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

[smallwhite]

Btw, should you not add Dutch to your language profile? (it doesn't appear on the side thingy in your posts)

I'm trying to hide my identity for a while. So I ducked as well.

[PeterMollenburg]

If I'm to take a leaf out of smallwhite's book (which I'll try to do), I'm going to attempt to avoid political debates on this forum more so than ever. For the record, smallwhite has never stated that she deliberately avoids political debates here on the forum (that I know of), but I have come to understand that she is very much in favor of efficient progress in language learning - that's why I don't want to waste time and energy debating things that get me into hot water and well, waste time. It's not because I'm usually the loser either (poor debater? crackpot? nutcase? can't be assed finding all the research? contradict myself? just plane wrong ), it's really a massive time loss. I should've been asleep 4 and half hours ago, but I scramble madly to protect my own ego, all for what? I'm just as absurd as anyone else that's absurd as I am! I go round in circles defending my stance on things, and even if I am right, what's the point? And does it matter that much if I'm right? or even if I'm wrong? It's certainly not going to help my French study time (right now tomorrow is looking non-existent almost due to hung-over tired, here I come! It's a complete egocentric waste of time. I may as well stay out of it, because it's not like i'm 'saving' anyone, i'm really just wasting my time and confirming 9 out of 10 times to others that i'm a fruitloop of sorts (I don't think I am and I"m not that bothered if people think I am, that's worn away with age/experience)......

So, efficiency and opportune moments here I come, from now on (look out another declaration), C1 is the main objective and I will do everything in my power (without being an asshole about it or a dictator - ie still want to spend time with family etc) to efficiently progress towards passing the DALF C1, and that means changing some habits to stay focused. And speaking of focus, I want to get better at it, especially with listening, as that will increase the efficiency within the limited time constructs of time allotted to study.

So I checked today, the written component of that DALF C1 exam is on November 12, 2018. The oral component around a week and a half later. I am determined to sit that exam whether I feel I'm ready or not (I have a tendency to want to delay). Surely with 340 days ahead of me I can make some pretty decent progress to be in with a chance of passing this thing! 3 hours a day would equate to over 1000 hours of study from here on (yes I've made such calculations before and then wandered off getting distracted). I"m going to do this one day at a time. Thus, in terms of my French study, i'll do the best I can to learn as much as I can most efficiently as I can (by my standards, please don't hold me to yours, i'm still a perfectionist of sorts afterall) each and every day to that date. I will also to attempt some kind of an AFATT style existence shifting more and more English out of my day (not because I hate it! I don't actually, but because it will help me) as I head towards November 12th next year.

REBOOT OF C1 MISSION STARTS HERE

à la prochaine !

[Elenia]

Full speed ahead, Monsieur le PM!

As I think you may know, I took the TISUS test last year and failed. (I promise this is going to be a story of hope! At least, it will try!) The TISUS is the test you need to pass if you want to study in Sweden. It's apparently a C1 level test. I can't say if that's right or now, but let's say that it is.

Roughly a year (maybe half a year) before the test, I thought as you did that I really need to buckle down and get in some serious study time. My idea of serious study is not nearly as sensible as your idea of serious study - and I never managed to reach the level I intended. Sometimes I did, but for the most part I kind of wandered along in the same way as usual, doing the same old, same old. The day of the test arrived. I felt unprepared - I had forgotten to buy a Swedish-Swedish dictionary, forgotten to bring pens with me, I got a bit lost on the way to the test centre and had forgotten to bring my Passport with me. I had my provisional drivers license, but the officiator/invigilator wasn't sure that it would be accepted centrally. She let me sit the test anyway. So, of course, I was very stressed. In the morning, we had the reading and writing tests, with short breaks in between. After lunch we had the speaking tests. I didn't manage to finish all the questions on the reading test, and I was sure I had done horribly on it. I sat in the little corridor as quietly as possible, trying not to be stressed out while I listened to two heritage learner teens talk about what they had written and whatever else they were saying (I was too stressed to understand most of what they said as they were talking in Swedish). My speaking test was the second to last, so I was stewing away, feeling ridiculous and unprepared. When I finally started the test, I pretty much started crying. They let me pause and start again. We were meant to talk for 10-15 minutes, I managed about six or seven.

