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

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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Aug 31, 2019 12:46 pm

93 hours of French in August.

Best total for a month since August '18.

Spot on average of 3 hours/day.

Principal areas of French language study:
TV = 26 hours 47 min
Extensive reading = 22 hours 55 min
Exam prep books = 22 hours 48 min
Intensive reding/vocab acquisition = 10 hrs 16 min
Standard courses (as opposed to exam prep books/manuals) = 5 hours 52 min
Podcasts = 5 hours 14 min
Language tutoring sessions = 3 hours
Audio books = 20 min

My tutor in the last session mentioned that she felt that my speaking ability would be the easiest component for me for the exam, and writing likely the toughest. She advised that I divide my specific exam preparation study time betwen listening activities and writing activities. I've been hitting the exam books, but I feel as if I've not made it that far, because I haven't. The academic writing styles are a bit of a headache for me, likely because it's a very new aspect of French learning for me, so I'm definitely finding it challenging. Not the writing of French language itself, so much, but the techniques - le compte rendu, le résumé, la synthèse de documents, all of which require specific rules and skills in drawing out the required information to be presented in a very specific manner. Anyway, I shall move forward and hope that it all comes to together somewhat through daily application via the exam prep material and other 'training'.

I know it's dangerous for me to make declarations, but I'll do it anyway - I'm hoping I'll pass the 100 hour mark with French in September for the first time since my beginning of seious French study back in January 2014, when I completed 133 hours! I started with a bang back then, but I'd be pretty pleased with myself if I could just surpass the 100 hour mark for the second time since that début, oh so long ago.

:)
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:00 pm

Well I continue to study well, but it’s slow going, so I’ll just do what I can each day and hopefully, come exam time I can bring together what I’ve learned and fingers crossed that will be enough....

Been watching Plus Belle La Vie on the side and finding it enjoyable, but (and I shouldn’t be this way at C1/C2), i’m struggling with the slang. I am tending to watch around 70% without subtitles and switching them on when I get frustrated. The last episode I watched first without ST’s then with. Plenty of slang terms I just have no clue of. Prob, good practise leading up to the exam, and hopefully I begin to catch on sooner or later.

...but I keep wander lusting. Can you blame me? So many years of dedicated French only study? Anyway the languages are the same - German, Dutch, Norwegian, Spanish, and to a lesser extent, Luxembourgish, which has been rising to the forefront lately.

Thing is, and i’m not looking for solutions here, just ‘typing out loud’... I am absolutely determined to not only maintain my French, but to keep improving. I’ve by no means exhausted my options here in terms of materials, I’ve so much French content here, I’d be busy for many many years (perhaps a decade or two) were I to stop purchasing new content today and lose my internet connection forever.

Dutch, Norwegian and Spanish I am very interested in of late and keen to study them all, but Dutch makes the most sense from a job point of view - targeting Belgium.

There have been widespread strikes across France in hospital emergency departments. The situation is crap. They pay is rubbish (by Australian or US standards), it’s not a place i’m overly keen on working, yet i’d love to live in France, of course. With a family and a mortgage to pay, leaving for France can’t be leaving for shit money and a bunch of stress. So, post Belgium (for whatever length of time), Luxembourg still looks the most inviting French speaking nation in terms of renumeration. Switzerland looks good, but getting a job there looks rather tricky to say the least. For both countries, knowing German would be a serious asset. Luxembourgish would put the icing on the cake in a competitive job market - not that many French nurses would speak German, hardly any frontaliers nurses (employees daily commuting from France to Luxembourg) would be able to communicate in Luxembourgish.

That’s great, that learning languages would help me, because I love learning languages... but how the hell do I find the time? I’m not motivated right now to learn German much, nor Luxembourgish. I’m motivated to learn Dutch, Norwegian and Spanish, with Dutch probably coming out on top.

My time will diminish over the coming two years for language study, I think. Thus, where to find the time? I either need to settle for a smattering (perhaps B1 at best) of these languages if I take them all on, or choose one and go for it, hoping I find the time for others later... or seriously dive into Dutch with the majority of my time, maintain/slowly advance in French on the side and dabble in a little Norwegian.

Ah, such a dilemma! :lol:
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:40 pm

My language wanderlust list is evolving. According to my desire to learn them, they go in this order (of importance) (French included as I still wish to continue to actively improve the language).

