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

[rdearman]

You want advanced vocabulary, I suggest you check out a French word database from the Université de Savoie which EMK worked on.

https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/emk ... ique.ipynb

If you want I have the DB and can do a dump of the "least frequent words" and I'll even change it into an Anki deck for you using googletranslate. I can dump only nouns if you'd like, since they don't really change form. Or I'll give you the list in spreadsheet or text and you can do wordlists like Iversen and look up the definitions yourself.

More efficient I think than trying to go on a "rare word hunt" through a few thousand magazines. Since the Université de Savoie have done a lot of the work for you!

[PeterMollenburg]

You want advanced vocabulary, I suggest you check out a French word database from the Université de Savoie which EMK worked on.

https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/emk ... ique.ipynb

If you want I have the DB and can do a dump of the "least frequent words" and I'll even change it into an Anki deck for you using googletranslate. I can dump only nouns if you'd like, since they don't really change form. Or I'll give you the list in spreadsheet or text and you can do wordlists like Iversen and look up the definitions yourself.

More efficient I think than trying to go on a "rare word hunt" through a few thousand magazines. Since the Université de Savoie have done a lot of the work for you!

I truly appreciate the offer, but this isn't the kind of study I would like. I don't have too look far, btw to learn vocabulary from Bien-dire, I have a pile of perhaps 50 paper-based (also my preference) magazines in a container next to my desk. That's what I'm motivated to use, and almost every article contains unknown words or expressions, thus, no hunting required, just the effort of using the interesting and well presented content. Éditions Entrefilet have done the hard work for me Thanks rdearman!

[PeterMollenburg]

Perhaps I just need to be more convincing, this is a good resource for me for vocabulary acquisition (I translate the word lists EN-FR and then FR-EN and read the articles. I'm goingbto stick with it. And I think I'm almost set on the plan too, as I made some decent changes already mentioned after considering Cavesa's comments and discussing things with iguanamon. I may change to 45 min study blocks instead of 30, but I think this will be it (if you think it's suicide, chime in):

-------
Les séances d'études de français :
-------
La première séance, 30 min chaque jour :
-------
Vocabulaire/ lecture intensive
• Bien-dire
----------------------------------
Les autres séances, 45 min chacune, par roulement :
-------
Regarder énormément
----------------------------------
Préparation aux examens/ L'écriture
1. Production écrite : niv. B1 / B2 (this book has one section relevant to C-level exams not found in the C-level book)
2. Production écrite : niv. C1 / C2
3. Réussir le Dalf : niveaux C1 et C2
4. abc Dalf C1/C2
5. Dalf C1 : Tests complets corrigés
6. Dalf C2 : Tests complets corrigés
----------------------------------
Lecture énorme
• Des livres
----------------------------------
Des cours/ manuels avancés
• Gram Prog du FR

[Klara]

Hurrah - another language-magazine-enthousiast! And you are not alone, PM … I am also very fond of my monthly material for exactly the same reasons like you. In my case, it's the French-German magazine écoute and the journal Revue de la Presse. Both are an essential part - among others - of my daily study routine, an intensive French hour.

The extensive part is covered by listening to the hebdomadaire l'Express - the new owner has changed the format into a magazine like "The Economist", which I had been an avid reader/listener for years. All in all, I have around five hours per week of really interesting and varied native content. Sometimes I also read an article, but in general I prefer reading books (one hour in the evening). And during the extensive part I always encounter many words that I have learned by intensive study.

But I am only near the end of my second year French and do not prepare for an exam, I just learn French the way I like. And as with all learning materials or methods, we have different tastes and preferences, that's it. Bon courage with your preparation

And here are two images from my language magazines:

lang_mag.jpg

article_exp.jpg

[smallwhite]

I haven't much to say on the main topic but I wanted to point that the following sentence contains a mistake:

La Provence est une région qui a la côte !

'Côte' (rib/coast/...) should be 'cote' (avoir la cote/être coté=to be popular/...). The pronunciation is different so it's not just a matter of spelling.

It cannot mean La Provence has sea / is not inland?

"La Provence is a region that enjoys a sea view! Situated blah blah blah, the hills blah the Mediterranean Sea blah des Alpes mountains. Blah des Alpilles mountains blah blah..."

-

"Has sea" is Cantonese How do you say it in English, please?

I learnt the phrase "avoir la cote" and created a flashcard for it on May 25th - just in time to understand guyome's post, yay

[guyome]

It cannot mean La Provence has sea / is not inland?

No, it would not be a natural way to say that. In a different context I guess 'a la côte' could be a pun with the aim of expressing something like 'has access to the seaside'. But I don't think that's what the author was aiming for here since the article is focused on Les Baux, a village away from the seaside, and an art festival without any link to the sea.

[Arnaud]

I haven't much to say on the main topic but I wanted to point that the following sentence contains a mistake:

La Provence est une région qui a la côte !

'Côte' (rib/coast/...) should be 'cote' (avoir la cote/être coté=to be popular/...). The pronunciation is different so it's not just a matter of spelling.

It cannot mean La Provence has sea / is not inland?

"La Provence is a region that enjoys a sea view! Situated blah blah blah, the hills blah the Mediterranean Sea blah des Alpes mountains. Blah des Alpilles mountains blah blah..."

-

"Has sea" is Cantonese How do you say it in English, please?

I learnt the phrase "avoir la cote" and created a flashcard for it on May 25th - just in time to understand guyome's post, yay

No mistake, it's a word play, as Smallwhite correctly said... Very common in newspapers titles.

[DaveAgain]

It cannot mean La Provence has sea / is not inland?

"La Provence is a region that enjoys a sea view! Situated blah blah blah, the hills blah the Mediterranean Sea blah des Alpes mountains. Blah des Alpilles mountains blah blah..."

-

"Has sea" is Cantonese How do you say it in English, please?

You would say La Provence is a maritime/coastal region.

[iguanamon]

For those who are interested here is the link to the post on Bien Dire that I quoted. I should have included the reference in my post. As far as it's usefulness for PM goes, sure, it can be useful, it just shouldn't be the main contact with extensive reading. If the resource is useful, and it appears that it is akin to veintemundos, with which I am familiar, then sure, he should use them... along with other native materials and a good grammar book/course.

I had written a long post, but in the interest of being brief, getting to C levels means working with the language in the wild. Learner resources can certainly provide context and help with that but the proportion of learner resources to native materials at this point should not outweigh the native materials. In other words, read a lot and read widely, listen a lot, write a lot, speak when possible- look up words when the need is felt, get feedback when the need is felt, but don't get bogged down in minutiae. It's important to keep momentum going.

For PM, getting to C2 isn't an amorphous goal. It's critical to his ability to live his life in a French-speaking environment. Having a certified C2 could be a real asset to his resumé. This means living and working in French. In this context, all skills require work in order to succeed. I'd also sign up for a course or two at an online writing school since writing is a problem. I'd hire a tutor experienced with the C2 exam. If idiomatic speech and vocabulary are a problem- lots of reading and listening widely should solve that problem.

[guyome]

No mistake, it's a word play, as Smallwhite correctly said... Very common in newspapers titles.

I don't really see what would be the point of the wordplay here. Unless I missed something, nothing in the article calls for 'côte' to be used in any meaningful way, even as a pun. Maybe I'm just humour impaired