It turns out that, had I managed to calm down and talk for the full time, I would have passed. I passed the reading and writing sections, but to pass TISUS you must pass all three sections of the test. Had I gone in there doing the preparations that I know you will do (ie: making sure I had pens ) and been just a little bit calmer, I would have passed the whole thing. Had I actually studied as much time as you do in a 'bad' month before the test, I would have aced it. I would probably be sitting here with the highest honours in Swedish skills, lording it over everyone else. I studied Swedish for about three years before taking the test, and I only got serious about 2 years beforehand. So even though I didn't pass, I felt incredibly proud of myself, because it showed that I could. You definitely can pass the French test. Your French skills are amazing and you've got a rock solid foundation. What you need to do now is make sure that you're challenging yourself enough. I'm not going to say that you should abandon all your courses and only consume native media, but I think you should try to make sure that you're doing at least one challenging activity every day. Something that really pushes your French to its limits. It can be intensive or extensive, whatever you feel like. Do make sure you aren't neglecting native materials. I didn't do much study before taking the test, but I did read a fair amount and listened a bit as well. A note on listening - reading is a great activity, but I find I get my head into the language much more effectively after having listened to it for a while. An interesting podcast or a TV show should do the trick.

I'm not going to wish you luck, because I don't think you'll need it. You'll do great, I'm sure.

[PeterMollenburg]

Full speed ahead, Monsieur le PM!

As I think you may know, I took the TISUS test last year and failed. (I promise this is going to be a story of hope! At least, it will try!) The TISUS is the test you need to pass if you want to study in Sweden. It's apparently a C1 level test. I can't say if that's right or now, but let's say that it is.

Roughly a year (maybe half a year) before the test, I thought as you did that I really need to buckle down and get in some serious study time. My idea of serious study is not nearly as sensible as your idea of serious study - and I never managed to reach the level I intended. Sometimes I did, but for the most part I kind of wandered along in the same way as usual, doing the same old, same old. The day of the test arrived. I felt unprepared - I had forgotten to buy a Swedish-Swedish dictionary, forgotten to bring pens with me, I got a bit lost on the way to the test centre and had forgotten to bring my Passport with me. I had my provisional drivers license, but the officiator/invigilator wasn't sure that it would be accepted centrally. She let me sit the test anyway. So, of course, I was very stressed. In the morning, we had the reading and writing tests, with short breaks in between. After lunch we had the speaking tests. I didn't manage to finish all the questions on the reading test, and I was sure I had done horribly on it. I sat in the little corridor as quietly as possible, trying not to be stressed out while I listened to two heritage learner teens talk about what they had written and whatever else they were saying (I was too stressed to understand most of what they said as they were talking in Swedish). My speaking test was the second to last, so I was stewing away, feeling ridiculous and unprepared. When I finally started the test, I pretty much started crying. They let me pause and start again. We were meant to talk for 10-15 minutes, I managed about six or seven.

It turns out that, had I managed to calm down and talk for the full time, I would have passed. I passed the reading and writing sections, but to pass TISUS you must pass all three sections of the test. Had I gone in there doing the preparations that I know you will do (ie: making sure I had pens ) and been just a little bit calmer, I would have passed the whole thing. Had I actually studied as much time as you do in a 'bad' month before the test, I would have aced it. I would probably be sitting here with the highest honours in Swedish skills, lording it over everyone else. I studied Swedish for about three years before taking the test, and I only got serious about 2 years beforehand. So even though I didn't pass, I felt incredibly proud of myself, because it showed that I could. You definitely can pass the French test. Your French skills are amazing and you've got a rock solid foundation. What you need to do now is make sure that you're challenging yourself enough. I'm not going to say that you should abandon all your courses and only consume native media, but I think you should try to make sure that you're doing at least one challenging activity every day. Something that really pushes your French to its limits. It can be intensive or extensive, whatever you feel like. Do make sure you aren't neglecting native materials. I didn't do much study before taking the test, but I did read a fair amount and listened a bit as well. A note on listening - reading is a great activity, but I find I get my head into the language much more effectively after having listened to it for a while. An interesting podcast or a TV show should do the trick.

I'm not going to wish you luck, because I don't think you'll need it. You'll do great, I'm sure.

