French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

[MamaPata]

Thank you. That means a lot.

For uni, if I could, I would love something like PPE but with an Asian and European language added to it. Sadly no such degree exists...yet. I've applied to study French and Politics. Although that's up for debate. I love French but it would be nice to add another language as part of my degree. That was only one uni that would allow me to study joint honours degree of Politics and International Relations and French and with Japanese and I would get a year abroad in both those countries. Sadly, I wasn't predicted the grades which took me a long time to get over.

I want to see what university evening classes are like for Chinese.

I want to take a gap year but the problem with that is that I lost a year when I changed from A-levels to IB. So I'm already one year older. I don't know how if I can afford to take another year out.

I had two years out before I came to uni and I'm still nowhere near the oldest in my classes. It's always an option! (But I also totally understand why not)

Exciting stuff, that'll be great! A lot of places will let you take a module outside your degree, which is how I got to do a bit of Arabic and French. That may be an option for you (plus subsidised evening classes).

Seems like you're making loads of progress with French, you should be proud. I like your steps in terms of TV, I'll have to think about something like that in the future.

[reineke]

12/03/18
Sorry for the absence. Last week I left awful and had a million things to juggle. Luckily majority of my coursework is finished. I've been doing bits and bobs of French there and there.

I'm really noticed an increase in my listening comprehension. It's not perfect and I have a long way to go. But it's no longer a struggle to listen and rarely do I feel I'm completely lost and wonder if I've wasted my time and efforts learning French and I can't even catch one word in...

I remember at the beginning of year 12. My listening was probably A1. Like I struggle to even understand Caillou.


I remember seeing Juliette je t'aime on one of Reineke's post a while ago. I listened to it and I felt depressed on how little I understood. I didn't go back to watch it consistently until this year. I feel comfortable watching it in French. Obviously there are still phrases that throw me off but there's going rarer and rarer.

My listening strategy goes like this:
Dubbed French animated series then dubbed live action tv series in French then actual French TV shows.

To finish all the episodes of Juliette je t'aime (there's 96 episodes available on YouTube)I have 86 episodes left to go
To finish all the episodes of ATLA (61 episodes available)I have 56 episodes left to go
To finish all the episodes of Steven Universe (There's only 128 episodes available for me to watch in French)I have 120 episodes left to go

I also have D'Artagnan et les Trois Mousquetaires playlist on YouTube which has only 26 episodes, likewise for Bouba le petit oursan which have such fine animation.
If I can get my hands on Gravity Falls in French, I'll give that a goal. But I am worried by adding those three animated series, I'll only delaying my eventual jump to native French series.

For the dubbed live action series
To watch Daredevil (26 episodes)
To watch Teen wolf depends on how annoying the characters are (90 episodes on Netflix to watch)
To rewatch HTGAWM in French (45 episodes on Netflic) /or to watch Orange is the New Black in French (65 episodes)

For actual French TV series
Engrenages (64 episodes)
Le Bureau (30 episodes)
Les Revenants (16 episodes)/Braquo (32 episodes)?
I need to watch Call My Agent and Chef Table France at some point this year
(I know Kaamelott is often recommended but it's just not my type of show)

All of this is accompanied with background listening of FranceCulture and Nofun and random French YouTube videos...

It's a good plan. I wouldn't worry about GF unless it's an absolute favorite. You may be able to start watching dubbed TV series after Maison Ikkoku. I'd throw in some documentaries. Le Dessous des cartes and Thalassa are nice.

Toons
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 9&p=100239

[eido]

You just reminded me about Teen Wolf. I watched all of the seasons that were out at the time in my junior (I believe) year of high school in one three-day weekend. It was so lame, but I loved it. Then it got worse... Luckily I guess the series was no longer available for free on Amazon Prime Video.

Gravity Falls is good for phrases like "don't run over pedestrians" (no arrolles peatones) and all the strange jokes. When I'm able to understand it, the language isn't complex at all. If you had time for it, it'd be a good choice. I might be biased, though

[Sarafina]

15/03/18

I have decided to try to slowly transition to AFATT (All French All the Time). I tried to do it once a ages ago when I was a lower level and barely understood anything. Unpredictably, I quit for two days. Now I understand most of the things I listen to and read and can speak about whatever I want although with a dodgy pronunciation and awkward pauses. Apart from researching things/materials directly related to my IB exams, everything should be in as much as French as possible.

