Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

[MamaPata]

There are quite a few French shows on 4od - mostly detectives though.

[Sarafina]

Since the 2nd August, I haven't done any more Japanese since. I've been so busy with French and work. Since yesterday I have been doing what I like to call QFTLT lite (Que du Français Tout Le Temps) so I have been watching and listening everything in French. It's a little harder to transition to reading everything in French as it's a stronger habit for me to quickly go through the news/reviews/articles in English e g. The Economist, NewYorker, The Guardian. I'm planning on deleting all my history on Google today because I always click on the tab of the most visited sites when I was bored so I want those sites to be French sites. Also I am putting a French book in every bag I have so when I get bored, I can read it. Also I am going to pack all my English books far away from me and have only my French books on my bookshelf. I want to try QFTLT for the rest of the summer. I am trying to build habit of doing background listening all the time. I've switched my phone to French and I am going to do the same for my computer.

My Italki lessons are going really well. I can see the improvement. However although my pronunciation is decent and understandable, it can be much better and I need some work on accent reduction. I made a mistake trying to do 90 minutes of something I hate doing. Instead I am going to do max 10-15 minutes rotating around each the 3 resources I planned on using to drill in better pronunciation. I am still debating whether I should still take lessons with the pronunciation/accent coach on Italki. I'm not getting paid until the 21st and I don't want to spend all my money that I've saved up on just Italki lessons. I've been trying to work as much shifts as possible but because I am ear-pierced trained I can't do many 8 hour shifts. However my hours each week are increasing: next week I am working 24 hours.

I'm not working today or tomorrow so I have more time for Japanese. I'm getting little faster at converting the Japanesepod101 audio to Anki cards and I'm also reviewing the cards on Anki faster so I need to finish 8 episodes by tonight. I need to be averaging 8-10 episodes each day which will take me a little over 2-4 hours if I include the time in reviewing the Anki cards as well.

[Sarafina]

I really need to go back to the basics and relearn French pronunciation and eliminate all my fossilised pronunciation mistakes- the problem is that I have gotten used to it and generally it's not a big problem/issue when I speak French with other people so that's why I have been able to afford to avoid correcting all of it. It's a little depressing having to go back to the basics but it's needed. I need to perfect the basics if I want to reach the C-levels. I had this revelation which I think I thought about before on either this log or somewhere before - no matter how complex and sophisticated and interesting your ideas are, if you have a thick foreign accent, a lot of people are going to be dismissive/minimise of your language skills. One of the biggest ways people judge profiency in a language is how close you spoke to a native speaker.

My Italki lessons have been incredible and so helpful. There's another Italki tutor who seems promising and enthusiastic and I like how thorough she is. I have a lesson today and we are going to be discussing 3-d printing of guns among other things.

Last night I was meant to use it for Japanese to catch up instead I was speaking to a language exchange partner for over 3 hours in French and English really late at night. I haven't wavered in my QFTLT except for when my language exchange partners send me some videos that they wanted me to react to and give my opinion on and when I was on researching on the pros and cons of RTK or Wanikani is reference for future reference and when my exchange partner wanted to discuss a certain court case and I quickly googled it in English so I have a vague understanding. But apart from that, I have been googling stuff in French and doing stuff in French.

[Sarafina]

The time I should be using for Japanese, I've spent talking in English and French to this language exchange partner. Lately, we speak for hours and hours on end. Somehow I managed to accidentally rope myself into having 30 minutes Persian lesson. I got an new Spotify account where all the playlists are in French so I won't be tempted to listen to just English music. Cutting out English websites is harder as I find myself trying to read something on one of my usual English language sites but I'm fast to click off it.

[Sarafina]

To my surprise, I haven't broken my QFTLT streak regarding videos/TV series despite how tired I've been since this week started. However I still find myself reading the occasional blog or so which I'm still weaning myself off from. With my job and trying to do QFTLT, I find myself too drained for Japanese. The week I started the 6 weeks August challenge is the week I also decided to do QFTLT and my hours have increased by a lot and I'm doing a lot of overtime as well.

[Sarafina]

There are quite a few French shows on 4od - mostly detectives though.

Yeah but they have English subtitles which I can't switch off.

[Sarafina]

I'm still doing QFTLT but I'm allowing 30 minutes at night for me to listen to non-French music. Now I feel like I am getting a good position with my French. From Thursday to Sunday I broke my streak of total QFTLT but to my surprise I didn't beat myself up for it and avoid French for weeks instead I immediately watched another French video instead. I haven't been watching TV series in French instead I spend hours surfing through random YouTube videos or listen to a podcast.

The 6weeeks challenge for Japanese has been a complete flop. With French, I can comfortably listen to podcasts, watch movies and have a decent conversation unlike with Japanese where everything is new and unknown and different. The Italki lessons have really paid off. I had a good lesson with a new Italki tutor and her lessons were so productive and helpful and I'm really impressed with her so I immediately booked three more lessons with her. My main Italki tutor is away for two weeks from the 17th August so I'll be using the other tutor in the, meantime as a supplement.

I'm worried that I made a social faux-pas with her and accidentally offended her at the beginning of the lesson but I can't tell/remember if she was chiding me for something or reassuring me not to be bothered but the rest of lesson went smoothly.

