Jeffers' super challenge log: French and Hindi

[renaissancemedici]

I also started to use the progressive grammar very recently. Do you thing it really helps cover gaps in knowledge while advancing your level? I know you say you haven't touched it for a while. Is it because you find it isn't really helping?

[jeffers]

I also started to use the progressive grammar very recently. Do you thing it really helps cover gaps in knowledge while advancing your level? I know you say you haven't touched it for a while. Is it because you find it isn't really helping?

The main problem is that I'm a teacher coming to the end of the summer term, which means my brain is tired. But I plan on doing a bit more with it once school is out in a week (and I've had a couple days to catch up with sleep).

After I finish school I will have about 13 days before I fly to Marseille. So after a recovery day or two I'm going to see how well I can do AFATT for a couple weeks. Here are a few things I'm planning on doing to get my French up to working order before flying out:

• Massive input: reading. I'll read Le chapeau de Mitterand again, and I'll see how I like La passe-miroir (Livre 1) - Les Fiancés de l'hiver. In those ten days I hope to read at least 500 pages, both easy stuff and difficult. (2 hours/day?)
• Massive input: watching. I have a ton of shows recording or recently recorded on TV5 Monde, so I'll watch a lot of them. I'll also continue to watch my daily episode of Plus belle la vie, but I think I'll watch every episode twice during that time. (2 hours/day?)
• Massive input: listening. I've recently had Inner French brought to my attention (https://www.innerfrench.com/podcasts), and I plan on listening to one a day while looking at the transcript. I may also listen to some episodes of Balades which is a bit more difficult but still for learners. In addition, I'll be finishing the audiobook of Le chapeau de Mitterand. I may also spend some time on some episodes of Au coeur de l'histoire. (2 hours/day?)
• (EDIT) Conversation: two meetings with the Leicester French Meetup, lasting two hours each.
• Shadowing: I don't shadow often, but I find it's very helpful for waking the tongue up. I'm planning on shadowing Assimil NFWE while walking the dog. (30 mins/day?)
• La prononciation française pour de vrai by Penny Sewell. A nice and immersive course on DVD. (??)
• Pimsleur: if I drive anywhere, I'll probably have a lesson from Pimsleur 3 on. Or FSI. Both of them are good exercise for the tongue and mind. (??)
• Traditional learning. I'm toying with the idea of working on FSI while taking long walks. We'll see how the weather is for that one. I also may dabble a bit each day in a grammar book, either Hugo French in 3 Months or Grammaire progressive (depending on my mood). Finally, I'll probably keep up a bit of work on Memrise. (??)

So there's the big list. It's a lot of things for a short period of time, but I think I'll have to have as much variety as possible to keep from getting bored while immersing myself in French. I hope to be able to immerse myself at least 8 hours each day.

[rdearman]

Errr... didn't see talking in there anywhere. You might want to practice some output before showing up in the country.

[jeffers]

Errr... didn't see talking in there anywhere. You might want to practice some output before showing up in the country.

You're right, and output has always been my bugbear because I have rarely had the opportunity to practice talking to others. Shadowing is there to make up somewhat for the low time I have for actual conversation; before I went to India two years ago I felt that time spent on shadowing really helped me to be ready for when I had real people to talk to.

In addition I'll have one "regular" meetup with the Leicester French group and one book discussion meetup (discussing Le chapeau de Mitterand). Both events are two hours of solid conversation but I didn't list them because they're both happening only once during that time frame.

[renaissancemedici]

Thanks for the answer! You have a real immersion plan there. It is what I should really do myself, so thanks again for the motivation.