Small milestone to celebrate: https://youtu.be/oIVqpgVDBYk
I was able to understand all of it. Like there was no point where I was lost or missed some words every there and there. To be fair the speaker was spoke quite clearly but still it was nice to finally really understand everything and seemed inconceivable a year ago.


Tomorrow I hope to finish my two remaining courseworks. For one of them I only need 300 words more. And the other...requires quite a lot of work.

My school library has a French section. I've borrowed three books already. I am hoping to get through 1-3 French books a week. I am really enjoying reading 'La guerre d' Algérie' by Alain Gérard Slama.? It's a little over 160 pages so I have to finish it and turn it by Monday. I also borrowed 'De si braves garçons' by Patrick Mondiano and 'Memories d'une jeune fille rangée' by Simone de Beauvoir.

[Sarafina]

Japanese

I've been reviewing the dialogue section of some of the previous Japanesepod101 lessons I've done. I can't even commit to 1 hour every day as my exams are so close.

Monday
minimum of 35 minutes
-5 minutes repeating the review section of x lesson and
-5 minutes shadowing along to the dialogue section
-Add the phrases from the Lesson Notes to Anki and review it (around 10-15 minutes)
-10 minutes on Wasabi.jp Pronunciation section
- 5-10 minutes reviewing Whisper of the Heart subs2rs deck

Tuesday
45 minutes
-Again the same steps except to add sentences/phrases to Anki
-Except 10-15 minutes of intensive listening with Haikyuu! or Terrace House or PDR-San videos

Wednesday
45 minutes
-Same as Tuesday

Thursday
35 minutes
-Same as Monday

Friday
60-75 minutes
-Same steps at Tuesday
-Except with 15-30 minutes of reading of よつばと!

Saturday/Sunday
-Same as Friday
-Except to go through the dialogue sections with my Japanese exchange partner. I can't guarantee that it will happen every weekend. On days where one of us/both of us are busy then I spend that time doing extensive listening.

[Sarafina]

This weekend I am really busy with finishing my last piece of coursework and revising for my Biology test. I can only do some Anki reviews and background listening of FranceCulture for now. But on Monday I would finished all my coursework and uploaded it and I now have the privilege of revising solely for my exams. Monday I'll be fully implementing my Japanese strategy.

[MamaPata]

I don't want to be a downer, but is now the time to try and invest in Japanese? You're clearly very worried about your exams and stressed. It's not that long until they're over...

[Sarafina]

I don't want to be a downer, but is now the time to try and invest in Japanese? You're clearly very worried about your exams and stressed. It's not that long until they're over...

That's what I've been thinking about. An extra hour can go a long way in my IB. Funny enough I was about to make a post about how I am going to postpone Japanese until after my IB exams.

[MamaPata]

Obviously it is still important to have breaks and clear your head, so if Japanese works for you then use it for that. But I wouldn't commit to a full study schedule while you have so much else going on. I'm only concentrating on Russian until the end of my exams - my brain can't take swapping between it and French at the moment.

[Sarafina]

I've finally finished all of my coursework. I now have the 'luxury of revising'. Today was strange- Over the past three months been overwhelmed and stressed and not sleeping and eating at irregular times. It all just came out and I just broke down. But it was really therapeutic and now I've coped with the worse of it, I feel optimistic in achieving my personal targets.

My academic life seems to be this cycle of people saying that I could capable of achieving much more but I self-sabotage and bury my head under the sand then my predictions/mocks would a lot lot lower than what I an achieve like I literally went from U in Physics to an A* in less than a year and I remember in my GCSE listening mocks I got a E for the listening paper than for the actual exam I got an A and literally all my GCSEs follow a similar but maybe not as extreme pattern).

I don't know why I find myself repeating this cycle e.g. for the year 12 mocks for HL French I got a 3 overall because my speaking and writing was that atrocious. For the year 13 mocks I did considerable better (high 5 if I hadn't flopped my year 12 mocks my predication could have been a 6). Now for the past papers I've been doing, I've been getting high 6s/7s. My coursework went from 14/24 to 23/24 (which were for separate books I got the highest coursework grade in my class. My speaking and listening was improved a lot.

Sorry if it sounds like a smug self-congratulatory post. I just need to remind myself that I'm not a complete waste of space and an utter disappointment and that I have potential and I have exceeded other people's expectations before and I can do it again. And not let my school define the limits to what I can achieve.

On a brighter note, I am going to Paris for 5 days with my Mum. Around June I think.