1. French.
2. Dutch.
3. Norwegian.
4. Spanish.
5. German.
Extras :
6. Arabic or Russian.
7. Russian or Arabic.

However, in order of importance for employment in Europe, they probably go more like this:

1. French.
2. Dutch.
3. Luxembourgish.
4. German.
5. Portuguese.
6. Norwegian.
7. Italian.
8. Norwegian.
9. Spanish

Luxembourgish makes the list, as I am eyeing of this little country, as the more I look at it, the more I like the idea of it. The main drivers are earning capacity for nurses and the linguistic melting pot with French at the forefront throughout society. Possibly the only thing that would make it a certain number one target, would be if Dutch was spoken there instead of German or Luxembourgish, hypothetically speaking. I don’t have a lot of desire to learn Luxembourgish nor German lately, but as the idea of working there grows, the enthusiasm to learn these languages, if things work out that way, will increase.

Portuguese is spoken by some 20% of the Luxembourg population. It’s significant enough to list it on the above list, but I’d much prefer to learn Spanish. That said, I know I can fall in love with languages after beginning them, I would guess this would be the case for Portuguese. Like Italian, another immigrant language of Luxembourg, it’s only on the list due to immigrant populations in Luxembourg, and thus, the reality might be that I never learn either PO nor IT.

Although I like to entertain the idea of working in Norway, it’s unrealistic I think for a side interest. The costs of nursing staff integrating into Norway are too high for this to likely become a reality when my eye will simultaneously be on other European prizes. I will be actively learning the language in the near future though. I have decided this based on my daughter’s interest in the language. Good excuse, huh? Things could change and I might find we direct ourselves towards Norway some day for work, but I have my doubts. Life experience is calming my ego there.

Spanish is definitely an important world language, but I just cannot fathom how to fit it in. I’d really like to learn it properly some day. In fact it’s not far behind Dutch (perhaps equal with Norwegian lately) in my desire to take it seriously.

All that said I’m currently looking at a three language plan (as opposed to five, which I had aired recently).

1. I will continue to actively improve my French.
2. I will target Dutch for major improvement.
(I have not decided whether Dutch will be the main focus or Dutch and French will share the limelight).
3. Norwegian as a ‘dabble language’.

Luxembourgish stands to be the most likely next language to learn seriously. However this is years away after the Belgian project, after much Dutch, frequent Norwegian dabbling and always, always, always my beloved French. Still, these are ramblings and we know what I’m like. I can’t see the top 3 changing (unless I squeeze in another ‘dabble language’), but LU may not make the cut depending on future developments.

Upcoming French C-level exam
I wanderlust a lot, but I still stick to my target(s) and 99% of the time do not introduce other languages despite all my wild ideas. French remains the sole language of study currently and will remain so for the next two months. I am not studying as much as I’d like, due to unexpecxted interruptions and lack of focus/procrastination. I’ve not covered as much ground as I’d like, but I will keep ploughing on.

Although I’m definitely not extremely confident about a C1/C2 exam, I am quietly confident underneath it all. Quietly confident I can pull myself together in the coming 64 days if I work hard day in day out and do my best to achieve the most French study exam prep I can every single day.

So I now make this announcement. I will work very diligently and delve into an almost ADATT style world (ADATT = All Dalf all the time) for the coming two months, doing my best to stay focused and with all eyes and energy (= excessive amounts of time) spent towards improving my chances of success (to the extent that I can cope and remain balanced/sane - sometimes we just need time away from certain tasks). Now, PM, get on with the bloody job, ya bastard! And veel success! Oh, oops, wrong langauge? Which exam am I doing?

Les chauves-souris, je leur montrerai la voie !
Oh, one last important thing. If anyone here sees any bats, send them my way. They really should be indoors come nightfall. They’re idiots that sleep their lives away during the day and get up to god knows what at night. Their circadian rhythms must be so messed up. I’m making it my life’s work to get them to realise that it’s never too late, they can still fix their lives and make something of themselves. It’s not going to be easy, but i’m determined. I mean there must be at least a total of 102 bats in the world, so it will be challenging. Please help me wherever possible... hang on... Bats? What do they speak? Ahhh! Another language I must learn! I’ll leave the Dalf prep to the week before! For now it’s Bat-Languages!!! All Bats All The Time... ... uhh... in The Belfry? :?
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:07 am

I swear I must’ve attempted to log in over 10 times in the last 5 min or so.... :x :twisted:

Last few days have turned to crap... I came down with something (likely a virus) and my productivity dropped off the edge of a cliff.

I got distracted with wanderlust and once again rejigged my languages to learn list and my upcoming study routine post exam.

Here’s my languagues to learn list in order of priority. I’ve included CEFR levels I think I might be satisfied with (after reading rdearman’s thread Are you happy at B2 or whatever it was called, I did some reflecting). The list is heavily influenced by the idea of going to Luxembourg to work at some point, which is also the reason Portuguese makes the cut. I doubt the list will remain this way, and I doubt the CEFR goals will remain as is either.

