Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Tue Jul 24, 2018 11:09 am

After a lesson with the accent/pronunciation coach, I realise how much work I need. We went through o and ou. He said that when I repeat the individual words separately it's perfect however I sometimes seems throw everything I've learnt out of the window when I see it on the word however by the end of lesson I was able to pronounce most of the words well except I mangled dessus and dessous. He went through some useful things with intonation. He's the most expensive tutor but I need support/guided help with my pronunciation/accent. I liked how the lessons are all in French. He doesn't take beginners.

My Mum is worried that I am spending all my money on Italki lessons. But I want to take advantage of the summer to really progress with my French.

I spend more time with French now than when I was studying it for the IB. Japanese has been completely neglected. Hopefully the August 6 weeks challenge will change that.
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rdearman
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby rdearman » Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:48 pm

Sarafina wrote:After a lesson with the accent/pronunciation coach, I realise how much work I need. We went through o and ou. He said that when I repeat the individual words separately it's perfect however I sometimes seems throw everything I've learnt out of the window when I see it on the word however by the end of lesson I was able to pronounce most of the words well except I mangled dessus and dessous. He went through some useful things with intonation. He's the most expensive tutor but I need support/guided help with my pronunciation/accent. I liked how the lessons are all in French. He doesn't take beginners.

My Mum is worried that I am spending all my money on Italki lessons. But I want to take advantage of the summer to really progress with my French.

I spend more time with French now than when I was studying it for the IB. Japanese has been completely neglected. Hopefully the August 6 weeks challenge will change that.

What is this fellows name?
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:47 pm

rdearman wrote:
Sarafina wrote:After a lesson with the accent/pronunciation coach, I realise how much work I need. We went through o and ou. He said that when I repeat the individual words separately it's perfect however I sometimes seems throw everything I've learnt out of the window when I see it on the word however by the end of lesson I was able to pronounce most of the words well except I mangled dessus and dessous. He went through some useful things with intonation. He's the most expensive tutor but I need support/guided help with my pronunciation/accent. I liked how the lessons are all in French. He doesn't take beginners.

My Mum is worried that I am spending all my money on Italki lessons. But I want to take advantage of the summer to really progress with my French.

I spend more time with French now than when I was studying it for the IB. Japanese has been completely neglected. Hopefully the August 6 weeks challenge will change that.

What is this fellows name?


https://www.italki.com/teacher/1159052

Tbh his rates are pretty reasonable considering there are other Italki tutors who specialise in accent-reduction that are super expensive.
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:25 pm

I have another lesson in a couple of hours. Depending on how well it goes with this tutor will determine whether I will have two or three separate Italki tutors. If it doesn't go as well then I still want to do the whole 'FranceCulture/FrenchSpin/7jours discussion and the TV series review/listening comprehension test. However it will mean that I'll need to have a minimum of 3 Italki lessons with my main tutor: one lesson for preparation to get to the C-levels; another for the FranceCulture/FrenchSpin/7jours discussion/debate; then one centred around a TV series.
Last edited by Sarafina on Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:39 pm

The Canadian tutor was so-so. He was alright to talk to and he paid attention to what I said and gave decent feedback and corrections. It's weird how one of the reasons that people learn French is that it's widely spoken yet they cling exclusively European Standard French. There's less than 70 million people in France in comparison there's over 120 million people in Japan. I need watch a bunch of Québécois TV shows and maybe find a TV series produced in Francophone speaking part of Africa. Brookyln 99 has a French Canadian dub.

But I would rather book more lessons with my main DALF teacher about what she thinks about FranceCulture /Frenchspin/ 7jours/TV series and implement it with her. However she generally only available on weekends and occasionally at a random time in the weekdays. I managed to get a video interview with another job that pays much better. Fingers crossed- I get it. Apart from the pay, it's literally less than 5 minutes away from my first job so I can easily travel between the two.

For the job I got, my hours have increased from 8 hours to 16 hours then to 20 hours then to 24 hours and so on. Although the pay isn't great but they offer a lot of discounts for a lot of different things e.g. I got 40% off movie tickets of this particular cinema.
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Tue Jul 31, 2018 7:41 pm

IT FINALLY HAPPENED. I SPOKE FRENCH AT WORK.

