French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

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Sarafina
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Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Mon Mar 05, 2018 9:19 pm

I've edited my first post to my language log to better reflect my current goals and my future plans.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:26 pm

06/03/18

Some days I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do. I'm trying to do be optimistic. I have some school work left to do. It's my fault for leaving it to the last minute. But if I don't panic and just get on with work. I'll be fine.

I've two French teachers. My French teacher actually scares me. I would have reported him if I didn't think it was futile and I don't want it to drag into a 'she said he said' argument. I don't know how someone can be so absent-minded and careless. He never remembers homework he sets or what we did before. He rambles on and on and so many people like him and enjoy using lesson time as a way to chatting it and discussing what something loosely if even at all related what we're doing.

I admit that he can be very charming and he has his moments where he's really useful. But I feel like I spend so much time trying to compensate what he fails to do for in lesson. He's the one that gave me such a complex about my pronunciation but without offering constructive feedback or advice. I'll never forgive the school for not giving my class conversation class. Instead they give it ab-initio students. Like their topics are so basic like what's there to practice..

We're meant to do two individual orals. I never did the first group oral in year 12- I think it took place at the time I was hit by a car. But he never mentioned it and I wasn't even aware there was an exam. We're meant to have two group orals and he chooses the best one. I've only done one. So this one will be the only individual oral I can do and what I get will be mark he gives to the IB. In our French report card from the start of year 13 he basically gave a mark based on how well he thought I would do on the group oral that I never got to do which I was pissed about. I confronted him about this and he said I shouldn't worry and that we will do a second one sometime in year 13. :x :lol: :oops:

He said to us with a straight face that we'll do by the end of month. Now he's like we have to do next Tuesday. I think I will lose it if he tells us that he forgot that the deadline for the group oral was x days ago and that it's fine he just sent the first set of grades people got in the first one. Just imagining about it makes me feel furious.

Sometimes I don't know why I was cursed with him as a teacher. I should suspected something when the class was filled with only external students who didn't know any better. I should done Japanese or Chinese ab-initio instead.

There's so many opportunities that he screwed me over. Like some interesting competitions and events related to French I wanted to participate but couldn't because he refused to nominate me or even give me the chance to prove myself.

Sorry for the rant. It's hard to vent to anyone about this because so many of my classmates just adore him and think he's so funny and real and interesting

I got my grade for my French coursework. I got 23/24. It was such a relief to hear something positive this year.

Anki Reviews are becoming tedious. I am not reading any articles today because I need to devote like 30-50 minutes more to reviewing and adding words from Anki. I have so many words on my Readlang word list that I need to add to Anki.

06/03/18

-To watch more episodes SU, ATLA, Juliette je t'aime
-To add at least 25 words to Anki
-To spent 30 minutes reviewing it
-To upload 2-3 recordings to post them on the 'Judge My French' thread
-To write 150-250 words on a Section B task
-All the tasks except the first should be accompanied with a podcast from FranceCulture.
Last edited by Sarafina on Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cavesa
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Cavesa » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:43 pm

Yes, such teachers are a pain. And not rare at all. Too bad your classmates can't see the problem, it makes any chance to change something impossible. I guess your classmates are less serious about French and have a different attitude to learning (many people in language classes seem to expect the teacher to be a motivating entertainer. There are even language schools building their marketing on this).

Fortunately, your real skills are not dependent on him, even though your everyday experiences are really annoying. And the issue with the grades is disgusting. I hope you don't need the grades too much for further education. Fortunately, a DELF or DALF exam is the best kind of grade you can get :-)

For more feedback on pronunciation, I recommend elingora, some of the commenters there really try to give good feedback :-)
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Maiwenn
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Maiwenn » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:58 pm

Congrats on the 23/24!! And your successes in listening comprehension! Isn't that such a great feeling?

Sarafina wrote:I never did the first individual oral in year 12- I think it took place at the time I was hit by a car.

You were hit by a car?? I am so sorry to hear that.... I hope you don't have any séquelles from it. Fun fact, I only learned that term a few years ago when my partner got quite sick and everyone kept talking about the séquelles. I thought they meant sickle cell anemia. I was then very confused as to why everyone seemed to think that his illness/treatment could cause sickle cell anemia. It actually means consequences/after-effects.

I am also very sorry to hear how unsupportive your teacher is. You seem like a hardworking student who wants to take full advantage of the opportunities given to her! It's such a shame that your teacher and school are not affording you the same opportunities as other classes. I can understand not feeling comfortable addressing your concerns about your teacher to administration, but it might be worth it to bring up your frustrations about the conversation class. They have effectively made you pay out of pocket for private lessons where other students had that opportunity provided to them.
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SC reading: 3819 / 10000 AR
SC reading: 3334 / 5000 FR
SC reading: 65 / 2500 DE :?

Corrections are always welcome. :)

Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:25 pm

Maiwenn wrote:Congrats on the 23/24!! And your successes in listening comprehension! Isn't that such a great feeling?


Thank you. It's nice to see my improvement in French. I still have such a long way to go. That it's nice to know I don't completely suck at French and there's hope for me yet. :lol:


Sarafina wrote:I never did the first individual oral in year 12- I think it took place at the time I was hit by a car.

You were hit by a car?? I am so sorry to hear that.... I hope you don't have any séquelles from it. Fun fact, I only learned that term a few years ago when my partner got quite sick and everyone kept talking about the séquelles. I thought they meant sickle cell anemia. I was then very confused as to why everyone seemed to think that his illness/treatment could cause sickle cell anemia. It actually means consequences/after-effects.


