French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

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Sarafina
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French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:01 pm

13/04/18
Listening
http://video.lefigaro.fr/figaro/video/f ... 578462001/
I'm currently listening to https://www.arteradio.com/serie/noir_new_black. I'm on the third one. It talks about colourism in the black community, the media etc. It's called '50 naunces de noirs'. :lol:

I plan on finishing episode 5 of 'This is Us' and episode 29 of 'Steven Universe' on the bus. Interestingly enough, thanks to a random reference in one of Twice's music videos, I discovered La Boum. It's available on YouTube. I've only watched 20 something minutes of it but the movie seems decent enough.

When I get home, I plan to watching 1-2 ATLA, two episodes of Le monde incroyable de Gumball, one more episode of Steven Universe.

Reading
I added 31 words from the 'New Penguin Parallel Text Short Stories in French' to Memrise. I did about 20 minutes in the morning. I'm in the process of learning it. Right now, I have 16 words to finish learning on Memrise.
I need to add 25 words from Un Secret to Memrise. Similarly, I need to add 25 words from 'La guerre d'Algérie' to Quizlet. Luckily, this will take no more than 15 minutes in total.

I have Quizlet set of 88 phrases that will be helpful for the paper 2 exam. I've spent around 20-30 minutes on the 'Learn Mode'. I need to spend an additional 30 minutes on it to make it more useful/challenging, I am going to create a random sentence based on the phrase that is related to the topics covered in my French exam.

Speaking
On Wednesday, I spoke with my French exchange partner. It was an important reminder on how much I need to work on my speaking and pronunciation for the summer holidays.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:11 pm

On Tuesday, I spoke to my French language exchange partner. He suggested that we increase it to twice a week now that we have proven that we are able to commit. Unfortunately, twice a week would be too much in the face of my exams. But after the 18th May, I can have as many language exchanges as possible.
I was able to speak for about 35 minutes in French. My speaking isn't what I'd like it to be. I'm trying to be more positive and not beat myself up when I'm not where I want to be. Instead of me saying my speaking is rubbish and then avoid speaking French for weeks. Instead I should celebrate what I am actually to do (even if it isn't much) and reflect on how I can improve and make plans on achieving that instead.

I've said this before I need to remember that my French is not a measure of my intelligence or potential or my value but rather how much work and time I put in. Recently, I am now having a more positive attitude towards French. This week I've been listening to more French than ever. I feel more calm when I listen to French- if I don't understand something and I don't get upset/frustrated any more instead I allow myself to be immersed in whatever they are saying.
I'm trying to restructure my goals to include ways that I can measure it tangibly and consistently. For example instead me just focusing on how I want my listening to be a C1 in x months, I should also include goals that explicitly requires daily recording such as watching 100 hours of French TV shows in 40 days. I need to break up my overall plans/ambitions into mini goals that have a fixed start and end and is not dependant on too many external factors.

My language exchange partner was nice enough to record and add audio of the words in my Memrise course which I'm really grateful for.

I'm pleased with my reading skills and the improvement of my listening (even though my perception of my listening skills is constantly changing). I gave my French teacher a paper 2 that I completed. I'm planning on writing two more writing tasks tonight. I'm more confident now about my writing ability. I'm debating whether or not to include my answers to the French writing papers that I've been doing in this log- not sure if anyone would be really interested.

Although I don't do this every morning, I am trying to make it a daily habit to listen to FranceCulture's Cultures Monde podcast. https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/culturesmonde. It's encouraging how much I understand.

I haven't always been adding the words that I learn from 'readlanging' to Anki. Because of how much I use Memrise, my Anki reviews have started to pile up so I have about 70 cards to review. :lol:
It's hard to devote a lot of time to French when I have 5 other subjects to focus on. So far I've done the June 2017, November 2016, May 2016, November 2015 and May 2015 and I've also done with November 2014 paper. I've looked up the unknown words after I finished each paper but I haven't finished adding all the unknown words from the 2015 papers.

At first I was going to use Quizlet for unknown words in the French books I borrowed from the library. But I might add them to Memrise instead seeing as I enjoy it much more and use it more often. I prefer to use Quizlet exclusively for Paper 2 practice as it has a 'Write' mode which I find to be really useful.

