James29's Spanish and French Log

[Tomás]

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a plug to my favorite course - Gaston Mauger's Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises. Mauger's pronunciation and liaison notes are extremely helpful, and the entire course is simply magnificent. The first book follows the daily life of a Canadian family in France, while books 2, 3, and 4 progressively introduce literature, essays etc. Book 4 is practically all literature. I believe the course to be among the best ever conceived. A perfect cup of coffee, if you will. I also don't think it to be in any sort of conflict with your two other books (Assimil/French for Reading).

http://www.amazon.com/Cours-Langue-Civilisation-Fran%C3%A7aises-Vol/dp/2010080548

Thank you very much for that cite. I just had a look and it is difficult to find [legal] copies of the later volumes, much less the audio tapes. I am going to stow this information away for when I finish Spanish and move on to French. I already have Assimil and FIA. Plus there is FSI, which I remember my father studying at home back in the 1960s when he worked in the American Embassy in Cameroon. It will be difficult to choose between them.

[James29]

Well, it was another pretty good week.

Spanish:

I just finished Dan Brown's Deception Point in Spanish. I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audio book as I followed along. It was quite easy to understand and I found it much more relaxing than much of the things I've read in the past... relaxing in the sense that I did not need to "think" or make much effort to understand. I just turned on the audio and followed along.

The "ease" of reading this book made it much easier to get in some extra Spanish time. There were a few times this week where I had some free time in the evenings. I used to never do Spanish reading in the evening, but now, with a book like this, it was not hard at all. This is a great feeling because now Spanish (both reading and watching telenovelas) is just as relaxing as doing things in English.

I went to a meetup this week too, but that's about all I did for Spanish for this week.

French:

I did not do much at all in French this week. I tried out a lesson of the DLI Basic French course just to see what it was like. I also fiddled around with FSI. I also found an unused copy of the Practice Makes Perfect Complete French Grammar course at the local used bookstore and picked it up for $2. I could not resist.

French is so much different for me than Spanish. I'm still not really sure what I want to do with it. I don't have the passion and/or drive to put the time into it. I'd love to just know it and somehow get to a decent B1 level without working. I do find that I get excited about being able to read French. I can read many of the French logs on this site and there are a decent amount of basic books I could read pretty easily with a pop up dictionary.

My basic plan still is the same... do Assimil and French for Reading and then just read for a while until I can read real books. Then, from there, who knows.

I had wanted to start back in on the French Assimil this week since I finished the book in Spanish. Unfortunately, I still have not received my Assimil from Schoenhof's. I think I may call them or find out if there was some sort of problem with the delivery.

[tomgosse]

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a plug to my favorite course - Gaston Mauger's Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises. Mauger's pronunciation and liaison notes are extremely helpful, and the entire course is simply magnificent. The first book follows the daily life of a Canadian family in France, while books 2, 3, and 4 progressively introduce literature, essays etc. Book 4 is practically all literature. I believe the course to be among the best ever conceived. A perfect cup of coffee, if you will. I also don't think it to be in any sort of conflict with your two other books (Assimil/French for Reading).

http://www.amazon.com/Cours-Langue-Civilisation-Fran%C3%A7aises-Vol/dp/2010080548

I second the nomination. We used this in the French course I took last year. The only problem was that my teacher jumped around in the book so it took me a while to figure out that it was a story.

[tomgosse]

Well, it was another pretty good week.

My basic plan still is the same... do Assimil and French for Reading and then just read for a while until I can read real books. Then, from there, who knows.

I had wanted to start back in on the French Assimil this week since I finished the book in Spanish. Unfortunately, I still have not received my Assimil from Schoenhof's. I think I may call them or find out if there was some sort of problem with the delivery.

I found that Schoenhof's is very slow in processing orders. Be patient it will get to you.

[James29]

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a plug to my favorite course - Gaston Mauger's Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises. Mauger's pronunciation and liaison notes are extremely helpful, and the entire course is simply magnificent. The first book follows the daily life of a Canadian family in France, while books 2, 3, and 4 progressively introduce literature, essays etc. Book 4 is practically all literature. I believe the course to be among the best ever conceived. A perfect cup of coffee, if you will. I also don't think it to be in any sort of conflict with your two other books (Assimil/French for Reading).

http://www.amazon.com/Cours-Langue-Civilisation-Fran%C3%A7aises-Vol/dp/2010080548

I second the nomination. We used this in the French course I took last year. The only problem was that my teacher jumped around in the book so it took me a while to figure out that it was a story.

Where can this program be purchased and is it possible to get audio?