Thanks Elenia for your encouragement, it's very kind of you

I was just telling my wife about what you experienced in your Swedish TISUS exam (I was not aware you took it btw, sorry, i'm a bit too self involved sometimes to notice what others are up to sometimes, so thank you for taking an interest in my journey currently), my wife reacted with, "Oh, poor thing!" I agree, it sounds like you really had a horrific time of it, will you sit it again? But yes, still positive as you know exactly where you went wrong and it's fixable. Thank you for your strong vote of confidence, I truly appreciate it. I guess you know when someone could do with some support

You are right about challenging myself. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately with regards to the materials I am using and despite using some easy French readers and things like Yabla, I do intend to (and it is in progress) to move onto increasingly tougher materials as I go along. To be just reading on a consistent basis lately is improvement for me.

Where I won't budge is French in Action. I've been trying to complete this course for 20 years and now is the time. Despite it being a little easy for me (at least where I am up to, leçon 19), it's not a complete loss either. There are reading activities at the end of each lesson which I find quite challenging at times, so it is those I tend to revise in short reviews, not the straight forward grammar and vocab of the lessons so much (I do all components of the course, but just don't revise the material such as grammar that I already have a great grasp on). Yabla will get trickier (i'm progressing from easiest to hardest videos), easy readers- i'm not buying any more, their number is limited, it's a matter of time before i'm in the thick of some challenging content.

Listening is a concern of mine simply because I've got room for improvement. I'm watching a fair degree of French TV, I listen to podcasts (of which i'm trying to branch out in content) and I'm using Yabla. I think I am doing enough listening, but it just seems to be a skill that takes time to build on itself. 2 years ago I couldn't understand the news very well. Nowadays my comprehension level is 95% or more. Films and series will follow, and after Yabla I have a strategy to build up difficulty as well with series.

I'm leaving easy courses behind (except FIA, which will get trickier) and intend on introducing specific exam prep material as well as some tougher content such as the CLE Grammaire progressive du français books.

The French learning magazines are gold mines for new vocabulary, so as lame/easy as they might appear to be to others when they hear of such things, they are not, and are fantastic materials - in a novel for example you may not come across half the words in a C1 level article in these learning magazines, so it's a way to condense rarer vocabulary, that's important as I haven't built up my rarer vocab much - there's not enough of it in the courses i've completed, nor have I read sufficiently widely. Furthermore, the articles in the magazines are almost entirely non-fiction, and often have a cultural, scientific, historical, political etc context within the Francophone sphere. Such articles are probably quite useful for exam style topics.

Speaking I need to do more of, but not because I can't speak. My speaking component on the B2 DELF came together almost perfectly. With preparation and guidance (an experienced tutor) this task is manageable. However speaking does help activate passive vocabulary, build confidence and strengthens neural pathways when it comes to speaking naturally and more like a native.

Writing I also need to work on. It's time will come. Anyway, I'll keep pushing forward, trying to push my limits, yet i'll probably still wish I spent more time doing something or rather when Nov 2018 rolls around, but i'm going to bite the bullet and attempt it anyway, so every day must count! Thanks again for your encouragement and belief in me Elenia!

[Carmody]

Hi,
Could you please give me some examples of

The French learning magazines

I don't believe I know about them.

Good luck with FIA; and please do gives us updates with it as you move along.

[Elenia]

Thanks Elenia for your encouragement, it's very kind of you

I was just telling my wife about what you experienced in your Swedish TISUS exam (I was not aware you took it btw, sorry, i'm a bit too self involved sometimes to notice what others are up to sometimes, so thank you for taking an interest in my journey currently), my wife reacted with, "Oh, poor thing!" I agree, it sounds like you really had a horrific time of it, will you sit it again? But yes, still positive as you know exactly where you went wrong and it's fixable. Thank you for your strong vote of confidence, I truly appreciate it. I guess you know when someone could do with some support

You are right about challenging myself. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately with regards to the materials I am using and despite using some easy French readers and things like Yabla, I do intend to (and it is in progress) to move onto increasingly tougher materials as I go along. To be just reading on a consistent basis lately is improvement for me.

Where I won't budge is French in Action. I've been trying to complete this course for 20 years and now is the time. Despite it being a little easy for me (at least where I am up to, leçon 19), it's not a complete loss either. There are reading activities at the end of each lesson which I find quite challenging at times, so it is those I tend to revise in short reviews, not the straight forward grammar and vocab of the lessons so much (I do all components of the course, but just don't revise the material such as grammar that I already have a great grasp on). Yabla will get trickier (i'm progressing from easiest to hardest videos), easy readers- i'm not buying any more, their number is limited, it's a matter of time before i'm in the thick of some challenging content.