S.M.A.R.T habits/goals (some which I've already been doing consistently everyday and some I need to do more than just every now and again. 19/05/18- 16/05/18.
Preparing for the reading and writing paper
-To review Anki for 20 minutes and to add just 30 words from 3 articles from French
-To review Memrise for 20-45 minutes. (To consistently read a combined total of 30 pages of the books I've borrowed from the library and to add at least 30 words)
-To review on Quizlet 'Paper 2 Helpful Phrases' for either 45 minutes doing the Learn/Write Mode or to do it for 25 minutes but to come up with new example sentence each time to see the phrase based the topics covered in school.
-In each week to complete 3-5 Paper 1 (s) and 2-3 Paper 2 (s). So from tomorrow (I would have finished the November 2014 paper I want to finish the May 2014, November 2013, May 2013, November 2012, May 2012, November 2011, May 2011, November 2010, May 2010, November 2009, May 2009, November 2009, November 2008, May 2008, November 2007, May 2007). Around 16 papers left to go. On Friday, I have two free periods which I'll use to do the May 2014 paper. Then this weekend I'm going to finish the 2013 papers.

Listening
-60-90 minutes of listening (which at the moment consist mainly of background listening French podcasts e.g. FranceCulture, Slate's Transfert etc while I'm studying and watching around two episodes of Steven Universe when I'm on the bus).
-To finish watching all of LA FORET DE L'ÉTRANGE before the 22/04/18. I'm on halfway through episode 3. There's all 10 episodes in total so I have less than 7 episodes left and each episode is a little over 10 minutes.
-To finish season 1 of Le monde incroyable du Gumball. It's only 18 episodes long and I'm on
-I'm on episode 32 of Steven Universe. I want to finish season 1 so I have 20 episodes left to watch.
-On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, to spend 45 minutes going through my French Grammar book.

Although it looks like a lot, I am already doing most of this. During my lessons, we're basically free to revise whatever. If it wasn't for that fact that I need to do a lot of work in Biology, I would have done a ton of French past papers.

Speaking
For the past three weeks, I've been doing language exchanges from a language exchange partner that I've known a while now. Even though it's only once a week it is still helpful as he helps me with my writing and grammar.

I have some language experiments planned for the summer holidays that I'm really excited about. I finish my final exam on the 18th May and most unis start around the last week of September. I have around 4 months. On the 18th May, I can talk in great detail about those plans.
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Fortheo
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Fortheo » Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:42 pm

I just noticed that you gave up Juliette je t'aime around the same episode as I did. Generally I'm a fan of slice of life animes or romances with a slow build up, and although I enjoyed the general mood of Juliette je t'aime, it kind of became bogged down by clichés of the genre: misunderstandings, characters failing to get clear messages, or characters who happen to walk into misleading situations. It is an old anime though, so I suppose that was part of it's charm, but it was just too much of the same for me. I'm glad I gave it a try, though.


I like your comments about reassuring yourself that your French abilities are not indicative of your intelligence. I think it's often overlooked how much confidence and overall self esteem can affect language studies. In all honesty, that's probably my biggest weakness with French.

Keep up the good work, it seems like you're making progress in the areas where you wanted to see progress.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:04 pm

Fortheo wrote:I just noticed that you gave up Juliette je t'aime around the same episode as I did. Generally I'm a fan of slice of life animes or romances with a slow build up, and although I enjoyed the general mood of Juliette je t'aime, it kind of became bogged down by clichés of the genre: misunderstandings, characters failing to get clear messages, or characters who happen to walk into misleading situations. It is an old anime though, so I suppose that was part of it's charm, but it was just too much of the same for me. I'm glad I gave it a try, though.


I like your comments about reassuring yourself that your French abilities are not indicative of your intelligence. I think it's often overlooked how much confidence and overall self esteem can affect language studies. In all honesty, that's probably my biggest weakness with French.

Keep up the good work, it seems like you're making progress in the areas where you wanted to see progress.


Thank you for your response. Juliette je t'aime ended up becoming too frustrating to watch. I'm also glad that I gave it a try. It wasn't all bad and I liked some episodes. But I am also glad to have stopped watching it.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:56 pm

Google refused to let me access this site over the weekend. It was deemed as unsafe and I couldn't find a way to go around it. But now everything seems to have gone back to normal. I've been doing past papers but I haven't been diligently logging all unknown words to Anki. I've created a Memrise deck for the unknown words I've encountered- it's a little tedious adding words from the previous past papers I've done but hopefully I should be finished by the end of today. I debated whether to add those words to Anki like I usually do. But Memrise is more fun and I can do it on the bus. As for now, Anki is now solely reserved for words that I've 'readlanged' when reading French online newspapers/magazines.

I was feeling super confident about paper 1 until I did the November 2014 Paper 1. I found the questions to be more challenging than the actual text. :lol: I can't take an amazing performance in paper 1 for granted. I hate how high the grade boundaries are the paper 1.

I've done the impossible- I've finished all my French Anki reviews. There was over a hundred cards to get through.

Turns out I already did May 2014 before. Now I've almost finished November 2014- I have only 12 questions left. I've printed both the 2013 and 2012 papers.

