Lianne's 365 Days of French

[sirgregory]

Thanks for the link! When I was looking at the preview, I thought to myself that it would be a lot more useful with audio, and whaddaya know, there it is for free.

[lavengro]

I worked through most of the equivalent Cortina materials for Italian. I thought the lessons were okay, but the really helpful thing for me was working through the grammar sections in the latter half of the materials in conjunction with the lessons. You've likely noticed the Plan of Study at page 190 of French Cortina course, which sets out a comprehensive key to which grammar sections are relevant to which lessons (far from linear); the Italian materials had a similar approach, and I appreciated the opportunity to intersperse dialogue-based lessons with grammar sections.

[Lianne]

Ugh, June! Double ugh, the last week of school!! I have managed to keep up with my 365 day challenge, but not so much with the recording of it! Let's see how well I can remember what I've done the last 15 days!

Day 163:wed the 12th
30 minutes Pimsleur French III, lesson 24

Day 164:
30 minutes Pimsleur French III, lesson 25

Day 165:
30 minutes Pimsleur French III, lesson 26

Day 166:
45 minutes reading Un havre de paix by Nicholas Sparks (Safe Haven)

Day 167:
30 minutes reading Un havre de paix by Nicholas Sparks (Safe Haven)

Day 168:
30 minutes reading Un havre de paix by Nicholas Sparks (Safe Haven)

Day 169:
51 minutes watching Notre planète: des déserts aux prairies

Day 170:
31 minutes watching Au service de la France (le pouche)

Day 171:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (No Place Like Home)

Day 172:
45 minutes watching Angel (Dear Boy)

Day 173:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Family)

Day 174:
45 minutes watching Angel (Guise Will Be Guise)

Day 175:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Fool for Love)

Day 176:
45 minutes watching Angel (Darla)

Day 177:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Shadow)

It is entirely possible that some of those activities are on the wrong days in the first week. The last week I'm confident on because I've been really consistently watching a Buffy/Angel episode each evening. Which, by the way, has been nice! Sometimes I think my listening comprehension is improving a lot, and other times I think I'm imagining that. If I'm not paying 100% attention (common when I'm watching TV, especially since I don't have a knitting project on the go so my brain's like, what else are we doing??) I understand considerably less.

Regarding reading, I needed a break from the teen drama of Léa Olivier, so I switched to what I figured would be an easy adult novel. I've read Safe Haven in English. When I started reading it, I felt like I was reading something written by a high school student; the writing was so incredibly simple. I didn't enjoy that, but the story did end up drawing me in. So, I figured it would be an easy book in French, too. However! I've only read a little bit and there is SO MUCH vocabulary I don't know! So I'm doing at least some intensive reading with this one. (Hey, maybe that's why I haven't read in the last week; I hate intensive reading lol.)

[Lianne]

Many thanks for sharing your resources and in particular: Notre planète!

You're welcome! After this one, I plan to watch many more David Attenborough documentaries on Netflix, dubbed in French! The only downside is that they're so relaxing, they tend to put me to sleep. But I like how clear and uniform the language is, and how soothing the voice.

[Lianne]

Day 178:
45 minutes watching Angel (The Shroud of Rahmon)

Day 179:
25 minutes Memrise (French Nouns 1)
6 minutes listening to News in Slow French

Day 180:
30 minutes Memrise (French Nouns 1)

I'm on summer break!! I officially don't work for the next 9 weeks!! The time has come for sleeping, and reading, and French learning, and trying to make my apartment look like it wasn't caught in the path of some terrible natural disaster!

I'm hoping to get back into the habit of doing more than the minimum half hour of French every day. To that end, I'd like to spend some time getting back into some of the activities I haven't done lately. That way I can try to get back to doing several activities each day, and have some nice balance. To start with, I've caught up on my reviews on Memrise.

Also, I may do a Dialang test in the next few days, since we're now at the halfway point in the year! Even though I didn't really feel that the results were super accurate last time, I'd still like to see how much they've changed in the last 6 months.

Oh, side note: I started trying to learn the Arabic writing system. No, I'm not adding Arabic to my studies!! But the course did finally come out on Duolingo, and it would be a nice one to learn some basics in, just for fun. So I installed an app for practicing drawing the glyphs. We'll see how this goes.

[Lianne]

Day 181:
35 minutes Memrise (French Nouns 1)
1 hour Duolingo reviews

So, for the first time, my Duolingo account has the leagues feature available. I'm sure it won't last, but right now it's making me a little competitive. Even though I've hardly used Duolingo lately.

