Re: PM’s French Re-entry into the Matrix - Phase 1: 500 Hours Extensive Reading

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Fortheo
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby Fortheo » Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:31 pm

Hey Peter, I like the idea of going on a TV show or listening binge in general, but I'd recommend still reading a little bit even if it's just 20-30 minutes a day because I've found that there's a lot of turns of phrases and vocabulary that you'll mostly see in writing.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you do nothing but listening for a while, then prepare for your first days back to reading to feel a little rusty. It's nothing serious, though--just something I've experienced in my studies.
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:50 pm

Fortheo wrote:Hey Peter, I like the idea of going on a TV show or listening binge in general, but I'd recommend still reading a little bit even if it's just 20-30 minutes a day because I've found that there's a lot of turns of phrases and vocabulary that you'll mostly see in writing.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you do nothing but listening for a while, then prepare for your first days back to reading to feel a little rusty. It's nothing serious, though--just something I've experienced in my studies.


Hi Fortheo,

Yeah, I've been giving this some thought myself and basically I've semi-concluded (I'm always hesitant and indecisive when it comes to my study routines anyway), that I'll either go the full TV binge of 3 to 4 hours a day of series for a solid month, or i'll limit it to 2 hours a day and the rest of the time will be spent on other activities so as not to lose ground on skills such as reading. I'm more inclined currently to go the full TV binge, as I feel like one month won't kill my other skills, just set me a little back for a little while, yet ideally see me leap forward in listening ability with regards to TV.. 'sais pas, on va voir. J'espère que tout va bien avec ton français Fortheo. Comme je suis tellement crevé... j'y vais, au lit ! À la prochaine ! :)
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby schlaraffenland » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:41 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:Bring it back, sing it back, bring it back to me...


This made me happy :D
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sun Apr 29, 2018 1:09 pm

I didn't intend to write something here tonight, but I will, I'm not sure what exactly though...

Ummm.. A very feverish frenzy of French mid-month but lost the plot again. Still, i'm staying in touch to varying degrees every day, but in touch is not what I was aiming for.

The Aftershokz bone conduction headphones are mixed. That is, I have mixed feelings. The sound quality is not as good as standard Apple (non-bluetooth) headphones (i.e. I mean earbuds). The Aftershokz are not bluetooth because I'm not a huge fan of wireless technology. The quality drop at a guess is 10 to 15% comparing Apple earbuds to the Aftershokz corded bone conduction headphones. I tested by playing some music - a rare occasion since I started learning French a handful of years ago, odd when once upon a time I couldn't live without music and it was apparently a major component of my personality. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend Aftershokz for music lovers who must have good quality earbuds/phones. They're a little tinny (metalic, weak) and lack decent power - they don't feel 'full'. I haven't used them for sport yet, and have decided not to use them kayaking because, although I rarely ever fall out (once in a five year period maybe- this is flat-water kayaking we're talking here), if water splashed up to my ear from a slightly shonky paddle stroke, they'll likely die. They're a little fiddly - stupid jack at right angles to headphone socket, that's poor design and means the cord will dislodge. The bone conduction does work, though, and I have listened extensively with them. Listening to French podcasts is not an issue. You can still hear through year normal hearing pathways because the headphones do not go into your ear canals but sit in front of year ears slightly over the bone. Yes, you can hear while using them, but not perfectly, because if you turn them up a little to comprehend your foreign language material, focusing on sounds around you becomes more difficult, so i'm not sure how they'll go with cycling/running. I mean if you intend to use them because their safer, then will you have to blast your ears on a busy road so you can still make out what your hearing via the headphones... I'm still not sure, they're that advantageous... yet... As for saving my hearing or giving my left ear drum a break at least, i'm also unsure of whether this will work, since supposedly turning the bone conduction headphones up loud can also be detrimental to hearing.

As I recently conveyed in another thread recently, I'm currently really enjoying the French journey with my daughter. I'm exploring all kinds of possible methods out there for teaching children foreign languages (reading opinions, reading experiences, listening to experts on talk shows, etc). I'm arriving at the conclusion that any amount of foreign language exposure is good for children. Let's face it, how many of us would've loved it if our parents took even some kind of engaging interest (even if limited) in helping us learn foreign languages. My daughter loves stories/reading and it's positive for us both for me to read to her in French (I do come across plenty of unknown words). Doing so in other languages can't hurt imo. I mean, some people expressed concerns with my 'teaching' my daughter French. I respect such opinions, and their concerns are genuine. I don't want to debate that, and I think it mainly came from the point of view that I am conversing with her in French (pretending) like it's my native language almost. Well, what if you just have 'Spanish time' or 'German time' throughout the week, a very different thing in contrast, in which you read and do other things in the language but don't fully engage in the language as if attempting to be a native speaker. Results may be much less exciting, but at least where one may not bother at all for fear of not being native enough, at least the pressure's off and the child(ren) would gain passive understanding of more languages. This can't be bad, provided you don't butcher the language(s), and it's very likely to aid the adult's acquisition of the language as well. So, I think by this time next year I'll be at least teaching my children/introducing my children to at least one other language. More information gathering required here. I'm excited about introducing more languages. Yet, feel like I must be careful because I am not near native French at this stage and I must continue to advance (given my objectives).

The letter "r" has just come loose on my keyboard... don't you hate that? :x

And I just clicked some buttons and my post almost disappeared *sigh of relief* don't you hate that too! when you actually lose your post! :x Crisis averted, this time at least 8-)

One book arrived last week Le grand guide des pédagogies alternatives which will help lay out for me all the different approaches to education with a view to homeschooling our children.