[tomgosse]

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a plug to my favorite course - Gaston Mauger's Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises. Mauger's pronunciation and liaison notes are extremely helpful, and the entire course is simply magnificent. The first book follows the daily life of a Canadian family in France, while books 2, 3, and 4 progressively introduce literature, essays etc. Book 4 is practically all literature. I believe the course to be among the best ever conceived. A perfect cup of coffee, if you will. I also don't think it to be in any sort of conflict with your two other books (Assimil/French for Reading).

http://www.amazon.com/Cours-Langue-Civilisation-Fran%C3%A7aises-Vol/dp/2010080548

I second the nomination. We used this in the French course I took last year. The only problem was that my teacher jumped around in the book so it took me a while to figure out that it was a story.

Where can this program be purchased and is it possible to get audio?

The book can be purchased through Amazon at the above link. The only audio for this book that I found can be purchased through qobuz. Unfortunately, they don't do business in the United States. I might try purchasing it using a VPN later.

[James29]

One thing I've never been good at is keeping a list of the books I've read in Spanish. After finishing the Dan Brown book this morning I tried to think about the books I've already read in Spanish. I am quite surprised at how books add up. I am amazed I've read so many. I'm actually disappointed I am not better at reading in Spanish after reading so many books. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here are the ones I can currently remember in no particular order.

Cajas de Carton
Narnia 1
Narnia 2
Harry Potter 1
Harry Potter 2
Harry Potter 3
Alex Rider 1
Alex Rider 2
Alex Rider 3
Alex Rider 4
Alex Rider 5
Theodore Boone 1
Theodore Boone 2
Theodore Boone 3
Theodore Boone 4
The Giver
Cherub 1
Hunger Games 1
Hunger Games 2
Think and Grow Rich
Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie - And then there were none
Agatha Christie - Murder of Roger Ackryod
Erle Stanley Gardner - El Caso de la divorciada atrevida
Erle Stanley Gardner - El Fiscal y el Candelero
Bible - New Testament
Ayn Rand - Anthem
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Murray Rothbard - Man, Economy and State
Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch 1
Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch 2
Michael Connelly - Jack McAvoy 1
John Grisham - The Broker
John Grisham - The Litigators
John Grisham - Sycamore Row
Dan Brown - The da Vinci Code
Dan Brown - Deception Point

I also read a few collections of short stories.

I am sure I am forgetting a few, but that makes matters worse. This blows my mind that I have read so many books and I am still struggling with so many aspects of Spanish. When I read how much people progressed by doing the "Super Challenge" or doing an extensive amount of reading I am a bit disappointed. That being said, I can now quite easily read these types of books which is nice. It has certainly helped my vocabulary a ton. It has given me an "instinct" in Spanish that can only come from devouring so much Spanish.

The other thing that is quite amazing is how fast things add up. I only do Spanish for 45-ish minutes on the weekdays and I often do more on the weekends (especially during the summer). So, I probably average about 60 minutes a day and I went through that many books. This is while also doing a ton of other "courses" and grammar books. I guess 60 minutes a day for six years is a ton of time.

Edit: I must add that I really enjoyed reading almost all of these books. The only ones I can say I did not enjoy were Cherub (too juvenile) and the Second Hunger Games (too much of the same thing from the first book).

[Cavesa]

You might like to try an "updatable post", similar to my booklist on the log. It is much easier to just add any book I finish to an already existing list, than to remember all I have read during a longer period of time.

I am quite surprised you don't find yourself progressing enough with all that reading. I don't wanna sound insolent but I find one possible fault in your choice of books. You might be staying too much within your comfort zone. These books are all traductions and mostly of the intermediate friendly kind. Sure, those are awesome choices at some point and even an advanced learner returns to such books for pleasure. But one needs to leave the comfort zone in order to progress and you might have progressed beyond what these books can offer you.

There are tons of awesome Spanish authors to build a reasonable learning curve with. I believe you might like Carlos Ruiz Zafón, or my recently read Julián Sanchez-El Anticuario (a bit dan-brownish read), or those tons of awesome historical fiction and so on.

[tomgosse]

Where can this program be purchased and is it possible to get audio?

The book can be purchased through Amazon at the above link. The only audio for this book that I found can be purchased through qobuz. Unfortunately, they don't do business in the United States. I might try purchasing it using a VPN later.

Tried to listen to the sample on the qobuz site, but keep getting a message that I can't purchase it the US, even using a VPN that says that I'm in France.

[tangleweeds]

I had wanted to start back in on the French Assimil this week since I finished the book in Spanish. Unfortunately, I still have not received my Assimil from Schoenhof's. I think I may call them or find out if there was some sort of problem with the delivery.

I've gotten me great deals from Schoenhof's, but they are slow to ship, and don't communicate (e.g. if something is backordered),

(oops, Tom got here before me.)