C2+++ : French
C2 : Dutch
B2 : Luxembourgish
B2+ : Spanish
B2 : Norwegian
B2 : German
B2 : Portuguese

With that in mind, from November I’m considering a study routine akin to this for the following two years:

By rotation :
1 hour Dutch
30 min Spanish or Norwegian
1 hour French
30 min Spanish or Norwegian (whichever I didnt do last 30 min session)

I’ve cut down from 5 languages, but were I to add one, it would be Luxembourgish (LB). Although I have placed LB high on the priority list for employment opportunities, it’s not a language my daughter is keen on learning (Norwegian is), nor a big world language I am interested in learning and potentially passing on to the kids in some way shape or form (that’s Spanish), so LB can wait for now while NO and ES grow very slowly.

One hour of Dutch is not loads for the language I need to progress fastest in right now, and I still want to progress in French, so there’s no room for more.

I’m hoping I can study 3 hours a day, but that could be a bit greedy. If I count my commutes for listening time and reading to the kids, then it’s more realistic reaching 3 hours total, all activities included. I hope I can progress, achieve balance in life and don’t feel frustrated progressing possibly like the tortoise.

Back to my sore throat and feeling lethargic. It could be worse, I know. My exam prep is on hold, my distractions heightened and energy levels low these last few evenings when I was meant to hit the books. I plan to be back on track by the weekend.
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:38 am

72 hours of French in September.

A far cry from my targeted 100 hours. Ah well, better than 30 hours. I got sick and although it was manageable, it knocked the crap out of me and really I didn’t recover as quickly as I anticipated. As a result my exam preparation studies again fell off a cliff and fell to zero for perhaps two weeks.

I still managed to do some French every day however. And wow, one night in particular I was right on the cusp of dropping a day from the 365 Day Challenge. With all else going on, I had not managed to get any French done prior to heading off to work at 1pm. I returned home at 10pm. I thought, right, better watch something. I fell asleep after 5 minutes. Woke again perhaps a half hour later, would try to watch again, would fall asleep yet again 10 seconds later. This went on. By 1 am I had probably watched over an hour of TV but only actually watched 5 or 10 minutes. I resolved myself to going to sleep anyway. I didn’t. I sat up, read and knocked over the necessary time to fulfill the task. I then woke early the next morning at 5.15 am. Between 4 and 5 hours sleep is not my idea of fun. Still, I survived. Some days in this challenge, I definitely have had some close calls!

I’ve other complications now. I won’t get into too many details but suffice it to say that we now have four children to look after as opposed to our two. The situation is messy, tricky and tumultuous. Still, I press on with my exam prep and hope that the much less that I have covered up to this point compared to what I had aimed for will be enough (to pass). I have to however get much more done this month if I have any chance of passing, since I still have not covered the vast majority of the content in my exam prep books. I expect I will not cover all, but provided I can get a good overview and understanding of what will be covered (and learn to be somewhat efficient at at the tasks for the exam), in theory, I should be okay. Time (and effort) will tell. Thing is, were I to fail, I think it would still be of value - it would certainly set the scene for passing at a later date with another attempt.
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:20 am

I must admit, the foundations are being rocked. I'm starting to question the decision of sitting this exam in November again. The 'doubt', if you will, is multifactorial but has increased significantly of late due to the issues mentioned in my previous post (illness, family situation has become suddenly complex and demanding). I don't want to drop out of the exam next month, and part of me wonders if it's all just a convenient excuse. I know there are many a forum member on here thinking, no way man, you'll walk it in, or you'll pass without too much difficulty....

However, no, it's not that straight forward. I do not read that much. Having said that, I'm hovering just outside the top 5 in the Super Challenge with 112 books and 223 films. I read a good deal to my kids, which is helping me, but reading normal adult aimed material has come to a grinding halt of late. I've little time left to prepare and I'm scrambling to just utilise the exam prep books, and even then I've barely scratched the surface. I'm the type that if Assimil says you can do a lesson a day, it'll take me three times as long (with the longer lessons, not the beginning easy peasy stuff). I'm thorough, it's good and it's a drawback too.

I was reading bits of 'whatiftheblog''s blog from a few years back, while she was targeting C2. She was doing SO MUCH MORE than I can manage to do now. Much much more reading and listening. I just cannot cover that. I don't have 6 to 10 hours a day. I've 3 hours a day when I'm on a roll, 30 min to 90 min on a not so good day. I am actually not as prepared as some would think. Much of my language knowledge has come from courses, reading to the kids, listening to the news and some series, and a handful of standard books/website reading. I'm not immersed in reading French, I'm not definitely not watching Engrenages and understanding everything.

Having said all that, I do think I'm capable of passing C2, with dedicated focused study. I have an adequate amount of language under my belt to pass, but not adequate preparation for the exam format.