Buffy is slow going. I'm not studying consistently enough. Meanwhile I finished watching Le Chalet on Netflix and was getting pissed off slightly in the last episode when my attitude was turning to 'I can't understand shit'. A bad day, but still, i'm quite disappointed with my TV listening abilities sometimes. While I've been listening to RFI Journal en français facile on 1.5 speed lately without much issue, the news is easy. Seems I need to work on my sore points. And I need to get into the exam prep stuff soon. Some days i'm so confident, others I think I'm a fraud. The exam ought to sought out the truth, but I still need prep.

In May I have rejigged my plan (what's fucking new!). I decided reading is far too important to drop it. So I'll be rotating my studies roughly as follows: one hour buffy/ one hour instensive reading/ one hour Buffy/ one hour extensive reading. Don't believe it.

While currently sitting on a little over 77 hours study for April, I'm heading for roughly 80 hours total for the month. Not bad at all, but nothing like what I was aiming for.

My closing statement - all I need is to get on my mission and stay on it for some shockingly good leaps in my French ability. We'll see if that holds true, shall we.... talk again soon
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby jeffers » Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:14 pm

It was nice to catch up on your log, and find out that "Plus ça change..." :)

It's also good to see that you have a date set for your C1 exam. Go for it man!
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:29 pm

jeffers wrote:It was nice to catch up on your log, and find out that "Plus ça change..." :)

It's also good to see that you have a date set for your C1 exam. Go for it man!


Thanks Jeffers :) Nice to see you about these parts lately ;) Good luck with the SC!
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:53 pm

Well it's mornings like these that there is a good deal of evidence as to why i'm not C1/C2 in French after so much time studying....

Twitter! I hate it! Yes, I hate it! I hate it because it's Twitter's fault that my brain cannot figure this stupid Twitter thing out (stupid me). Why on earth can I not see any notifications any more. It must be because I don't follow anyone, nor do I want to! (except the SC bot and maybe a few language related type things.. a very distant maybe). Why doesn't the SC twitter bot respond to my registration tweet? Nothing, blank, nada. Why can't I see anyone else's tweets from the twitter bot (because i'm not following them?). It goes on (that is- stupid questions and obvious answers to those in the know). My last notification on Twitter is from 31/12/2017. I swear this is where I really do feel like i'm one of those older people who's never used a computer and is asking such absurd questions. My brain does not get it. I'm completely stupid with Twitter, and I really do not like it, for various reasons.

I've wasted an entire morning because of this crap... ahhhh... great start to the SC!
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby schlaraffenland » Tue May 01, 2018 4:24 am

Twitter! I hate it! Yes, I hate it! I hate it because it's Twitter's fault that my brain cannot figure this stupid Twitter thing out (stupid me). Why on earth can I not see any notifications any more. It must be because I don't follow anyone, nor do I want to! (except the SC bot and maybe a few language related type things.. a very distant maybe). Why doesn't the SC twitter bot respond to my registration tweet? Nothing, blank, nada. Why can't I see anyone else's tweets from the twitter bot (because i'm not following them?). It goes on (that is- stupid questions and obvious answers to those in the know). My last notification on Twitter is from 31/12/2017. I swear this is where I really do feel like i'm one of those older people who's never used a computer and is asking such absurd questions. My brain does not get it. I'm completely stupid with Twitter, and I really do not like it, for various reasons.


:( The bot did not respond to my registration request, either, and does not appear to have replied to much of anybody in some months.

I figured the kinks are still being worked out for this round, which might mean that the bot is listening but not yet responding. In any case, I’m keeping track of progress manually (as ever) and will throw things at the bot again once I know it’s ready to listen.
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue May 01, 2018 5:16 am

schlaraffenland wrote:
Twitter! I hate it! Yes, I hate it! I hate it because it's Twitter's fault that my brain cannot figure this stupid Twitter thing out (stupid me). Why on earth can I not see any notifications any more. It must be because I don't follow anyone, nor do I want to! (except the SC bot and maybe a few language related type things.. a very distant maybe). Why doesn't the SC twitter bot respond to my registration tweet? Nothing, blank, nada. Why can't I see anyone else's tweets from the twitter bot (because i'm not following them?). It goes on (that is- stupid questions and obvious answers to those in the know). My last notification on Twitter is from 31/12/2017. I swear this is where I really do feel like i'm one of those older people who's never used a computer and is asking such absurd questions. My brain does not get it. I'm completely stupid with Twitter, and I really do not like it, for various reasons.


:( The bot did not respond to my registration request, either, and does not appear to have replied to much of anybody in some months.

I figured the kinks are still being worked out for this round, which might mean that the bot is listening but not yet responding. In any case, I’m keeping track of progress manually (as ever) and will throw things at the bot again once I know it’s ready to listen.


Awesome, I needed this reply. Thank you kindly schlaraffenland. I have in fact started 'manual recordings' as well, but maybe I'll make them a little more than just scribble, as I may need to refer to them down the lengthy track. Cheers schlaraffenland ;) and good luck with the SC!
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Re: PM's 1000 hrs of French in 254 days to C1 Nov. 2018

Postby rdearman » Tue May 01, 2018 8:19 am

Peter. I logged into the database and I can see that you are registered. Possibly something Twitter related as to why you didn't get the reply, but you must follow @langchallenge to see replies.

mysql> select * from Participants where UserName like '%Peter%';
+-----------------+------------------+----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+-------+
| UserName | DisplayName | FeedData | Location | ImageUrl | WebsiteUrl | About |
+-----------------+------------------+----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+-------+
| PeterMollenburg | Peter Mollenburg | | | http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/790 ... normal.jpg | | |
+-----------------+------------------+----------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.16 sec)
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