Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:05 am

Debating starting a new log. I don't know if I should try to devote all my energy in my French to the C- levels for 2020/2021. Or whether I should try juggling improving my French and introducing Spanish and Japanese. I feel like I have had this debate for literally years now. :D

It might be good to document me learning French using MIA (mass immersion approach). I like the idea of doing a 1000 hour immersion challenge.

I got Spotify Premium and there's been some really promising French podcasts.

I did consider doing the TCF but the deadlines to enrol for the summer had already passed in my area and the next examination date would have taken place after I was gone. DALF exam still remains a goal of mine but I don't know when I'll sit the exam.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:07 pm

I GOT MY JOB BACK IN CANADA!!!.

I'm so so relieved. My year abroad can proceed as normal. Although, it's going to be a very hectic two weeks e.g. sorting out travel insurance, updating my work permit, accommodation for quarantine etc. I'm so so excited.

I'm so lucky. I'm really grateful that everything has been resolved.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Wed Jan 20, 2021 8:55 pm

I'm in Canada. I have experienced some real real lows. In the beginning, it was beyond depressing- feeling I was trapped in these four walls with no reprieve. I'm not even going to address the issues that I've had with my uni especially with the people that supposed to make our year abroad as smooth as possible. The main thing that they contributed was being an extra source of frustration and stress. Then I had some initial teething problems with my workplace. I never experienced true isolation until I was in Canada. It hit me like a ton of bricks how alone I really was.

If I was allowed to leave Canada mid-December, I probably wouldn't have come back.

But now things have gotten much better. I feel like I've settled here. I really enjoy my job a lot. I've made some really interesting friends. I've found someone that makes me really really happy who cares for me and I care for them too. I feel really happy and fortunate and I'm grateful that things got better. But it definitely made me lot more resilient. It allowed some unique moments of introspection.

In terms of language, it's been near non-existent. It's too easy to be an English bubble here in Montreal. I don't have any interactions with monolingual French speakers at all. But it's going to change.

I probably won't follow it but I find it to be therapeutic to make new plans/goals.

Funny enough, I have a flatmate who speaks Spanish as his native language and we said that by March he's only going to speak Spanish with me. I guess that Spanish was also meant to be.
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Cèid Donn
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Cèid Donn » Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:49 pm

Sorry to hear you've been having a rough time and glad that you're managing through it.

In terms of language, it's been near non-existent. It's too easy to be an English bubble here in Montreal. I don't have any interactions with monolingual French speakers at all. But it's going to change.


I've never been to Montreal (aside from a brief time when I was 6, when we were visiting some of my father's relatives, and I don't remember anything about it), only to Nova Scotia, where I ran into both Quebecois and Acadian speakers, although it was often awkward to get them to speak French and I didn't want to push it because I wasn't sure what the cultural etiquette was. Did they feel obligated to speak English in those situations? It wasn't clear, so I just let them speak English and sadly missed out on a chance to speak more French.

Anyhow I'm sympathetic to your efforts to use French there in Montreal. I live in El Paso where we have a similar situation with bilingualism with a significant portion of the population (over 65%) having some functional level of Spanish, and many people here speak Spanish at home, but in many social situations, everyone defaults to English. It makes using my Spanish difficult outside of my job (where I need to use it in some cases) as I'm not the most socially outgoing person around. Some of my neighbors will speak Spanish with me when I see them, because they know I can understand them (usually), but that's been rare since the pandemic started and everyone's staying away from each other.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:54 pm

Cèid Donn wrote:Sorry to hear you've been having a rough time and glad that you're managing through it.

In terms of language, it's been near non-existent. It's too easy to be an English bubble here in Montreal. I don't have any interactions with monolingual French speakers at all. But it's going to change.


I've never been to Montreal (aside from a brief time when I was 6, when we were visiting some of my father's relatives, and I don't remember anything about it), only to Nova Scotia, where I ran into both Quebecois and Acadian speakers, although it was often awkward to get them to speak French and I didn't want to push it because I wasn't sure what the cultural etiquette was. Did they feel obligated to speak English in those situations? It wasn't clear, so I just let them speak English and sadly missed out on a chance to speak more French.

Anyhow I'm sympathetic to your efforts to use French there in Montreal. I live in El Paso where we have a similar situation with bilingualism with a significant portion of the population (over 65%) having some functional level of Spanish, and many people here speak Spanish at home, but in many social situations, everyone defaults to English. It makes using my Spanish difficult outside of my job (where I need to use it in some cases) as I'm not the most socially outgoing person around. Some of my neighbors will speak Spanish with me when I see them, because they know I can understand them (usually), but that's been rare since the pandemic started and everyone's staying away from each other.


Thank you for the response. Really appreciate it.

It's really interesting. I'm able to speak French only handful of times but it is only limited to when I'm chatting with the Uber driver or doing some shopping.

That's the blessing and curse being an area where a significant number of the population are functional in both languages. I can completely relate to finding it difficult to practice your target language during a pandemic. There is very limited opportunities for any type of serious socialisation with the people living there.

There isn't the same incentive to improve my French as compared to when I was in France (where I was forced to speak French just to do anything).

I did consider in enrolling an evening French course as a way of socialising with other French language learners and give myself some external accountability. But with everything being online, I would prefer invest in one-on-one Italki lessons instead.

As I'm with someone that is equally fluent in both French and English. We've recently started speaking in both languages. By both, I mean 5-10 minutes where we exclusively speak French. Then try to increase it each week. So hopefully, that will be a good step in the right direction.
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Iversen » Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:12 pm

Sarafina wrote:Funny enough, I have a flatmate who speaks Spanish as his native language and we said that by March he's only going to speak Spanish with me. I guess that Spanish was also meant to be.


