Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

[Sarafina]

Congrats! That’s fantastic. What will you be doing?

Thank you. My main job is to respond emergency calls for clients that require assistance as a result of a vehicle breakdown or accident. I could be asked to book a hotel/call a taxi or arrange alternative means of transport/liaise with garages.

[Sarafina]

I might as well use my time during the lockdown to continue with my New Year plans for French, Spanish and Japanese. Last term, I held a bunch of really time-consuming positions and I was involved with so many societies. But now all of that has been cancelled. In addition, my workload for uni has been halved because of cancelled exams. I have a lot more free time to devote to languages. I've paid for another month of Japanesepod101 because I failed to download all the episodes last time and I still have my subscription to Pimsleur that I just never cancelled.

I did an interview for a position in Canada. I don't know if I'll get it. I really hate virtual timed interviews so I'm worried that I sounded awkward.

I don't know where I am with the 1000 hour French challenge. At some point, I stopped keeping track of how many hours I was putting. I should probably start over and do a 500 hour challenge instead.

I'm really worried that my summer job in France will end up ultimately cancelled. Even if it's not cancelled, I don't know how I could even get to France considering that France has closed its border for non-essential travel.

[Sarafina]

I've paused Spanish and Japanese and I'm devoting all my time to French. I want to improve my French as much as I can before I start my year abroad. I am not going to post my goals but rather try to write daily updates. After 90 days, I can reveal what my goal was and whether I passed it and write a detailed report on my overall progress.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel my summer job in France because my uni did not approve it as it takes place before September. Luckily, they were really understanding and allowed me to defer it for the summer of 2021.

I got a job offer in Canada but unfortunately they told me that they are still uncertain on how everything is going to proceed given the current situation so we'll see.

I'm thinking of teaching English online. But I'm really nervous and excited about the idea.

[Sarafina]

Day 1 (7/06/20)

Reading
I read 31/290 pages of Dans les forêts de Sibérie while following an audiobook reading. This has been a game-changer for me- it allows to maintain a consistent reading speed. Also it helps me with my pronunciation as I get to hear how certain words are being pronounced correctly and reduces the risk of me reinforce mispronunciation of certain words.

I added unknown 15 words on Anki and I reviewed it for 8 minutes.

Listening
I've been watching season 6 of Skam France with French subtitles on YouTube since the first of this month. I'm currently on episode 8. I have to wait for each episode to be uploaded in form of 3-4 separate clips which are uploaded at different times.

I listened to the first 32 minutes of 'Transfert Slate: Comment un voyage peut changer votre vie'. However, this was more of background listening- I can barely recall what it was about.

Day 2 (8/06/20)
I barely did anything beyond listening to some French songs and I think that I watched bits of random French video. I've watched the latest two episodes of Les Cahiers d'Esther (I wish that I had something like this series when I was younger)

My favourite French songs that I've listening to on repeat recently are:
Lous and The Yakuza- Tout est gore
Lous and The Yakuza- Solo
Joanna- Maladie d'amour
Christine and The Yakuza- Damn, dis-moi


(I don't know if this is the best/most useful way of documenting my progress. Would people prefer it to be more data-focused or if it would be better if it was more of a general discussion)

[Sarafina]

I stopped posting because I realise that I'm just full of it. I post lofty language-related goals and plans that I rarely accomplish. I'm only going to recording my progress from now on/my reflections on my progress/general relevant updates. Then if I achieve it then I can talk about what my goal was.


I 'uncancelled' my summer job in France. I'm currently in France at the moment. It's been really good so far. In my workplace, the main languages that I hear spoken often are French, English and German/Dutch. I've remarked on this before but rarely has anyone spoken to me in English. Even when I'm struggling with something in French, they might get annoyed but they still carry on the conversation in French. However, for my job, it's mainly in English but there is a fair amount of tasks that I have to be complete in entirely in French. It's funny how the workplace is essentially multilingual. Everyone that works here speaks at least two languages.

I've told my colleagues (at least the French-speaking) to stop speaking English to me from next week Monday. My French flatmate has been really kind and generous. We alternate days that we speak in English or French. My colleagues have also been really helpful and kind in general.

I'm making a list of clubs/societies/events that I want to go to. Although, I want to start doing Brazilian jiu jitsu and Muay Thai. I don't think that it would be wise under the current circumstances. Instead I'm considering taking ice-skating lessons (even though I did ice hockey for a bit I never properly learnt how to ice-skate which really limited me). I want to join an Art club/plein air group. I've looking at joining a book club/debate society. I'm wary about joining a hiking group (with people I don't know and in an area that I'm not familiar with) even though it looks like it would be so much fun.

I'm happy with any activity-centred group where I either get to learn new things/move around/get out of my comfortable zone/improve my French. I would appreciate any recommendations.

Setting up a French bank account has been headache inducing. Hopefully, I can get everything sorted out this week. I don't want to go into too much detail but I still have uni exams/coursework that will be due by the end of August (because of extenuating circumstances which I don't want to go into too much detail about). I'm hoping to finish my essays during this week while I'm still on training. So that I still have the rest of my summer where I will not have to balance studying with a full time job.

