Polyclod's Maintenance Log (Français/Deutsch)
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:33 am
So I guess first a little obligatory background:
I have studied Spanish since I was around nine or ten years old. It was a compulsory subject for me beginning in the fifth grade, and continued to be compulsory up until the end of high school. I also studied it briefly in college, only to fulfill my foreign language requirements.
Like most subjects which were 1.) poorly taught and 2.) obligatory, I absolutely hated Spanish. And my hatred showed, because I was terrible at it. That is until I reached my sophomore year of high school, when I had for the first (and so far only) time an excellent language teacher, who was both passionate about Spanish and about teaching. I honestly credit him with helping build the foundation for whatever success I've had in the language up until now...my rather nebulous understanding of the language began to solidify, and by the end of the year I had a decent intermediate level in the language (except for speaking, which I'll touch on later).
Sadly, several factors conspired against my following up with my Spanish studies and really getting great at the language. First, the teachers I had for the rest of high school and college were awful...either incompetent themselves in the language, or incompetent as teachers. But most importantly, my latent passion for languages began to manifest itself around the time I was 14 or 15. And unfortunately, my passion wasn't for Spanish. Rather, it was scattered all over the place, and I dabbled in pretty much everything but the one language I could have mastered. C'est la vie.
Fate intervened again, this time in the form of a native speaker who I wound up marrying. Although the marriage didn't work out, I was left with an excellent passive understanding of the language, whether it was from listening to my Mexican in-laws or watching Spanish-language TV, the language went from sounding “too fast to understand” to ''comprehensible input'', and it has remained so ever since.
Being married and, later, having a child meant my priorities switched, and for a good part of my twenties I lost my interest in learning languages. Actually, “lost” is probably a poor choice of words, but it retreated into my subconscious for the time being. I also made the mistake of not getting enough active speaking practice in, something that I've regretted and have been trying to correct ever since.
At any rate, it wasn't until I was around 28 or 29 that my desire to learn many languages finally overwhelmed me and I set out on the path that I am currently on. Over the past two years I have worked on improving my Spanish, and I also taught myself French and German to an intermediate(ish) level, at least to a level where I can read and understand the spoken language with ease. I attribute almost all of my success to Assimil, which I plan on using for any other languages I may tackle in the future (Russian, Japanese, etc.).
But before I start any new projects, I'd really like to improve these three languages. My main frustration is my inability to produce the language as well as I can understand it passively. I realize that this takes time and practice. The only two languages I really get to speak regularly are Spanish and French, which is sort of a shame, because German is my one true language love. It's the only one I really, really want to master.
So I've decided to go back and review my study materials systematically, starting with Spanish, and then French, and then German. Right now I'm finishing up my review with FSI Spanish Basic Course. I'm mainly using it to drill grammar points I'm weak on (tenses, moods, etc.). I've made myself a syllabus of sorts, where I review a grammar point during each study session. I've also found the Schaum's Grammar Outline series to be very useful, so I'm using it in conjunction with FSI. I'm also making an effort to speak the language as much as possible, which isn't really that difficult since I interact with native speakers pretty much every day.
I can definitely see progress, I don't stutter or halt as much, or search for vocabulary, and grammatical constructions that I used to have to stop and form in my mind seem to come much more quickly. I'd like to at least take the practice B2 test for the DELE when I'm done with my review work, I'm pretty sure I can pass it but it'd be nice to self-assess myself so see how far my “method” has taken me. And of course at some point I'd like to take the DELE in person.
So basically that's my plan for Spanish, and it's the same for French and German, although for those two languages I will also be reviewing my Assimil courses. I've been meaning to do it for a long time, I really think these courses are quite dense and are worthy of repeated study. I've never used the Shadowing method with these courses before, so right now I'm re-working my way through New French With Ease using the Shadowing method. My main frustration with French is my pronunciation, so hopefully this can help a little bit in that regard. I also need to schedule more time to speak via Skype with my French tutor/friend. Once I'm done with FSI Spanish, I'll move on to FSI French and tackle it in the same way, using it to drill grammar points.
I work full-time, so I have to prioritize my study schedules. I do my Assimil Shadowing every day, and try to work on FSI Spanish daily as well although I may cut that down since I have other (career related) studying I need to do. I also try to maintain all three languages throughout the day, whether through reading or watching TV. Right now I'm reading Der Untergang der islamischen Welt by Hamed Abdel-Samad (German), Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau (French), and Dios no es bueno by Christopher Hitchens (Spanish). I'm also trying to watch as many films and TV shows as possible, both dubbed (South Park in German is the only way to watch it!) and original foreign films. My greatest tool here is my Kindle, which after Assimil has probably been the biggest boon to my learning. I make Anki decks out of the unknown vocabulary I find while reading, and I need to get better about reviewing it!
Well, that's probably more than enough for now. If by the end of this year I could be at a higher level in these three languages, I'd be happy. It's tough having this love of languages...that damn Assimil Russian course taunts me every time I walk past my bookshelf, and I have to really use all of my willpower not to wander. We'll see how far I get!
