Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

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Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue Jan 04, 2022 10:17 pm

Fortheo wrote:It's definitely a thing. I've done it and I felt it was a nice consolidation for pronunciation practice and basic structures. It's nothing I'd do while at an advanced level, but when I was swimming in the vast ocean of intermediate French i found binging pimsleur to be nice. The worst that will happen is you'll become bored of it and move on to something else, c'est la vie.


Thanks to Pimsleur, I’ve already discovered a semi-mortifying fossilized mispronunciation…

Even though I know how to pronounce fait, lait, vais, voudrais, mais etc. etc. for some reason I mispronounce J’ai. [I was saying J’eye!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: ] It seems so obviously wrong in retrospect, but man, we all have some lurking hidden clunkers, right? Right?
12 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:15 pm

I’m fortunate enough to have access to two great library systems, one for my city and one for my county. They have a lot of overlap in their ebook holdings, but the availability of the books can vary so I always check both systems. It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone that there is a lot more demand for the first levels of Pimsleur than any of the subsequent levels. I ended up using the second edition of Pimsleur French from one library. This edition has all 30 lessons in one ebook that you can borrow for 21 days. The other library only has the third edition of Pimsleur French, but this edition has only four lessons per ebook that you can borrow for 21 days. While I was able to cram all 30 lessons of level one into 30 days, it turns out I’d prefer to just do a lesson a day. (My LongCovid brain can only handle so much per day. Alas, I can’t just do French.) So I’ve switched editions exactly half way through level two. (I’ve also switched libraries, because there doesn’t seem to be a wait for the higher levels at the other library.) Ugh. I hate change. The newer edition has a slightly different narrator, and slightly different vocabulary and it’s throwing me just slightly off kilter. Pimsleur is supposed to be my happy place, where everything is exactly perfect. I’m sure I’ll adapt, and 21 days to complete 4 lessons is way, way more than enough. I’ll be happy again soon.
11 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Mar 07, 2022 9:52 pm

My Pimsleur streak was broken by a family emergency that required me to be out of town for a few weeks. I’m back home now and trying to get back into my routines. Feeling untethered stirred up some wanderlust, and I’ve gone back to doing Russian on Clozemaster. Who knows how long this will last, but I’m amazed at how much I remember after at least two years of utter neglect.

I’m transfixed by the horrific events in Ukraine, and I’m actually *using* my languages to keep abreast. Tagesshau has great daily coverage in German, and Le Dessous des cartes has great background coverage in French, complete with excellent maps, as always.
15 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sun Mar 13, 2022 6:38 am

Still playing with Russian. In addition to Clozemaster I found a nice vocabulary deck on Memrise based on the Princeton Russian Course. But even more amazing is the wonderful YouTube channel I stumbled upon via Reddit: ComprehensibleRussian.com

It’s bite sized videos that start from ground zero using the natural language approach. This is so, so my jam. The internet just gets better and better for language learners. I’d like to use Assimil for Russian someday and then native materials like I did with French, but I know that it’s a much steeper learning curve. (I tried and abandoned Russian Assimil before!) Everything I can use to build a broader foundation without doing actual bookwork is a gift!
8 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:20 am

I was a good ten minutes into Pimsleur Russian before I realized I still had it on 1.25x speed left over from Pimsleur French! Slightly more tolerable at 1.00x, but holy heck Pimsleur with a Category IV language you barely know is way, way harder than a Category I language for which you already have a solid passive understanding. I’ll play with it a bit more (it’s free from the library), but I may need much more passive input before I’m ready for Pimsleur Russian.
10 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:38 am

The Princeton Russian Course deck on Memrise was great for the first chapter. A nice collection of varied everyday nouns, with a few international words to help break you into Cyrillic gently. The second chapter was verbs. Conjugated verbs. Getting the correct answer required typing things like “third person singular” in English. Uh, nope. Not happening. I’ll save my typing for Cyrillic, thank you. And I don’t rote memorize specific forms. That’s what mass input is for.

I switched gears and tried the official Memrise Russian course. So far it’s dreamy. Lots of video of attractive young Russians hanging out in the big city. (Moscow? Saint Petersburg?) This is as close as I’m going to get to travel for so many reasons. I avoided Memrise for French because while it was slick, it seemed too basic. Nothing is too basic for Russian! Happily returned Pimsleur early. I’ll return to it someday. Right now I have shiny, happy Memrise to distract me.
10 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Fri Mar 25, 2022 8:47 pm

Russian mini-update: Okay, so the vocabulary is impossible, the script is difficult, but the spelling itself isn’t actually that bad? Very pleased to have found something reasonable about Russian.

There are plenty of international loan words in Russian, but I was tickled to already come across words that were specifically French and German. (Кошмар and Картофель) I feel like I have the *tiniest* head start on other Anglophones learning Russian! Woo hoo!
10 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue May 03, 2022 11:06 pm

So back in December when I bought all the books done the 2022 French Baccalaureate, I had a vague notion that I might read a book a month. That didn’t happen! I just finished the first book, Le Rouge et Le Noir, which I started in January! In my defense it is 607 pages written in 1830, but still. Thoughts: French from 1830 is surprisingly accessible. Stendhal has a delightful understanding of the human condition, particularly the unhinged passions of youth, and is very readable. Julien Sorel, I was rooting for you, but in the end you were a grandiose, self-absorbed jerk and I was glad to be done with you.
18 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Fri May 20, 2022 11:34 pm

How come no one told me CLE Grammar Progressive is so freaking good!?! I kid, I kid, obviously everyone loves this series, but I’ve only just started with it. I had a mediocre experience once with a different CLE grammar book and that kind of put me off grammar books in general, but the Progressive series is just delightful. Such an incremental progression! So much built in review! It’s a real course, not just a disjointed reference book with drills. I’ve started at the Debutant level, because I like my grammar to be ridiculously easy and this is just dreamy. I’m confident I will still enjoy it when I get to the higher levels and concepts I’m less familiar with. I had been using French by the Natural Method for easy grammar, but I think this meets my needs even better. I still admire that course, but I really don’t need the graded reader aspect that it does so well.

Another lovely find: Paul Noble French for Kids. Quite affordable on Audible! I paid about $8 for 8 hours of material. This is a Michel Thomas style course only Paul Noble uses a native speaker to speak the French portions, which is a brilliant improvement. The individual lessons are quite short for a child’s attention span, but the content is legit. After an hour of instruction my kid just successfully said the following sentence in French: “I want to buy it because it is fantastic.” Impressive! Obviously we won’t cover everything in the next seven hours, but we will cover a lot of useful stuff, and I think it could lay a nice foundation for Assimil and Pimsleur etc. in the future.
15 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Wed May 25, 2022 3:41 pm

Finished a middle-grades novel, Ma vie en 17 pieds by Dominique Mainard. It was a quick read at 117 pages. It’s the story of a dreamy middle school boy stuck at a summer day camp who would rather spend his time writing haikus and watching the clouds than playing basketball and sneaking cigarettes like the other boys, and how he manages to find his place within the group. It wouldn’t say it was a hard read, but it was noticeably harder to follow than Le Rouge et Le Noir, or the Musso books I finished before that. More contemporary slang and more use of metaphors. A reminder of an obvious truth: books for kids, especially books for dreamy kids who might write their own poetry, aren’t necessarily easier than books for grownups!
7 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5


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