Postby PeterMollenburg » Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:01 am
Towards the latter stages of June I seriously considered a multi-lingual study approach in which I made French the central focus with an aim to move forward with the C-level exams.
The other languages of interest would feature in my study routine as well but only in a reduced capacity. For every one hour of French I was looking at doing 30 minutes of one of the other languages each time I'd done an hour of French. Thus, taking turns with each of the three languages (NL, ES, NO). I backed out. Iguanamon helped me see the light yet again....
In the last week of the June I got serious. French mission to start. In the middle of winter, I got up early again each morning to go and study in our garage where I'd set up my desk and learning materials. Beanie on, several layers of clothes as there isn't enough room in the house and if I wanted this to become a reality and I just needed to just get on with it. Many mornings might hover near zero degrees (celcius), but rarely below. So I rose initially at 6am and then progressed quickly to 5am starts. To do so, considering many nights I couldn't make it to bed until 10 or 11pm due to often working evenings and depending on where I work, being sometimes over an hour away from home, I had to change my diet. Eliminate anything causing inflammation and eat what felt as healthy as possible for me (ketogenic diet). This way I could focus on language learning and function throughout the day on less sleep where this would often be the case. Were I to eat more processed foods or simply more carbohydrates, my body would need more sleep.
So, my routine has been made up of the following activities:
1 writing,
2 extensive reading,
3 course books,
4 watching
5 Vocabulary
For each of the first four activities above I do 40 minutes of study on that particular activity and 20 minutes of vocabulary from my French learning magazines where I'd translate word lists from articles from English to French and French to English as well as read the articles. This was my form of SRS combined with intensive vocabulary study and intensive reading.
On commutes (sometimes over an hour in one direction), I've been listening to podcasts. My favourite at the time being "French Expat, Un podcast", but trying others here and there as well.
For June 2021 I totalled 64 hr and 50 minutes French learning, thereby averaging 2 hours and 9 minutes a day. I also did a bit over 8 hours Dutch reading with the kids and a bit over 2 hours Spanish reading with them also.
In July I got super serious. Rising without fail at 5am, doing 3 hours of my routine studies (at home at my desk or at work during downtime), plus listening activities and reading in French with the kids. Going super well until I just couldn't take a lack of sleep anymore no matter how healthy I felt I was eating, so on the 10th I just saw no point forcing myself to study while falling asleep, so I slept and failed to reach 3 hours that day. My conclusion is that I need to respect sleep more while also eating healthy and if I don't make my target, too bad, so I'm considering winding back to 6am starts. Slow and steady wins the race. Problem is, I have a bucket load of motivation and I just want to get on with the job. My work arrangements aren't is good as they used to be however with late starts, so I just need to work around that and do what I can, it seems.
Writing
Creative writing most days seems to be quite a worthwhile activity. I'm finding I am needing to resort to a lot of look ups for expressions, conjugations at times (imperfect subjunctive) and such activities have to be worthwhile in the long run. Many of these look ups are verifications of form, others not, but still logical in their constructions. Thus, hopefully with time my active vocabulary in terms of both writing and even speaking will improve.
Reading
I finished reading 1984 by George Orwell, finally. I was looking forward to the second half. I had built this book up my mind considerably. I was disappointed in the second half, however. It almost shocked me, although I feel like I should've known what was coming, in that it was so unapologetically dark and miserable. It seemed to beat every last ounce of hope out of humanity as seemingly possible. I was disappointed with the sad fate of the two 'lovers' and disappointed with the role of "O'Brien" in the book when I was fooled, as the main character was, by his apparent appearance. I promptly picked up a more positive book to follow up with - the translation of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (Le Guerrier Pacifique), which I've read in English before many years ago, but not in French.
Course books
I'm working my way through Vocabulaire Progressif du français - niveau débutant. There he goes again, at it again with beginner resources, you say? Well yes and no. Okay, yes. This is a worthwhile warm up activity before progressing to other books/courses. It's not a waste of time, and is in fact a reminder of many structures and expressions I was either unsure of or even unaware of. When you're not surrounded by the language, no harm in reinforcing, right? Well, to an extent. Anyway, it's good revision with some new content. It's a quick run-through with regards to my usual slow pace and I wanted to knock it off considering I have all the other levels in the Vocab series and I had already completed this level in the Grammar series a while back.
Watching
I'm back at Buffy. This time I've made it all the way through episode 1. Ensuring I understood every single line, and repeated them myself aloud. I'm ready to throw my computer at the wall though as it is a piece of junk that cannot handle a flea looking at it before it craps itself. For the moment though, other things are better worth spending my money on. I re-watched episode 1 after going thoroughly over the script as mentioned. Slow but worthwhile. Beyond me? No. This focused listening is going to go a long way in helping me listen to details that I often miss when watching series or movies.
Vocabulary
I'm using Think French magazines at work and Bien-dire at home. I'm nearly all the way through reviewing the first Bien-dire magazine from 2004. Again, slow going, but in due course PM, in due course. Bien-dire is perhaps my favourite resource in this list.
I'm back to where I was a few years back with my passion for French with more time constraints to work around, so i have to be more organised and I'm yet to even see how I can work exercise into my routine. Still, however my routine unfolds, I'm going to push forward. Today's been the first slack day in my routine (only 12 minutes of French so far), but I needed some mental downtime from the increasing fatigue. Sensible does it.
Throw a half eaten chicken that's not been eaten over your shoulder.
Last edited by
PeterMollenburg on Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:59 am, edited 3 times in total.
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