[badger]

So, for the first time, my Duolingo account has the leagues feature available. I'm sure it won't last, but right now it's making me a little competitive. Even though I've hardly used Duolingo lately.

mine too - I've been playing with the Arabic course as well. I've been trying to ignore the leagues thing, but it drags you in.

[Lianne]

Day 182:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 183:
30 minutes Duolingo

Currently easily holding first place in the Bronze League on Duolingo. (Are you just put with random people? There are only 50 people in my league. I looked at the first few and they aren't studying any of the same languages as me.) Currently I have a 1000 point lead on second place, lol. But, tomorrow morning I'm leaving on vacation for a week! I'll have to install the Duolingo app on my phone again and use that a bit to keep from losing my position. (Also so that my only study option isn't reading my surprisingly tough French novel for 30 minutes a day.)

Wish me luck keeping up my studying while on a road trip! I will have my Pimsleur lessons, so I could always test my partner's patience and do one of those on the long drive across Saskatchewan.

Regarding my little exploration of Arabic: I've tried a few methods for learning the letters, and it's tricky! I have an app that lets you trace them, but it only covers the individual form of each letter. I've also been using a Memrise deck. I'm struggling to learn to match up a letter name, sound, plus up to 4 different variations on what it looks like. But, I decided to start the Duolingo course, just to see what it's like at the start, and was happy to find that it actually devotes the first few lessons to the alphabet! So now I'm using that too. I do have a few letters I'm getting good at recognising. (At least until the font is small, at which point all bets are off.)

[Cavesa]

Yes, you are mixed with random people. The Japanese and the Esperanto learners together, complete beginners and reviewing intermediates, people who want to be in a League and those who don't (because the "opt out" option that is even officially recommended by the support team seems to just hide the League from you, but you are still in one and other people can see you there). Really, this feature had some potential, but it is so badly made. I am in the Ruby one, without caring to stay there (I am fed up with being a beta tester rather than learner, truth be told). With 1000 points, it's unlikely people will skip you even if you take a break for the rest of the week. A tip:if you want a bit less competitive mix of people in your League, take a break on Sunday, when the new round starts. If you join later on Monday evening, you will be mixed with other people who aren't living just for this

Wish me luck keeping up my studying while on a road trip! I will have my Pimsleur lessons, so I could always test my partner's patience and do one of those on the long drive across Saskatchewan.

Good luck. Also, this sounds like a very creative way to force your partner to start learning a language. You imprison them with you in a closed space and just do Pimsleur (MT,LT,...)! Genious! (just joking, of course. I am a firm believer in free will. But it would be awesome, if my boyfriend finally freely chose to seriously start French )

[Lianne]

Day 184:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 185:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 186:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 187:
30 minutes reading Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

Day 188:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 189:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 190:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 191:
30 minutes Duolingo

Day 192:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Listening to Fear)

Day 193:
45 minutes watching Angel (The Trial)

Day 194:
30 minutes watching Notre planète: les eaus profondes (didn't watch the whole episode)

Day 195:
45 minutes watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Into the Woods)

Day 196:
30 minutes Duolingo

I'm back!! OK, so I went on my road trip for a whole week, and getting French in was HARD. I hardly had a moment to myself. So I settled for half an hour a day of Duolingo reviews on my phone. (I do not enjoy doing Duolingo on my phone, but at least it's portable!) I can't say I really learned anything new in those days, but hey, I must REALLY know that vocab now. I honestly think I've overlearned some of the early Duolingo content; sometimes I actually accidentally answered in the wrong language because the French phrases felt so natural!

Annoyingly, as soon as we got back we had a computer problem, so I then had a few days with no computer. At least I had my TV and DVD player back and could get back into my Buffy.

In Duolingo Leagues news, I finished first in Bronze by a longshot. I was in the lead in Silver but lost it when I got back from my trip and finished 5th. Just now I got myself from the very bottom in Gold up to 3rd place in just half an hour. I may have accidentally taken Cavesa's advice and started later and been placed in a less intense group.

Also, this sounds like a very creative way to force your partner to start learning a language. You imprison them with you in a closed space and just do Pimsleur (MT,LT,...)! Genious! (just joking, of course. I am a firm believer in free will. But it would be awesome, if my boyfriend finally freely chose to seriously start French )

Ha! I actually already kinda do this. He has no interest at all in language learning, but I do sometimes just speak to him in French, just simple phrases. He remembers enough from school to know what I'm saying most of the time and just answers me in English. Maybe if I do that enough he'll accidentally learn passive French.