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

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

Postby Cèid Donn » Sun Aug 25, 2019 3:28 am

:lol: :P

I don't do the text entry on all my Clozemaster courses. Some I do a mix of text and multuple choice, and others, I just do multiple choice. But the ones I am comfortable doing all with text entry are definitely very rewarding. And like with the Scottish Gaelic course, the only reason I'm continue to do that course, resetting sentences batch by batch and mercilessly dominating the leaderboard, is because it's such good typing practice! (I'm mercilessly dominating the Breton board too, if only due to a lack of interest from other learners--at least with Irish and Welsh, there are people working hard on those courses regularly so I don't feel like a complete jerk over there with my excessive scores in all the Celtic courses :oops: )

Lawyer&Mom wrote: Thank god it shows you letter by letter whether you are on the right path. Otherwise it would probably be impossible!


I know you can turn that feature off on the Android app, but I don't know if you can on the website. But honestly I don't recommend doing that even if it seems like it would make it more challenging. One thing I learned from Duolingo is that getting punished for making the same tiny mistake over and over is not motivating. I have found this feature on Clozemaster to be incredibly helpful in getting me in the habit of using the correct diacritics and spelling words correctly, precisely because it tells you when you type a wrong letter or miss a diacritic. Plus, it doesn't give you the correct answer, so you have to figure that out on your own. I find that's exactly the kind of assistance I need.

I’m already 20,000+ words into the French Fluency deck, so I’m being asked some very obscure stuff.


I'm not that far along in the French<English deck, but I am far enough in to be grateful I spent a lot of time building my vocabulary on Memrise!

I may also be playing with the Russian and Modern Greek decks, multiple choice, but don’t tell anyone...


I'm definitely not one to judge anyone else about how many Clozemaster decks they're currently doing. :mrgreen:
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sun Aug 25, 2019 5:48 am

Cèid Donn wrote:
Lawyer&Mom wrote: Thank god it shows you letter by letter whether you are on the right path. Otherwise it would probably be impossible!


I know you can turn that feature off on the Android app, but I don't know if you can on the website. But honestly I don't recommend doing that even if it seems like it would make it more challenging. One thing I learned from Duolingo is that getting punished for making the same tiny mistake over and over is not motivating. I have found this feature on Clozemaster to be incredibly helpful in getting me in the habit of using the correct diacritics and spelling words correctly, precisely because it tells you when you type a wrong letter or miss a diacritic. Plus, it doesn't give you the correct answer, so you have to figure that out on your own. I find that's exactly the kind of assistance I need.


I love that it makes me use the correct diacritics, because otherwise I basically ignore them. (Who knew there is an ï in astéroïde? Is that really even a letter!?!) But I really wish it made me capitalize words correctly for German!
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overscore
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby overscore » Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:42 am

Lawyer&Mom wrote:
Cèid Donn wrote:
Lawyer&Mom wrote: Thank god it shows you letter by letter whether you are on the right path. Otherwise it would probably be impossible!


I know you can turn that feature off on the Android app, but I don't know if you can on the website. But honestly I don't recommend doing that even if it seems like it would make it more challenging. One thing I learned from Duolingo is that getting punished for making the same tiny mistake over and over is not motivating. I have found this feature on Clozemaster to be incredibly helpful in getting me in the habit of using the correct diacritics and spelling words correctly, precisely because it tells you when you type a wrong letter or miss a diacritic. Plus, it doesn't give you the correct answer, so you have to figure that out on your own. I find that's exactly the kind of assistance I need.


I love that it makes me use the correct diacritics, because otherwise I basically ignore them. (Who knew there is an ï in astéroïde? Is that really even a letter!?!) But I really wish it made me capitalize words correctly for German!


it's used in some pretty basic words: maïs, haïr, or in names: Alexeï.
there's also ë. basically only ever used in the word Noël.

Both are fairly confusing and I know plenty of native speakers of french never use them.

there's ù that's a letter only ever used in one word: .
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:09 pm

overscore wrote:it's used in some pretty basic words: maïs, haïr, or in names: Alexeï.
there's also ë. basically only ever used in the word Noël.

Both are fairly confusing and I know plenty of native speakers of french never use them.

there's ù that's a letter only ever used in one word: .


I’m used to some diaeresis in English: Noël, Chloë, Zoë. But Wikipedia insists that we native English speakers spell naive with a ï, and like hell we do.

(The fine people who work at the New Yorker probably do put an ï in naive, but um, they don’t count. They live in a very special bubble.)
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Aug 28, 2019 8:36 am

Lawyer&Mom wrote:Was reading an easy French non-fiction book, an introduction to Ancient Greek history and culture aimed at middle school students. Nicely accessible reading level, cute cartoon pictures... something relaxing at the end of a long day. Their explanation of the Trojan war: Helene left Greece with her lover Paris, leaving behind her husband Agamemnon... Huh, what? C’est pas vrai!

Agamemnon was the high king who led the Greek army against Troy, but her husband was Menelaus. I feel betrayed by the French. I thought France took its connection to the Ancient World and the Academic Arts very seriously. How can I feel smug and superior about reading in French if they are just going to muck about with the basic facts like that? Who can I trust!?!

(I didn’t actually know about Menelaus until like three months ago, but we are *very* into Greek Myths at my house these days and I cannot recommend the Gareth Hinds graphic novels of the Odyssey and the Iliad highly enough. Once you’ve *seen* the characters, you will never confuse Agamemnon and Menelaus again, they have like totally different hair styles! (There are a lot of people in the Iliad. Visuals really do help you keep them all straight.))
Arte.tv are going to run an adaption of the illiad starting in September.