I want to translate this really good French writer (I've mostly read her fics) into English. I've spoke to her on tumblr before about improving listening skills a while ago. She told me how her English skyrocketed when she started to binge-watch Netflix TV series for about 1-3 hours everyday. On her profile, it says that she's happy with anyone that wants to translate her works.

This is an extract of my translation so far.
'He knows what the smoke feels like when it goes up to the sky and dies slowly'

'There was things in the universe which are sure and certain in which he can trust. Of things and people but lately mostly people. He believes again that the sky is always blue and blood is always red and that lots of things on Earth never change. That the world is immense and accessible. That when he will die, someone will cry (for him).

'He knows that he must want it again if he wants to become better. That he needs to inject a little of humanity in himself if he wants to recover/find/retrieve these concepts that have become foreign: of compassion, doubt and maybe even love eventually...'

During my summer holidays, I need to finish doing the English translation: (Luckily :roll: ) it's only 927 words.

I have three more episodes of LA FORET DE L'ÉTRANGE left to watch before I've finished that series. I should have finished it yesterday but I wanted to savour the series. I am really enjoying it and would recommend it highly. It's pretty weird and whimsical but it's part of the charm. The French dubbing is really good.

I've been consistently listening to something in French for at least one hour. Although most of it is background listening but it's better than nothing.
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Sarafina
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Fri May 04, 2018 11:48 am

I finished LA FORET DE L'ÉTRANGE over a week ago. It was so good. I am gutted that it's over. Sadly my S.M.A.R.T targets have been throw out of the window. Although I've been consistently using Memrise and Anki for reviewing words and I usually read something in French. I am still using French on a regular basis- it's just that I sometimes forget to record it. I've barely touched my French grammar book but overall my French grammar isn't too hard.

The memorising set phrases on Quizlet isn't going very far. Instead of doing the 'write/spell' mode on Quizlet. I want to use those sentences as a mini prompt and write 2-3 sentences using it. I'm thinking of writing a separate Anki deck to reinforce what I've learnt from my French Grammar book. I'm fine/comfortable with reviewing cards from French to English. But I want to challenge myself so I'll use the exercises from the book with the English sentence at the front and the French sentence at the back. I'm going to mix it up a bit with some French sentences with a word instead.

I reconnected with a French exchange partner I had on Whatsapp. I think I mentioned her before. But she was super easy with adjusting from secondary school to her first year of doing Medicine. To be fair to her, the times when she was available were really late for me. Lately we've been sending tons of voice messages to each other. I feel myself getting more comfortable with speaking French. She's really encouraging and kind. It's easy to talk for her for ages. She's really enthusiastic about improving her English and helping me with my French. She's fluent in Spanish as well and was excited about my Spanish challenge and wanted to help me.

I feel like everything is coming together. Now I have two committed French language exchange partners who are great to talk and to and available and are actually consistent and reliable. It hurts that I can't speak for too long because of my exams. My other language exchange partner told me that he thinks we should increase our language exchanges on Skype to twice a week. At the moment I can only commit to once a week.

For the summer holidays I have a bunch of language related challenges that I'm excited about. I was going to share in two weeks. This is a just a brief overview of it. I plan to talk about in greater detail.
-Japanese- To do be able to watch Studio Ghibli film in Japanese without subtitles in (30-45 days I haven't yet decided on the duration of this challenge).
-Spanish Netflix challenge for 30 days- It's just a glorified L-R method but instead of being audio books with bilingual text instead I'm going to be using Spanish TV series/movies on Netflix that have Spanish and English subtitles.
-Korean subs2rs challenge over the course of 21-30 days.
-For French, I have three mini challenges: to watch all the French submissions for the Oscar and simultaneous interpretation challenge and to have watched 16 TV series. Additionally I am planning on doing some really intensive work with my pronunciation and accent reduction and well as .

Luckily, I have nearly 4 months of holiday. I hope that by the end of September, I have a decent passive understanding of Japanese, Spanish and Korean and can read and say something. Although I wanted to pass the DALF C1 in French by the first couple of months of 2019. I rather spend my first year of uni in improving my French, Japanese, Spanish and possibly Korean. I'm debating whether I should add Persian or Chinese into the mix. I plan on taking the DALF C1 by December 2019 or February 2020.
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Sarafina
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Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby Sarafina » Sat May 19, 2018 3:18 am

J'ai terminé mes examens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :lol: :P

Now I can breathe again.

I've created a new log.
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8169

I have to much to say. But I need to sleep first. :lol:
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MamaPata
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Languages: English (N), French (C1*), Russian (B1), Spanish (B1).

Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
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Re: French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

Postby MamaPata » Sat May 19, 2018 5:49 pm

Woooo! You're free! 8-) Enjoy your summer and all of your big plans!
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