I have studied Spanish since I was around nine or ten years old. It was a compulsory subject for me beginning in the fifth grade, and continued to be compulsory up until the end of high school. I also studied it briefly in college, only to fulfill my foreign language requirements.
Like most subjects which were 1.) poorly taught and 2.) obligatory, I absolutely hated Spanish. And my hatred showed, because I was terrible at it. That is until I reached my sophomore year of high school, when I had for the first (and so far only) time an excellent language teacher, who was both passionate about Spanish and about teaching. I honestly credit him with helping build the foundation for whatever success I've had in the language up until now...my rather nebulous understanding of the language began to solidify, and by the end of the year I had a decent intermediate level in the language (except for speaking, which I'll touch on later).
Sadly, several factors conspired against my following up with my Spanish studies and really getting great at the language. First, the teachers I had for the rest of high school and college were awful...either incompetent themselves in the language, or incompetent as teachers. But most importantly, my latent passion for languages began to manifest itself around the time I was 14 or 15. And unfortunately, my passion wasn't for Spanish. Rather, it was scattered all over the place, and I dabbled in pretty much everything but the one language I could have mastered. C'est la vie.
Fate intervened again, this time in the form of a native speaker who I wound up marrying. Although the marriage didn't work out, I was left with an excellent passive understanding of the language, whether it was from listening to my Mexican in-laws or watching Spanish-language TV, the language went from sounding “too fast to understand” to ''comprehensible input'', and it has remained so ever since.
Being married and, later, having a child meant my priorities switched, and for a good part of my twenties I lost my interest in learning languages. Actually, “lost” is probably a poor choice of words, but it retreated into my subconscious for the time being. I also made the mistake of not getting enough active speaking practice in, something that I've regretted and have been trying to correct ever since.
At any rate, it wasn't until I was around 28 or 29 that my desire to learn many languages finally overwhelmed me and I set out on the path that I am currently on. Over the past two years I have worked on improving my Spanish, and I also taught myself French and German to an intermediate(ish) level, at least to a level where I can read and understand the spoken language with ease. I attribute almost all of my success to Assimil, which I plan on using for any other languages I may tackle in the future (Russian, Japanese, etc.).
But before I start any new projects, I'd really like to improve these three languages. My main frustration is my inability to produce the language as well as I can understand it passively. I realize that this takes time and practice. The only two languages I really get to speak regularly are Spanish and French, which is sort of a shame, because German is my one true language love. It's the only one I really, really want to master.
So I've decided to go back and review my study materials systematically, starting with Spanish, and then French, and then German. Right now I'm finishing up my review with FSI Spanish Basic Course. I'm mainly using it to drill grammar points I'm weak on (tenses, moods, etc.). I've made myself a syllabus of sorts, where I review a grammar point during each study session. I've also found the Schaum's Grammar Outline series to be very useful, so I'm using it in conjunction with FSI. I'm also making an effort to speak the language as much as possible, which isn't really that difficult since I interact with native speakers pretty much every day.
I can definitely see progress, I don't stutter or halt as much, or search for vocabulary, and grammatical constructions that I used to have to stop and form in my mind seem to come much more quickly. I'd like to at least take the practice B2 test for the DELE when I'm done with my review work, I'm pretty sure I can pass it but it'd be nice to self-assess myself so see how far my “method” has taken me. And of course at some point I'd like to take the DELE in person.
So basically that's my plan for Spanish, and it's the same for French and German, although for those two languages I will also be reviewing my Assimil courses. I've been meaning to do it for a long time, I really think these courses are quite dense and are worthy of repeated study. I've never used the Shadowing method with these courses before, so right now I'm re-working my way through New French With Ease using the Shadowing method. My main frustration with French is my pronunciation, so hopefully this can help a little bit in that regard. I also need to schedule more time to speak via Skype with my French tutor/friend. Once I'm done with FSI Spanish, I'll move on to FSI French and tackle it in the same way, using it to drill grammar points.
I work full-time, so I have to prioritize my study schedules. I do my Assimil Shadowing every day, and try to work on FSI Spanish daily as well although I may cut that down since I have other (career related) studying I need to do. I also try to maintain all three languages throughout the day, whether through reading or watching TV. Right now I'm reading Der Untergang der islamischen Welt by Hamed Abdel-Samad (German), Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau (French), and Dios no es bueno by Christopher Hitchens (Spanish). I'm also trying to watch as many films and TV shows as possible, both dubbed (South Park in German is the only way to watch it!) and original foreign films. My greatest tool here is my Kindle, which after Assimil has probably been the biggest boon to my learning. I make Anki decks out of the unknown vocabulary I find while reading, and I need to get better about reviewing it!
Well, that's probably more than enough for now. If by the end of this year I could be at a higher level in these three languages, I'd be happy. It's tough having this love of languages...that damn Assimil Russian course taunts me every time I walk past my bookshelf, and I have to really use all of my willpower not to wander. We'll see how far I get!