I've been blessed with some excellent Italki tutors (I wish I could say the same about my IRL French teachers at school-sometimes I regret not reporting them).

I don't have work tomorrow or Thursday apart from the two Italki lessons I have on those days. I need to create an habit of doing French pronunciation/accent reduction work and French grammar practice and actually do some Japanese. I was so excited for Japanese and I was worried that I would abandon French for Japanese in the summer holidays. But I'm never been more happy with my progress with French and it's not like I'm not excited for my Japanese project but since the start of August I feel like I lack the energy/time to do to devote my daily 3-4 hours into it.

[Sarafina]

I had another lesson today and basically she told me that if my pronunciation could be better. My pronunciation isn't terrible and it's decent enough but it needs to be excellent if I'm serious about wanting to reach a higher level which I'm aware of. It made me feel a little down. My mangled pronunciation isn't my fault- I wish I had a teacher when I started learning that actually even bothered to explain French pronunciation or insisted that we pronounce things properly instead of allowing to butcher the language and from 7 to 11 I'll be surprised if I even heard up to 3 hours of actual French being spoken in all 4 years. I have a classmate who isn't French and doesn't French parents but her French pronunciation is superb because her French teacher was really strict about pronunciation and I think he was an accent coach before. I wish I had a teacher like in the beginning. It's such a pain having to not unlearn my bad pronunciation habits but have to relearn and renforce correct pronounciation as well.

However I can't blame my teachers for all my language-related problems. I need to be accountable for my unwillingness/laziness to work on this issue. Afterall, I've known since I started the IB that my pronunciation needs some improvement. I've had over a year to really do some serious work with my pronounciation. Instead I buried my head in the sand and hoped that it would sort itself over time. Sometimes I wish I could start afresh with another language. I know that for any new language I'll learn I will devote so so so much time into pronunciation and listening. For Japanese, I'm focusing on first getting my listening to a decent level then I'm going to spend so so much time on acquiring excellent pronunciation and sounding as native as possible.

I have a pang in my heart everytime I hear Portuguese being spoken in my workplace. I can listen to that language for hours on end. Why why wasn't that language chosen for me instead French? Sometimes I wish I could have chosen Chinese or Japanese as a combined honours with Politics at uni But unfortunately my university doesn't offer that programme otherwise I would have dropped French like a hot potato instead.

My brief honeymoon with French has ended. It was nice while it lasted. I have to soldier on now.

[Sarafina]

I had another lesson today and basically she told me that if my pronunciation could be better. My pronunciation isn't terrible and it's decent enough but it needs to be excellent if I'm serious about wanting to reach a higher level which I'm aware of. It made me feel a little down. My mangled pronunciation isn't my fault- I wish I had a teacher when I started learning that actually even bothered to explain French pronunciation or insisted that we pronounce things properly instead of allowing to butcher the language and from 7 to 11 I'll be surprised if I even heard up to 3 hours of actual French being spoken in all 4 years. I have a classmate who isn't French and doesn't French parents but her French pronunciation is superb because her French teacher was really strict about pronunciation and I think he was an accent coach before. I wish I had a teacher like in the beginning. It's such a pain having to not unlearn my bad pronunciation habits but have to relearn and renforce correct pronounciation as well.

However I can't blame my teachers for all my language-related problems. I need to be accountable for my unwillingness/laziness to work on this issue. Afterall, I've known since I started the IB that my pronunciation needs some improvement. I've had over a year to really do some serious work with my pronounciation. Instead I buried my head in the sand and hoped that it would sort itself over time. Sometimes I wish I could start afresh with another language. I know that for any new language I'll learn I will devote so so so much time into pronunciation and listening. For Japanese, I'm focusing on first getting my listening to a decent level then I'm going to spend so so much time on acquiring excellent pronunciation and sounding as native as possible.

This is really hard to hear after putting so many years into French, I can sympathize. When it comes to public education, it really can be the luck of the draw with regards to teachers and opportunities. The French education I received at the hands of the public system in Canada sounds quite similar. If it helps, you could try thinking of your new task in pronunciation as making new routes in your brain to cover over the old ones, rather than unlearning and learning. Don't think of the old habits at all, just think of the new ones. At one point the only reference you had for pronunciation was English. You replaced that English with Slightly Wonky French. Now you'll replace Slightly Wonky French with Better French. It's like wearing a new path in the grass - you keep going over it again and again and eventually it is the obvious path to walk and it stays there for a while even if you don't walk down it everyday. You are wearing new pathways in your brain. They'll replace the old ones. Just be diligent. It won't be quick or easy, but the diligence will get you there.

Best of luck, Sarafina!

That's a wonderful way of phrasing it. I appreciate it. Thank you.

[Sarafina]

Honestly this job drains all my energy when I get home. I keep doing overtime all the time and being the go to person to call if someone can't bothered to show up to work today.

Japanese is going nowhere. I like the language and I want to learn it and I like learning it a lot but I struggle to spend time on it. French is such a chore except I feel so energised everytime I get to speak French to a customer- it puts me in a good mood for hours.