I wish that I took the DALF C1 exam. I would failed definitely. But I should have picked a date where I could actually make it/in a location that wasn't 3-4 hours away. . I'm debating if I should still take a DALF exam for the next year summer. But we'll see. I am not making any promises/or plans. (We all know how the last plan went) .

My job in Canada is still available which I'm really happy about.

[DaveAgain]

I wish that I took the DALF C1 exam. I would failed definitely. But I should have picked a date where I could actually make it/in a location that wasn't 3-4 hours away. . I'm debating if I should still take a DALF exam for the next year summer. But we'll see. I am not making any promises/or plans. (We all know how the last plan went) .

You could take a TCF while you're in France, that just gives you a grade, there is no pass/fail.

https://www.ciep.fr/tcf

https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/fr ... exams/tcf/

Congrats on being in France!

EDIT
Sctroyenne wrote about her TCF experience.

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 687#p21687

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =90#p30321

[Sarafina]

I feel really content with my life in France. I'm generally happy for the most part. I have made really good friends and have friendly acquaintances. It's been interesting going on dates with people entirely in French and I feel like my French is so bad and I have no idea how they have the patience for it and why they would still ask me out for another one

At the first, my French was just garbage. I don't know whether it was because of general nerves or the fact I stopped doing anything with French, I couldn't do basic stuff competently. It was like my French had completely regressed to my pre-IB level. Now, I'm reaching a point where things are getting more and more natural. I can now do the French aspects of my job with a lot more confidence and without needing to grab my French colleagues for help. I was having a really interesting conversation with someone who actually goes to the same uni and we had a discussion about how it is borderline disgraceful the level of French that people graduate given the amount of money we spend. This is not just true of my uni but other students from other British unis. I just feel embarrassed about our collective level considering a lot of us are studying at uni and have invested at least a couple of years. Obviously, I know the standard defence is your proficiency is almost directly correlated with the time you spend with the target language. But then what is even the point of paying so much if it is mostly self-study.

I had this realisation when talking to my friends who go to unis in France is that I could have gone to uni in France. For people that have read my logs from the beginning may remember that I had a mini-crisis due to disappointing IB results and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I considered going uni abroad. But America/Canada was ridiculously expensive as an international student. I knew that Netherlands/Germany offered degrees in English but I wasn't particularly interested in them. I found a couple of American unis based in France that offered degrees in English but it was just as expensive as if I went a college in the States.

But I never even considered the possibility o my degree in French. Turns out a lot of unis offered a foundation year for international students (where English wasn't their second language). I had saved up so much money during my summer job where I was working 40 plus hours a week. I was discussing it with them and in theory I could have afforded it (I wouldn't have needed maintenance loan and the tuition fees is really affordable) but I would have needed my parents' support for accommodation for the first term. But my friends were saying that her uni was really generous for international students with regards to accommodation (with temporary subsidies).

But it would have been really tough at the beginning and I don't think that I would considered the city I'm currently in.

Some part of me is considering doing my masters in France. But I am tired with humanities.

I don't want to return to my final year. The few friends I've made will have graduated. I don't know if I even have the energy to put myself out there. I have already mentally clocked out. Coming to France made me realise how resentful and unhappy I was at my uni. I wish that they would just call it a day and give students the option of finishing uni online then I'll continue to stay where I am and improve my French.

[gsbod]

Given how messed up in general this year has been for everyone, it's really uplifting to read that your summer job in France has worked out well this year! Are you still getting to do your year abroad as part of your degree?

[Sarafina]

Given how messed up in general this year has been for everyone, it's really uplifting to read that your summer job in France has worked out well this year! Are you still getting to do your year abroad as part of your degree?

Thanks for your reply. I am just so relieved and grateful that things are finally working out. My uni still says that we will have a year abroad but they have been flip-flopping about when they want us to start. I'm mainly ignoring them because they change their mind every week with a new start date.

[Sarafina]

I never know personal this log should be and how much information is too much information.

I had a wonderful time in France. The last time that I left this at ease was I was 8. It wasn't that France was perfect- far from it. But I was just so content being there. I feel so grateful. I met some really wonderful people. I felt like I finally had the experiences that I had always hoped for. I am proud of myself on how proactive I was.

Going to France highlighted how my French is better and worse that I thought. I considered writing a long paragraph on my dating experiences in France where I only spoke French but I don't think anyone will be interested to reading it . It was certainly an interesting experience going on dates where I had to exclusively speak French. It has been more enjoyable and challenging than I anticipated.

I was meant to go to Canada. But there were some issues with my progression. It's a bit of a complex and kinda unique situation as I technically didn't fail any of my modules. Anyways, the year abroad team prematurely notified my employer that I haven't "progressed" despite knowing that complexity of the situation and how there was still ambiguity as to what the outcome would be. Now I have received news that I can progress as normal and everything has thankfully been resolved. But now I don't know if I can get my position back in Canada.

I'm kinda pissed at the year abroad team. As I was meant to start my job in Canada from November/December to around May/June. I've been looking for jobs in France (but it's all looking a little pointless as there is a national lockdown). The idea of staying in France but I can only go to work or to buy essential goods is more than a little depressing.

I feel stuck.