That's a memorable of learning that word. :D

I am also very sorry to hear how unsupportive your teacher is. You seem like a hardworking student who wants to take full advantage of the opportunities given to her! It's such a shame that your teacher and school are not affording you the same opportunities as other classes. I can understand not feeling comfortable addressing your concerns about your teacher to administration, but it might be worth it to bring up your frustrations about the conversation class. They have effectively made you pay out of pocket for private lessons where other students had that opportunity provided to them.


That's what upsets me the most. Everyone identified and acknowledged that speaking was my weakest point. I was eager and willing to work on improving my speaking skills.There was no support given to me. I was basically left my own to figure it out. I spoke to my other French teacher who is the one that is meant on the conversation class about why other students have weekly conversation class bu not my class. She said that she had to take on an extra class which meant there was no time available for our class. And that the class on average does well in the speaking assessments so there isn't a pressing need. That because the ab-initio class are learning French from scratch they need to practice more.

At first that used to really upset and was a source of bitterness. Now in hindsight, it was a good learning experience for me as it made me really learn how to be an independent language learner. As I was researching and learning how to improve my French. I was able to discover this forum (which is one of hidden treasures of 2017 for me) and I was able to teach myself how to assess myself and self-learn what I need to know.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:43 pm

Cavesa wrote:Yes, such teachers are a pain. And not rare at all. Too bad your classmates can't see the problem, it makes any chance to change something impossible. I guess your classmates are less serious about French and have a different attitude to learning (many people in language classes seem to expect the teacher to be a motivating entertainer. There are even language schools building their marketing on this).


I agree that people prefer an entertaining teacher to a thorough teacher who may be strict or less fun.
There's a considerable number of my classmates are fluent or near fluent in French or have lived in France for years or have French speakers/relatives that they can speak to on a regular basis in French and can practice with. :roll: :lol: If I were them, I wasn't be too worried either :lol:

Fortunately, your real skills are not dependent on him, even though your everyday experiences are really annoying. And the issue with the grades is disgusting. I hope you don't need the grades too much for further education. Fortunately, a DELF or DALF exam is the best kind of grade you can get :-)


Yeah. It taught me that how much I can learn language without needing hand-holding of teachers. It was a valuable experience. Unfortunately those grades matter. Because in UK people apply to university based on the grades that teachers predict for them. This system has its advantages and disadvantages. Because of my mediocre speaking grade end of year 12 around March 2017 I got for the individual oral coupled with the low group oral exam grade I never did that he gave me. This was before I started to really challenge myself and go out of my comfortable zone and have 2-3 hour Italki lessons and talk on a regular basis with my language exchange partners. Nevertheless, my speaking grade dragged my overall grade down. For IB you apply with the total points for all your subjects so that meant that my overall IB points was lower. That meant I couldn't apply for certain unis I planned on applying to initially.

I can't blame him entirely. I wish that I bit the bullet earlier before it was too and have started those Italki lessons ages ago.

For more feedback on pronunciation, I recommend elingora, some of the commenters there really try to give good feedback :-)


Thank you for the recommendation. I've just signed up for it.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Thu Mar 08, 2018 3:41 pm

Sorry for the lack of update and not uploading more recordings. This week I've doing all nighter after all nighter to finish the coursework. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a lot to do but now it's more manageable.

I had my first dream where I spoke French. The next step would be to have a dream that is conducted entirely in French. The dream I was speaking to someone who had bilingual and she was pleasantly surprised that I spoke French and understood her.
I am going to be busy today and possibly tomorrow. By Saturday morning, I can hopefully return to normal or even better.
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MamaPata
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Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby MamaPata » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:31 pm

I don't want to undermine the importance of your exams, but I think it is worth noting that they are not as vital as they feel. I quite often forget what I got and have to look it up when I do job applications. :) For over two years, it was the only thing in my life basically.

Also, universities are a lot more relaxed about your grades when you actually have them. Because so many teachers push grades up (or things go wrong during exams) what they ask for is often much higher than what they accept. If there are places you really want to go, it may be worth working for a year and reapplying with your actual grades.

What are you hoping to do at uni? Languages? You've mentioned doing Chinese at uni but I don't know if that would just be a module.

Congrats on the result - that's fantastic!
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Corrections appreciated.

Sarafina
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Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Mon Mar 12, 2018 7:19 pm

MamaPata wrote:I don't want to undermine the importance of your exams, but I think it is worth noting that they are not as vital as they feel. I quite often forget what I got and have to look it up when I do job applications. :) For over two years, it was the only thing in my life basically.

Also, universities are a lot more relaxed about your grades when you actually have them. Because so many teachers push grades up (or things go wrong during exams) what they ask for is often much higher than what they accept. If there are places you really want to go, it may be worth working for a year and reapplying with your actual grades.

What are you hoping to do at uni? Languages? You've mentioned doing Chinese at uni but I don't know if that would just be a module.

Congrats on the result - that's fantastic!


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. :P :oops:
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:21 pm

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 when I couldn'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. To be fair I stopped learning French for a year as I was doing Science subjects at A-level but when I changed to do IB and I thought it would be nice to pick up French again and choose HL French because that makes sense :lol: :roll:

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 getting 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 :lol:
(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 there and there and the plan to do intensive listening of 7jours (which I almost always forget to do).

If it wasn't for last week, the number of episodes left to go would have been much less.
Last edited by Sarafina on Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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