Listening is a concern of mine simply because I've got room for improvement. I'm watching a fair degree of French TV, I listen to podcasts (of which i'm trying to branch out in content) and I'm using Yabla. I think I am doing enough listening, but it just seems to be a skill that takes time to build on itself. 2 years ago I couldn't understand the news very well. Nowadays my comprehension level is 95% or more. Films and series will follow, and after Yabla I have a strategy to build up difficulty as well with series.

I'm leaving easy courses behind (except FIA, which will get trickier) and intend on introducing specific exam prep material as well as some tougher content such as the CLE Grammaire progressive du français books.

The French learning magazines are gold mines for new vocabulary, so as lame/easy as they might appear to be to others when they hear of such things, they are not, and are fantastic materials - in a novel for example you may not come across half the words in a C1 level article in these learning magazines, so it's a way to condense rarer vocabulary, that's important as I haven't built up my rarer vocab much - there's not enough of it in the courses i've completed, nor have I read sufficiently widely. Furthermore, the articles in the magazines are almost entirely non-fiction, and often have a cultural, scientific, historical, political etc context within the Francophone sphere. Such articles are probably quite useful for exam style topics.

Speaking I need to do more of, but not because I can't speak. My speaking component on the B2 DELF came together almost perfectly. With preparation and guidance (an experienced tutor) this task is manageable. However speaking does help activate passive vocabulary, build confidence and strengthens neural pathways when it comes to speaking naturally and more like a native.

Writing I also need to work on. It's time will come. Anyway, I'll keep pushing forward, trying to push my limits, yet i'll probably still wish I spent more time doing something or rather when Nov 2018 rolls around, but i'm going to bite the bullet and attempt it anyway, so every day must count! Thanks again for your encouragement and belief in me Elenia!

No worries about not knowing! I may have mentioned it in passing at the time, and have talked about it a bit since, but not really that much. Besides, no need to apologise on focusing on your language journey! I should probably focus more on mine Thanks to you and your wife. Not sure I deserve your sympathy as I brought most of my problems on myself, but as you said at least now I know what went wrong and how to fix it. I am planning to take it again this spring. I should have taken it this year, as I would have only had to retake the failing section, but shoulda coulda woulda. I will now have to redo the whole thing.

By the way, I agree on the learning magazines. From the few French ones I've come across, the article usually come from a real native media source, so it's a good way of getting in extensive vocab study. I have a similar resource for learning to understand texts in Swedish that I should really get back to, so thanks for the inadvertent reminder!

[PeterMollenburg]

Hi,
Could you please give me some examples of

The French learning magazines

I don't believe I know about them.

Good luck with FIA; and please do gives us updates with it as you move along.

Here’s a link to one of the intermediate-advanced Bien-dire magazines which I subscribe to (you can flick through it). It’s a real (i.e. paper magazine). The magazine comes with a CD (if you want to pay the extra) if you want to listen as well. Here’s the text:
https://fr.calameo.com/read/003710397daa690bf5292
Here’s the audio:
http://editions-entrefilet.fr/pages/fr/nos-produits/magazines--audio/francais-fle-bien-dire/audio-bien-dire-no-111.php

Thanks for the good luck wishes! Hope your French is going well too! I will keep my log up to date.

[Carmody]

Peter

Many thanks. I tried the audio but none of the files are playing. Do I need to pay money? I believe my sound system is up and working.

Thanks.

[PeterMollenburg]

Peter

Many thanks. I tried the audio but none of the files are playing. Do I need to pay money? I believe my sound system is up and working.

Thanks.

The links I provided are samples, a subscription does cost money. It’s not cheap, but it’s one of my favourite resources. As for the audio link, i’m not sure what went wrong, but perhaps you could try the home page of sorts and see if you have any luck with the audio from there. The sample links I provided in my previous post were for those wishing to do exactly that, ‘sample’ the content of one of their issues, that doesn’t cost a cent (if that’s what you mean).

http://editions-entrefilet.fr/pages/en/home.php

[BalancingAct]

Peter

Many thanks. I tried the audio but none of the files are playing. Do I need to pay money? I believe my sound system is up and working.

Thanks.

No, you need to ensure their flash player shows on top of the list of files.