Postby Xenops » Fri Feb 23, 2018 4:49 am
Since February 7th to now, the 22nd, this is what I got done:
French in Action 10.0-10.2, 10.4-10.6, 10.8-10.10, 10.12-10.14, 10.16-10.51
Met with tutor once
Reviewed Anki semiregularly, added some cards
Attended a French conversation meetup
Went to French restaurant, spoke and heard French
Had brief email correspondence concerning an Ebay item in French.
I mention FiA exercises in bunches, because I was missing the audio for 10.03, 10.07, 10.11, and 10.15. I'm not sure if the Middle bury site I downloaded everything was missing these MP3 files, or if I sped through the downloading and missed some (very likely). Randomly selecting other chapters, it looks like they have all of their audio.
This chapter and chapter 9 seems to pick up the page faster than chapter 8 and before, and I feel like I need to review more before these concepts are cemented.
For other events, Anki has been neglected more than I would like, and I need to get back to adding cards more regularly. I had wanted to visit one of Boston's French restaurants for a while, and I was surprised that I was not only greeted in French, but many of the waiters spoke in French around me. I was a little intimidated to practice speaking myself. I also attended one of Meetup's French conversation groups. Most of the attendees were retirement age, but I was pleasantly surprised at how intentional they were about sticking to French. There were a couple of native French speakers, and mostly learners. They knew more French than I of course, but the Americans definitely had American accents. They complimented my accent, and I had to confess that I used a tutor for that. I also brought my FiA workbook for a discussion prompt. Only at the end when there was only a few of us left did the group resort to English (to discuss computer updates). At the end the French dude (who was my age) and I walked to the subway, and chatted about his working as a post-doc at Harvard and my plans to move to Europe at some point. We sat close to each other on the subway train. He asked a question, and I thought I heard "can I have your number?". I blushed at this, and fiddled with my phone. Making my faith paramount in my life, I asked him if he went to church. He said No, he doesn't. He then asked his original question louder: "Can I see your workbook?"
My face felt hot, and I handed him the FiA book. He asked what I thought I had heard. I told him. Then I gave an embarrassed laugh, and my chewing gum fell out of my mouth onto the train floor.
He said graciously "Well, yes, I was going to ask that, too."
I picked up the gum with a tissue, and we sat in silence, while he looked at my workbook. After a quick look, he gave it back. The next train arrived at the next stop, and I quickly said my farewell and left.
And that's why I'm trying online dating.
14 x
Of course, the old spellings might make the pronunciation/orthography worse. I would like to learn the older versions of French at some point.