I noticed that there was this older lady looking lost in one corner. I did my standard 'delivering customer service one forced smile at a time' and asked her whether she needed help. She briskly told me that she doesn't understand any English and she is French. It was like neon lights went on screaming 'this is my moment'. Two years ago, she would have had more chance understanding English then being able to understand my then mangled French. Now I was able to chat to her for ages and help her out all in French. And I was able to understand her daughter's conversation with her partner. It's amazing how much my listening has improved. It wasn't even up to two years that I was getting so upset and demoralised when I couldn't even understand an episode of Peppa Pig and Caillou in French even though those were TV series aimed for toddlers.

It's amazing how much someone's demeanour changes when they are able to speak their native language. She was really nice and lively and even complimented my French (although I feel like French people do that for anyone that can say more than 10 phrases).

Nowadays when I do a language exchange, we spent most of time speaking in French because I am now in a position where my French is stronger than their English. I can't believe I am finally in this position. I remember the days having a 1 hour conversation where I would be lucky if I even spoke 5-10 minutes in French because my speaking was awful and my listening was even worse.
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby lavengro » Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:20 pm

Sarafina wrote:IT FINALLY HAPPENED. I SPOKE FRENCH AT WORK. ....

Superbe!! Nice to hear of success stories!

Sarafina wrote: It wasn't even up to two years that I was getting so upset and demoralised when I couldn't even understand an episode of Peppa Pig and Caillou in French even though those were TV series aimed for toddlers.

For what it may be worth, I never understood Caillou even in English.
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:23 pm

So far I've done 80 minutes of Japanese since the 1st August which includes listening to the dialogue section on repeat and creating Anki cards for it and reviewing those cards. So I'm on 8/276 episodes. Yesterday I went through 2 episodes in detail. I don't have work tomorrow so I'm going to stay up tonight to finish 4-8 episodes. It's interesting that with most of the episodes I've studied, I already had a vague understanding even when I listened to it for the first time because of my bingewatching of Terrace House and random Japanese phrases that I've picked up by osmosis.
I've already finished watching all of part 3 of Terrace House. The series is so addictive. I wish there was a French equivalent.

I don't think I think I can finish all 276 episodes by the 21st August even if I go through 10 episodes each day.

I found two French YouTubers that I like. However there's one that I liked and I like the format and concept of her videos but the actual content leaves much to be desired. She does this uncovering the truth sort of series that I was excited about how it's seems like the usual conspiracy theories (not the interesting conspiracy theories that are at least an interesting food for thought) and as well as of her paranormal claims. So I unsubscribed from her which is a shame. I've aggressively unsubscribed from any French YouTuber that I haven't watched in a month or haven't enjoyed watching more than one of their videos.

I find it so so hard dedicating time to work on pronunciation and accent-reduction. I dread doing it so much and I keep avoid doing it even though I need to iron out pronunciation issues before 24th September and have a less foreign accent.

I've trying and failing and failing to go partial AFATT. The time I could spend listening to a French podcast or watching a TV series goes to listening to songs in English, Korean or Spanish. I find it hard to find music that I like in French. I like Damso and Stromae but I need more than just two artists. I have French song playlist that I've overplayed all the songs and it hasn't been updated in 1-2 years. Since the summer holidays, I've only done like less than 5 pages of grammar work in my French grammar textbook. I am that patient who is fully aware of my diagnosis and knows that steps to take yet only takes their medication every now and again yet wonders why they haven't recovered yet. Please send help.
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby MamaPata » Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:37 am

You're on holiday after an intense few years, you've started a summer job, you have big changes ahead. Let yourself off! You're doing great!
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Sarafina
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Re: Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

Postby Sarafina » Sat Aug 04, 2018 10:23 am

The French site where I normally watch French TV shows is having its issues. I'm trying to resolve them however there's a good possibility that the site will shut down. I don't know how to get a safe and secure VPN for free (although if it comes down to it I don't mind paying for one at least the rest of the summer holidays). If anyone has any help/suggestions it would be much appreciated.

In the meantime I have Netflix and Steven Universe and ATLA. Breaking Bad doesn't even have a French dub which is disappointing. If I have to use Netflix then I'll probably watch Luke Cage, OITNB and maybe Teen Wolf, House of Cards and HTGWM. There isn't any French TV series on Netflix that I like but I might give the A Very Secret Service a try.
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