language partners.

I'm currently on a 31-day streak with the MosaLingua app. As far as torture goes, I don't find this too unbearable. I've been using this app, off and on for a while now, and it reports that I've learned 1044 flashcards, with 786 of them being in my long-term memory. However, those numbers don't seem to be changing much these days.

As for Glossika, I'm on day 24. Although I find these drills hard to face sometimes, I have been doing them and I think it's starting to pay off. Many of the phrases that felt awkward in my mouth are now coming out rather easily and I feel much more confident when I'm talking with my language partners on Skype. For the moment, at least, I think this was money well spent.

I finished reading Christophe Lambert's "Soul Breakers" and, although it was good for my French, I disliked the story. Now, I've started on "Le Kit du 21e siècle: Nouveau manuel de culture générale," by François Reynaert. I'm not that deep into it, but I like the clear writing style so far and I think this book will be very good for my French. I've already picked up a bunch of new words and phrases.

I listened to a lot of podcasts this week, but I hardly wrote a thing. My goal for the upcoming week is to do more of that.

Earlier in the week, I was pretty pleased with myself for having gotten through an entire conversation in French with a local baker. This is a bit silly as I've been talking for years on Skype, but with a stranger, out in public, I felt nervous. My hands were shaking afterwards! However, we had our little chat and I understood everything he said to me. He even seemed to understand me! Now, I'm a bit nervous to go back as things can only go downhill from there.

[whatiftheblog]

Mes podcasts :

(...)

Please let me know if I'm missing out on something great.

Check out Transfert (curious stories; by Slate.fr), Génération XX (interviews with female entrepreneurs), Du grain à moudre (society, politics, philosophy), Affaires Sensibles (history), and On refait le monde (daily politics).

[solanderdog]

Check out Transfert (curious stories; by Slate.fr), Génération XX (interviews with female entrepreneurs), Du grain à moudre (society, politics, philosophy), Affaires Sensibles (history), and On refait le monde (daily politics).

Thank you. I will!

[solanderdog]

I accidentally missed one day of Glossika, but I'm definitely continuing with it. When I speak in French, I often feel like my tongue is headed in a completely different direction than it should be, and this awkwardness tends to silence me. Anyway, setting aside questions of causation and correlation, I'm really starting to believe that the endless reps are improving my French in general. I definitely feel more confident and verbose in my conversations on Skype.

This week, I forced myself to write at least 100 words each day. The week before, I only managed to write 194 words. So, 786 words is a big improvement and I'm sure this is a good exercise. After I write each day, I use Antidote 9 to check my work and I'm definitely learning from this process.

Although I subscribed to a bunch of new podcasts this week, I spent less time than normal listening to them as I've been going through the Home-Language videos - Patricia d'Annecy - on YouTube. She's wonderful and I understand almost all of what she says. So, it's a confidence booster.

I continue to do one chapter of French Conversation Demystified each week, but this is too easy for me. So, I've also started working my way through the Compréhension Orale A1/A2 book from CLE International. This is also a bit too easy, but it's practice at least. I have the B1 and B2 books, but if I don't finish the first one, I'll probably never do it.

As for MosaLingua, I continue to do this each morning, but it's the least favourite part of my routine. This morning, the software reports that I've learned 1059 cards, 809 of which are in my long term memory. At least that's a bit of a jump from last week.

That's all folks!

[solanderdog]

Glossika has taken over my brain. After having followed the easy schedule for thirty-two days, I decided to start over and follow the 18-week training schedule instead, which is a commitment of roughly 90 minutes a day. I’m just about to finish Week 10 and I’m starting to question if people really make it to the end of this training. I fear it might be driving me mad.

[DaveBee]

I've been going through the Home-Language videos - Patricia d'Annecy - on YouTube. She's wonderful and I understand almost all of what she says. So, it's a confidence booster.

I like those too, for the same reasons.

[Carmody]

Yes, and for the same reason; I can understand her!