Robierre’s French C2 log
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:50 pm
Short resume
June 2015
My name is Robierre. I am here to share with you my day-to-day progress in French and
Italian, two languages that are currently in the focus of my interest. If I exclude
school courses during early teenage years, these languages are important part of my
life from 2006 (FR) and 2010 (IT). Currently, I am in the middle of the most exciting
part of every language learning process: it is the stage when you are able to read
books or newspapers, watch TV or movies, listen to radio stations, write long e-mails,
speak with your friends or use the language at work. More or less to do the same
activities as with your mother language. But with one important difference: it is
still a foreign language that you are learning and every each of these activities is
full of obstacles and challenges.
So what are my goals?
Let's just continue to learn while having fun and enjoying in exploring different
facets of both languages. To get you know with the direction that I am taking, I will
discover you briefly my weak points.
FR:
Langue familière and argot. I agree very much with those of you saying that
there is a huge difference between everyday French and the formal register. I can feel
this gap. You can easily notice from my spoken French that I learned the language from
grammar textbooks, university teachers, newspapers like Le Temps or Le Monde, media
like France Culture or TV5Monde. That's great, but - when you're at the party with
native French speakers commenting soccer, girls or telling jokes, you will need a
different kind of register, that's for sure.
Literature. I love to read and if you want to read classics, you have to have a
very rich vocabulary. By combining extensive and intensive reading I have already
great results, but I want to continue that way.
Listening skills. I have to admit that I have problems with some movies in
French. My ears are used to deal with clear academic French and not so much with movie
characters speaking while yelling or crying or eating. A lot of work here. The example
of the show that is very hard for me to follow is On n'est pas couché on France2 - I
always get depressed when I try to understand the jokes.
Speaking more fluently. I have a good pronunciation of separate words and even
groups of words, but it would be great to develop the fast way of speaking for the
occasions where you have to react fast in conversations - it is also connected with
the low register where you have to pronounce the words in a different way.
Writing. Maybe it is not on the top of my priorities but it would be also nice
to make some progress - maybe to try to use some forums.
Some more complex grammar. From time to time I plan to work on some specific
points of grammar, specially concordance des temps and subjonctif; I always come back
on this.
IT:
Reading quality literature. No problems here with popular literature and
newspapers. When it comes to Moravia or Pasolini, it gets more difficult. So what I
need is extensive reading of classics and contemporary writers and more analytical
approach (using dictionary) with some complex articles dealing with, let's say,
philosophy or art.
Administrative Italian. Specific sort of language; not easy at all. I already
work quite well on this task.
Writing on social networks. Sometimes when I write e-mails or messages to my
friends I struggle with the style - I want to stay grammatically correct while adding
some words that are more used among younger generation. I think I need a bit of slang
to spice up my linguaggio familiare (which is much better then in French).
Speaking with Italians. Very often when I have an occasion to speak with
Italians I realize that I can do it much better. Or is it the complex because I want
to sound completely native. I don't know, it might be that I need more practice to
make a response that is more than just one sentence; sometimes I have this weird
impression that my responses are to short. It must be a cultural thing. Concerning the
prononciation, I am a bit obsessed how my e&o aperta/chiusa sound in some words, but
I know that it is not a big deal for Italians.
Get to know a dialect. Contrary to French, Italian is the language of dialects.
I feel the need to get familiar with this part of the culture. Napoletano and Veneto
are on my list but I still have to work on this idea.
Listening. Generally I don't have problems with listening. The only exception
is fast speaking - I noticed it on some tv-shows, for example Gazebo on Rai3, I really
get lost from time to time. The same goes for some jokes of Luciana Litizzetto in Che
tempo che fa.
Some grammar. From time to time some exercises, just to refresh some things.
Hope to have your support in all this, specially if you're on the same level with
these languages. Cheers
June 2015
My name is Robierre. I am here to share with you my day-to-day progress in French and
Italian, two languages that are currently in the focus of my interest. If I exclude
school courses during early teenage years, these languages are important part of my
life from 2006 (FR) and 2010 (IT). Currently, I am in the middle of the most exciting
part of every language learning process: it is the stage when you are able to read
books or newspapers, watch TV or movies, listen to radio stations, write long e-mails,
speak with your friends or use the language at work. More or less to do the same
activities as with your mother language. But with one important difference: it is
still a foreign language that you are learning and every each of these activities is
full of obstacles and challenges.
So what are my goals?
Let's just continue to learn while having fun and enjoying in exploring different
facets of both languages. To get you know with the direction that I am taking, I will
discover you briefly my weak points.
FR:
Langue familière and argot. I agree very much with those of you saying that
there is a huge difference between everyday French and the formal register. I can feel
this gap. You can easily notice from my spoken French that I learned the language from
grammar textbooks, university teachers, newspapers like Le Temps or Le Monde, media
like France Culture or TV5Monde. That's great, but - when you're at the party with
native French speakers commenting soccer, girls or telling jokes, you will need a
different kind of register, that's for sure.
Literature. I love to read and if you want to read classics, you have to have a
very rich vocabulary. By combining extensive and intensive reading I have already
great results, but I want to continue that way.
Listening skills. I have to admit that I have problems with some movies in
French. My ears are used to deal with clear academic French and not so much with movie
characters speaking while yelling or crying or eating. A lot of work here. The example
of the show that is very hard for me to follow is On n'est pas couché on France2 - I
always get depressed when I try to understand the jokes.
Speaking more fluently. I have a good pronunciation of separate words and even
groups of words, but it would be great to develop the fast way of speaking for the
occasions where you have to react fast in conversations - it is also connected with
the low register where you have to pronounce the words in a different way.
Writing. Maybe it is not on the top of my priorities but it would be also nice
to make some progress - maybe to try to use some forums.
Some more complex grammar. From time to time I plan to work on some specific
points of grammar, specially concordance des temps and subjonctif; I always come back
on this.
IT:
Reading quality literature. No problems here with popular literature and
newspapers. When it comes to Moravia or Pasolini, it gets more difficult. So what I
need is extensive reading of classics and contemporary writers and more analytical
approach (using dictionary) with some complex articles dealing with, let's say,
philosophy or art.
Administrative Italian. Specific sort of language; not easy at all. I already
work quite well on this task.
Writing on social networks. Sometimes when I write e-mails or messages to my
friends I struggle with the style - I want to stay grammatically correct while adding
some words that are more used among younger generation. I think I need a bit of slang
to spice up my linguaggio familiare (which is much better then in French).
Speaking with Italians. Very often when I have an occasion to speak with
Italians I realize that I can do it much better. Or is it the complex because I want
to sound completely native. I don't know, it might be that I need more practice to
make a response that is more than just one sentence; sometimes I have this weird
impression that my responses are to short. It must be a cultural thing. Concerning the
prononciation, I am a bit obsessed how my e&o aperta/chiusa sound in some words, but
I know that it is not a big deal for Italians.
Get to know a dialect. Contrary to French, Italian is the language of dialects.
I feel the need to get familiar with this part of the culture. Napoletano and Veneto
are on my list but I still have to work on this idea.
Listening. Generally I don't have problems with listening. The only exception
is fast speaking - I noticed it on some tv-shows, for example Gazebo on Rai3, I really
get lost from time to time. The same goes for some jokes of Luciana Litizzetto in Che
tempo che fa.
Some grammar. From time to time some exercises, just to refresh some things.
Hope to have your support in all this, specially if you're on the same level with
these languages. Cheers