March 2018Total French learning time 85 hours, 37 minutes.
Average for the month: 2 hours, 45 min/dayBreakdown: I've finally broken the grasp held on me by a combination of courses and floundering about all over the place. Here's what I'm doing and how I'm travelling:
(Each hour commencing with 10 minutes of vocabulary study. I'm currently using "Michel Durand's Word's, Phrases and Sentences", a kindle ebook, which I'm progressing through nicely. I know most of the vocabulary but it's a good way to pick up some new words here and there and practice my sentence formation by covering up the French and attempting to reproduce it (always out loud) from the English.)
Extensive readingI've been alternating between easy readers via the kindle app on my phone and this physical book:
https://www.amazon.fr/enfants-sains-m%C3%AAme-sans-m%C3%A9decin/dp/B00511F98Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522540935&sr=1-1&keywords=enfants+sans+m%C3%AAme+m%C3%A9decin It's a translation of
How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. Quite old (1987), and with the many cited studies, outdated, yet often still very relevant, nonetheless. It's an easy enough and interesting enough read. It challenges the excessive and unnecessary medical interventions carried out on children who are treated within the medical system from an American perspective in particular. A ties with my experience that the medical system predominantly rushes to 'look busy' to find solutions using diagnostic tools that are often fraught with increased risk (radiation for example) in an attempt to appear as though something is being done, or with time limits. To me, although the medical system today is technologically advanced, it's fundamentally limited in many way. It does remain excellent for dealing with emergency situations and surgical interventions. However, the reliance on pharmaceuticals and run of the mill diagnostic interventions, usually irritates me greatly. The book also challenges fearful parents and presents them with options and reassurance regarding many medical conditions and basically how to avoid the medical system unless absolutely necessary, since most children, whose parents race them to the G.P. or nearest emergency department at the slightest sign of whatever, are fearful and simply over-reacting (and to be fair, they often don't understand this), and they enter the system which exposes their children to greater risks than necessary (i.e. usually not necessary at all). It's a book that attempts to tell the truth, to tell you how it really is, to stop worrying, UNLESS the situation is warranted in exceptional circumstances, while illustrating the limitations and the advantages of the medical system. As usual, I'm reading aloud.
Intensive readingSince I don't like SRS programs so much lately, using
Bien-dire to learn unknown vocabulary is something i'm very much enjoying lately, and like extensive reading, it's a part of my routine that's definitely valuable at this point.
CoursesI've finally dropped
Assimil Using French from my 'desk study routine', as I completed a third wave. I'm continuing to use it sometimes on commutes to shadow some lessons. In my desk study routine (a rotation of 5 hour blocks, of which all are listed here as each of my activities), i'm using
Practice Makes Perfect - The French Subjunctive Up Close, and a chapter and a half in, I'm very much enjoying it. I'm expanding on my own notes on the subjunctive previously built from various courses, while getting a finer sense of the details of the subjunctive, a mood which I feel I've not been the best at knowing when and how to use it up to this point. It's a great part of my routine as well, since it's a weak point, that needs work. Very pleased so far with this resource!
Listening via TVI'm still using Peppa Pig. It's starting to get on my nerves, though, so I doubt I'll last much longer with this resource, before moving onto the next thing on my progressively more difficult list of things to watch. Occasionally, instead of watching it right through, I'll do a session of pausing and repeating, attempting to catch every word. Otherwise it's a general watch right through, where I do still, even with this baby-ish show, miss words.
(as a side note, outside of my desk routine, I continue to watch more adult TV, such as the news and the odd other French show. I also listen to podcasts).
RFI - Journal en français facileI decided that this deserved a place in my desk study routine. Although unknown words aren't too frequent, there remains a good sprinkling of them that never really stick well. Thus, now I'm attempting to make them stick by reading the transcripts, pasting them into MS Word, highlighting those words and phrases which are unknown to me, and reviewing them I guess like vocabulary study, or a form of SRS in a way. Sometimes I will shadow some of the audio and I'm intending to transcribe some as well for extra listening/writing practice. I feel this is a good addition to my routine as there remains a decent proportion of unknown news vocabulary that will come in handy when I sit the exam and will add to advancing my vocabulary to that of a more advanced French language user.