I have decided already that come November exam date, sit exam or not, pass or fail, I will be introducing more languages. If I fail/don't sit it, French will remain in active study mode, but more of a low growth active study mode as I attempt to resurrect Dutch and introduce some Norwegian and maybe even Spanish in a small way.

I do believe I still have more to gain from failing the exam in November than not sitting it altogether. Thing is, I still could pass, or if I don't, it would be such a valuable lesson and part of the recipe for success for another assault on the exam at a later date.

I guess part of the issue right now is a little like rdearman's - I realise now that there is so much that I don't know. Okay my listening is not awesome, but it's pretty decent. Maybe not C2, perhaps C1. My writing is solid enough, but very much on the too slow side (deducing key themes/words and writing things like synthèse de documents/ comptes rendus is a bloody awful experience! exaggeration, but it's not my cup of tea) my speaking not so much an issue, as I just need to be more prepared for exam situation content and format. Altogether with enough exam prep focus, I could put together a pass on a good day is my sense right now, but the problem remains - am I motivated enough and is there also enough time to get down to business for the remaining 5.5 weeks to cover enough content (while all else is going on around me) and well feel confident and prepared with a chance of passing?

MC PM McPee, The Doubtenator, for realz
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:06 pm

Sit the exam. It will be an excellent chance to really test and assess your French regardless of outcome. (And you may be surprised what your brain is capable of producing under pressure.) You will know much more about your strengths and weaknesses walking out of the exam room than you do now.
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Oct 03, 2019 8:48 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:Sit the exam. It will be an excellent chance to really test and assess your French regardless of outcome. (And you may be surprised what your brain is capable of producing under pressure.) You will know much more about your strengths and weaknesses walking out of the exam room than you do now.


Thank you Lawyer&Mom. I shall work my butt off, sit the exam and come back with results and feedback.
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby Elsa Maria » Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:37 pm

Doubling the number of children you care for is no small task, but if it seems like it will be quite some time before your family will settle into new rhythms, then I think that now is as good of a time as any for taking the exam.

Warm wishes with all the navigating all the new dynamics!
And I am looking forward to reading about your approach to Dutch :)
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Re: PM’s French Adventures in the Matrix

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:05 pm

Elsa Maria wrote:Doubling the number of children you care for is no small task, but if it seems like it will be quite some time before your family will settle into new rhythms, then I think that now is as good of a time as any for taking the exam.


Indeed, and my wife is bearing the brunt of it as I am working more (than her), and to add to the mix, after I was unwell our two children followed and now my wife. Also, when your own family rearing philosophies differ immensely from the two ’additions’, it really complicates the challenge further. I’m of the mind that I definitely intend on sitting this exam, but there is a chance that I will simply have to bow out. Still, I’ll do my best to prevent that. It seems clear now why we ‘weren’t meant to’ go to Saudi Arabia.

Elsa Maria wrote:Warm wishes with all the navigating all the new dynamics!


Thank you, Elsa Maria, sincerely.

Elsa Maria wrote:And I am looking forward to reading about your approach to Dutch :)


And I’m super keen to get stuck into Dutch! I think I’ve decided that pass or fail the Dalf, French active study will continue, because there’s still far too much I don’t know, so many resources I’d still like to use yet to improve my French and I’m targeting a possible master’s of translation, so learning more French is here to stay. That said, Dutch will most definitely play a big role too.

I expect to have much less time for Dutch than I’ve had on a daily basis up to this point for French. I’ll be still learning some French as well as possibly dabbling in Norwegian and maybe Spanish. Mais, à l’inverse, I foresee much more efficient progression right up to B1 and maybe even B2. All the grammatical structures, although in need of ‘re-paving’ of those Dutch neural/bicycle ;) pathways, are still there. The pronunciation is there, a good amount of vocabulary too. I’ll re-use much of my previous courses and look forward to expanding on those, in particular the newer additions from a French base and the Linguaphone and several Assimil offerings. All that should be fun. Ironically, much later, it will be the ‘fun stuff’ - the native content from B2+ and expanding intermediate/advanced level vocabulary where I might find it more challenging. French has much more to offer in terms of content of any type and building int/adv vocabulary is just a long journey for any language.

Anyway, getting very far ahead of myself here wanderlusting! I feel good about this French exam, but there’s a serious chance I’m suffering from delusions!

Oh and I had a Dutch teaser the other day. A Dutch patient (living here for 30 years) and her husband at the hospital the other day whom I had a short Dutch conversation with. Thankfully, she was discharged without requiring admission with nothing wrong (a case of better to get checked out than to later find out you’ve had a serious cardiac event). She commented on my really very good Dutch pronunciation and had no issues with understanding me (nor me them). Still it was brief and by no means a complicated conversation (no discussions of heart health etc which would be manageable in French).

Thanks, Elsa Maria for stopping by and for your warm wishes!
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