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/080116-00 ... ssee-1-20/
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue Sep 10, 2019 5:12 pm

My French is sort of drifting since I finished ER. I tried some new noir shows (The Chalet, Rain) on Netflix but soon lost interest. Too much “moody-mysterious-wind-blowing-through-the-dark-woods” and not enough actual talking! I’m kinda burnt out on TV anyway.

I’m somehow reading two German books. A somewhat paint-by-numbers police procedural by Inge Loehnig and another novel by Henning Menkell. I love Henning Menkell, his characters feel like real people, but the police procedural uses *lots* of vocabulary to really describe those crime scenes... and vocabulary is good for me.
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby DaveAgain » Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:01 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:My French is sort of drifting since I finished ER. I tried some new noir shows (The Chalet, Rain) on Netflix but soon lost interest. Too much “moody-mysterious-wind-blowing-through-the-dark-woods” and not enough actual talking! I’m kinda burnt out on TV anyway.

I’m somehow reading two German books. A somewhat paint-by-numbers police procedural by Inge Loehnig and another novel by Henning Menkell. I love Henning Menkell, his characters feel like real people, but the police procedural uses *lots* of vocabulary to really describe those crime scenes... and vocabulary is good for me.
I read a french short story collection (Ursurpation d'identitie) earlier this year, by a writing team called Boileau Narcejac that I enjoyed, and learnt that a Danielle Darrieux film I liked, Meurtre à 45 tours, was adapted from their novel à coeur perdu.
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Cèid Donn
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Cèid Donn » Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:01 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:My French is sort of drifting since I finished ER. I tried some new noir shows (The Chalet, Rain) on Netflix but soon lost interest. Too much “moody-mysterious-wind-blowing-through-the-dark-woods” and not enough actual talking! I’m kinda burnt out on TV anyway.


We need French telenovelas! One thing I like about Por Amar Sin Ley for my Spanish SC, or Ros na Rún for my Irish studies, is how those soap opera-type shows that don't have big budgets for special effects and fancy cinematography are more dialogue-heavy. Granted the dialogue is generally pretty mundane, but that's sort of the point. It's suppose to be easy viewing that doesn't really tax your brain cells very much. Well, if you already understand the language, that is. For learners, it's a little more challenging to keep up. :lol:

As an alternative to TV, I personally like French audio books (I'm a big fan of Radio-Canada'sfree audio books, but the range of book is bigger is you are willing to spend money, of course).
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Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:22 pm

Cèid Donn wrote:
Lawyer&Mom wrote:My French is sort of drifting since I finished ER. I tried some new noir shows (The Chalet, Rain) on Netflix but soon lost interest. Too much “moody-mysterious-wind-blowing-through-the-dark-woods” and not enough actual talking! I’m kinda burnt out on TV anyway.


We need French telenovelas! One thing I like about Por Amar Sin Ley for my Spanish SC, or Ros na Rún for my Irish studies, is how those soap opera-type shows that don't have big budgets for special effects and fancy cinematography are more dialogue-heavy. Granted the dialogue is generally pretty mundane, but that's sort of the point. It's suppose to be easy viewing that doesn't really tax your brain cells very much. Well, if you already understand the language, that is. For learners, it's a little more challenging to keep up. :lol:

As an alternative to TV, I personally like French audio books (I'm a big fan of Radio-Canada'sfree audio books, but the range of book is bigger is you are willing to spend money, of course).


I watched a lot of Verbotene Liebe back in the day! I’d totally watch something similar in French. Wish they weren’t so in love with the geo-blocking! (There is Generation Sitcoms...)

I’m actually watching Fait Pas Ci, Fait Pas Ça which is amazing, but there are less than 100 episodes, and I want to savor them!
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Oct 07, 2019 9:44 pm

It’s been awhile.

My oldest started kindergarten and it was super stressful. For me. That’s the fun part of Autism. Transitions are super hard. Even eagerly awaited, super exciting transitions. But I survived the first month and so far, things are going well!

Two big language developments:

First, German school! Saturday mornings have 100% more structure since the oldest has started German school. I even spoke a bit of German for the first time in eons at the orientation. I wasn’t bad! Most of the parents are native speakers, and I’m clearly not, but who cares! We are on my turf, I never feel like I have something to prove when I’m in the States. (I even wore flip-flops! So American!)

Second, I have a Reader! The oldest learned all the letter sounds at two. And then didn’t read much of anything until last month. But now things are going swimmingly. I’ve embraced a real tadoku approach. A little bit of phonics and lots and lots of books. I get stacks from the library and we go through them quickly. I help with unknown sounds, we don’t try to memorize anything. Internalization will happen with mass exposure.

Watched a lot of TV in English. Can highly recommend Derry Girls, Fleabag and Schitt’s Creek to our more advanced English learners... Although subtitles with Derry Girls is fair play. We didn’t use them but I don’t think my husband understood much of anything! (My years in London makes all the insular accents much more accessible.)

Watched some Florence Foresti. She’s a remarkable French stand-up comedienne. I understand maybe half, but she’s so physically expressive, it’s still funny. And she’s making jokes about being a mom, and raising kids and I’m so definitely the target audience. Stand-up is pretty great for just non-stop talking. I think there will be more in my future.
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