Mihai's language log (French, German)

[mihaivancea]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and I thought I would share with others my language learning experience. In my day to day life I use a mixture of Romanian(native language in which I speak to my family), French(I live in France and I make a point of using it as much as I can) and English (the official language in my place of work). I'm currently actively studying French and German.

For French I have a remote teacher who I found through https://iboux.virtual-classes-online.com/ . We mostly focus on conversation, but lately we worked a lot more on spelling and grammar. My teacher recommended https://www.projet-voltaire.fr to improve my spelling. For now I'm only using the free material from that website, I'm still thinking whether or not to purchase the full content.

The second language I'm studying is German. Here I 'm using a single resource: https://chatterbug.com/. I take at least 2 45 minutes live lessons each week, and I do a lot of duolingo type practice provided by same website.

I was worried at first about studying more than 1 language at the same time (I thought I was going to start mixing things). Then I did some reading online and found out that if the 2 languages are very different(as French and German mostly are) you are less likely to have difficulties. If you study languages from the same family (Italian and Spanish for example) then indeed it can get confusing. But then again, I see people from this forum learning 5-6 languages at the same time (how do they do it?).

Any feedback or advice is welcomed.

[Stelle]

Welcome to the forum!

[rdearman]

Welcome! Yeah many people here are learning a lot of languages at the same time, but some of us concentration on one before moving to the next. I think it depends on your disposition. But also if you've reached a relatively high level in one language you could probably start another.

[Atinkoriko]

Welcome to the forum

[Xenops]

Welcome to the forum! It seems that there are two approaches to language learning:

1. Learn many at once, because you can’t stand to not study them at least a little bit, and

2. You study one or two at a time, because you can’t stand being a beginner for a really long time.

Anyway, have fun!

[IronMike]

Welcome to the forum and the logs. One question for you: with living in France, why are you using an online tutor instead of one face-to-face? Just wondering.

[tarvos]

Welcome to the forum and the logs. One question for you: with living in France, why are you using an online tutor instead of one face-to-face? Just wondering.

$$$$$$$$

[mihaivancea]

Welcome to the forum and the logs. One question for you: with living in France, why are you using an online tutor instead of one face-to-face? Just wondering.

It's hard for me to commit to a weekly schedule with someone, that's why I prefer it online where scheduling/canceling is a lot more flexible. To me if as effective as face-to-face, possibly even more, since you are confortable in your home.

[mihaivancea]

This last week I've been working hard on both French and German.

Living in France, it's easy for me to go places where I meet and talk to French speaking people. I've been doing that a lot lately, using French as much as I can, including at my work place with my colleagues. I don't use it for work related discussions yet, but I may start to do that soon. Also, with my teacher, we're focusing a lot more on spelling lately - doing "Dictées". I've made a lot of progress speaking and understanding, but my writting skills are way behind. I guess I've felt they're less important, which of course is not the case. Finally, I started to read a book in French my teacher recommanded - Charlotte by David Foenkinos. The language used in the book is accessible and the subject is very interesting to me.

For German, all my studies are still done through Chatterbug. I'm reaching my weekly goal which is threefold: Study on 3 days, 150 minutes of study, 2 Live Lessons. Some example of words/expressions I'm currently learning: Zwiebel, Hähnchen, Du verstehst gut Deutsch., leider, geschlossen, Frühstück, Einzelzimmer, Bad, Kilogramm, öffnen, Guten Morgen, fragen.

[mihaivancea]

On the French front I read about 2/3 of Charlotte by David Foenkinos. I should finish it today or tomorrow. I recommend it to anyone, not just for learning French, it's a great book. My next book will be by the same author, it's called La tête de l'emploi. In addition to this I had a 60 minutes lesson with a French teacher (by remote through iboux.com). To improve my spelling I am working on the dictées from https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/a ... ictee.html .

For German all my studies are still done through Chatterbug. My activities for this week: +92 new cards, +66 words known well, +224 minutes of study and 2 live lessons of 45 minutes each. I can see a clear improvement in my comprehension skills, but I'm still having difficulties expressing simple thoughts. I'm thinking of increasing the number of my weekly live lessons from 2 to 3.