That's something of a chance. Do accept his offer.

As for French in Québec: I have visited Montréal several times and never ever spoken anything but French there - as far as I know about a third of the population is Anglophone, but anybody living there should at least know French well enough to understand it. If they then choose to answer you in English so be it, but French is the majority language and the first choice even in Montréal and consequently there is no need to bow to pressure from obstinate Anglophones.

I have only been to Nouvel-Brunswick once and only to the Northern part where French still is the main language, and it is my impression that the Francophones there are proud of their language - and they speak the most marvellous hardcore variant of Québecois there so do visit the place. As for Newfoundland - well, no. That's English territory, and you will have a hard time to find Francophones ... as I had in Louisiana, which ironically is the place to which those Acadians from Nouvel-Brunswick travelled who didn't want to accept George III as their king.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Thu Jan 21, 2021 6:18 pm

Iversen wrote:
Sarafina wrote:Funny enough, I have a flatmate who speaks Spanish as his native language and we said that by March he's only going to speak Spanish with me. I guess that Spanish was also meant to be.


That's something of a chance. Do accept his offer.

As for French in Québec: I have visited Montréal several times and never ever spoken anything but French there - as far as I know about a third of the population is Anglophone, but anybody living there should at least know French well enough to understand it. If they then choose to answer you in English so be it, but French is the majority language and the first choice even in Montréal and consequently there is no need to bow to pressure from obstinate Anglophones.

I have only been to Nouvel-Brunswick once and only to the Northern part where French still is the main language, and it is my impression that the Francophones there are proud of their language - and they speak the most marvellous hardcore variant of Québecois there so do visit the place. As for Newfoundland - well, no. That's English territory, and you will have a hard time to find Francophones ... as I had in Louisiana, which ironically is the place to which those Acadians from Nouvel-Brunswick travelled who didn't want to accept George III as their king.


Definitely going to accept his offer. I might as well take advantage of living with a native Spanish speaker who is more than happy to help me out.

French is very much alive here. I just don't have much opportunity to meaningful engage with it. I think that's probably because of the pandemic so there is no real opportunities to properly socialise with people. I imagine that if clubs/societies/events were still available, I would probably meet a lot more people who are happy to speak French. When I'm outside, I still hear plenty of people my age speaking exclusively French among each other.

But these are still excuses, there are online Meetups groups that I could join. It's not quite the same but it is certainly better than nothing.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:14 pm

Sorry that it's been a while.

My French is actually the worst that it has ever been since my IB days. My French has regressed significantly since I've been in Montreal. I'm now back in the UK and I'm going to try to use the summer to go AFATT and try to improve my French as much as possible before my final year of uni.

I experienced some real lows here in Canada to the point that I seek therapy temporarily. I don't know to describe my experiences in Canada without boring everyone with unnecessary personal details. I experienced a mixture of highs and lows.

I had the most incredible summer in Quebec once things finally opened up (I loved visiting Gaspesie and Quebec City and rediscovering a post lockdown Montreal ). Sometimes I feel cheated out of a normal year abroad considering how I had such an amazing time in the summer when things opened up and you were able to travel to different regions. I'm seriously debating coming back to Quebec for one more year after I graduate. I want to experience life in Quebec where I don't have to spend most of it in lockdown).

Final year is going to be interesting. All my friends have graduated this year. I look forward to making new connections and trying out new things and improving myself. I've signed myself for a lot of different things to keep myself as busy as possible. I definitely feel much stronger and way way more resilient.

I am going to be starting a new log. I'm going to be focusing exclusively on French until after I graduate.
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Sarafina
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby Sarafina » Mon Aug 29, 2022 1:39 pm

A mostly depressing update.

Depressing part
My final year went terribly. My French is honestly worse now than it was during IB. Sometimes I think that I should have taken a year out to sort myself out mentally and figure out what I wanted and find suitable coping mechanisms. I wanted to drop out for a long time as early as my second year of uni. I was encouraged/pressured by family to still continue and get through it because I only had one year left. I haven't finished my degree yet as I didn't do any of my courseworks or completed my dissertation- I was given an extension until the end of summer.


I feel depressed thinking about my recent grades which I don't think is an accurate representation of my academic skills. I have a useless degree with less than stellar grades. I am not sure how to feel my prospects. Maybe it's denial but I still feel a little bit optimistic that I can make things work even if I have rubbish grades and a degree that isn't exactly in demand. Maybe I'll do a conversion degree or even a second degree or do some courses. If anyone has any encouraging stories that people that managed to turn things around- I would appreciate it.


Less-depressing part
I have a job. It's not exactly a graduate role but it's okay to me for now. The pay is at least better than any other job that I have done in the past.

I just went to be able to say that I am fluent in French with confidence. It's beyond embarrassing studying a language at uni and not being able to be fluent in it. Although my interest in language learning is at an all time low. I feel like I have a good idea of how I am going to get that level- it's just a matter of me being consistent and following through with my plan.
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Re: Should Know Better But French, Spanish and Japanese

Postby DaveAgain » Mon Aug 29, 2022 2:25 pm

Sarafina wrote:If anyone has any encouraging stories that people that managed to turn things around- I would appreciate it.
Coco Chanel was abandoned by her father and brought up in an orphanage. Started out working as a seamstress, tried to break into showbiz as a singer, and ended up running a successful fashion house, which she closed down at the start of WW2 and then relaunched it 15 years later, again successfully.
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