Lianne's 365 Days of French

[Lianne]

Day 108:
35 minutes watching Notre planète
ASL: about 1 hour

I think I'll start tracking the time I spend on ASL. Since I'm starting more or less from scratch (only a false beginner in that I knew how to sign the alphabet and a couple common signs), if I stick with it I'll be able to see how long it actually takes me to reach various levels. (I don't have that information for French since my learning has been so sporadic and varied and has taken place over decades.) I did spend probably several hours altogether on lesson 1 of ASL 1, but a lot of that was reading. The first lesson had a bunch of content about the history of ASL, related concepts like Signed English, cultural Deafness, etc.

Some observations so far about learning ASL:

• It's a LOT harder to keep my hands from making random movements than it is to keep my mouth from making random sounds!
• Certain aspects of ASL are easier than spoken languages, when it comes to grammar. Obviously there are other challenges that make up for that, but it's nice anyway! I feel like it makes it easier to focus on vocabulary and just pick up the grammar more naturally.
• I'm autistic, and while I have actually scored extremely high on tests of facial expression recognition (better than neurotypicals even), I feel like I am not good at using facial expressions to express what I mean to (my expressions seem to get misunderstood a lot). I'm interested to see how this affects my ASL and potentially how it may be affected by it. I watched the video accompanying lesson 1 and was in awe of Bill Vicars' expressiveness.

Is anyone else currently studying ASL on this forum? Maybe I'll make a separate thread about that. I did a search and didn't find a whole lot.

[Cèid Donn]

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[Lianne]

[Redacted by request.]

I don't know that I'm particularly apprehensive about the facial expressions of signing. What you say makes a lot of sense. I think it will just take practice like any other part of the language. What I said about wondering how this aspect would interact with my autism was meant more optimistically; maybe my facial expressions will become clearer through the practice of signing! Normally I'm pretty firmly on the side of autistic pride and not bending to the outrageous demands of the neurotypical world, but it would be nice to have my feelings more understood. When they aren't, it's a constant source of frustration for me, and I'm always wondering how much it's my facial expressions being weird, and how much it's other people lacking empathy.


Day 109:
30 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

Day 110:
37 minutes L-R, Fascination de Stephenie Meyer, French audio/English text, 23 pages
1 hour reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

[Lianne]

Day 111:
30 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

Day 112:
10 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs
18 minutes watching Peppa Pig
5 minutes reading Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours

Funny thing about the 365 Day Challenge: when I only do 30 minutes of French one day, I feel like I've been dreadfully lazy. How my standards have changed!

I started a second book only so that I could have one on my Kobo. The reason for this is that there have been several nights when I've realised close to bed time that I haven't done my French yet, and then I read my French book in bed. However, if my partner is also in bed at that time, I'm not allowed to read with a light. I can only read my Kobo Glo. So there have been a couple of nights when I've had to go read on the couch for half an hour when I really just want to be in bed. So, I got a French ebook! Problem solved! I looked for something on Project Gutenberg, and wasn't feeling very optimistic; I didn't really want to jump from YA into 150-year-old French novels. But then I remembered that Jules Verne was French and I've read Around the World in 80 Days and loved it! So I went with that. I'm curious to see how difficult I find it.

[Lianne]

Day 113:
30 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

Day 114:
30 minutes practicing verb conjugations
10 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

Day 115:
30 minutes reading La vie compliquée de Léa Olivier: Rumeurs

Day 116:
18 minutes watching Peppa Pig
22 minutes watching Full House

I tried an episode of Full House in French. I've been rewatching the series all the way through, and figured if I could switch to watching it in French that would be a bonus. And I figured it might be good for sort of simple, conversational French. But I don't know. It was pretty weird seeing a show so deeply connected with my childhood with the wrong voices.

[Lianne]

My favourite twice-a-year used book sale is on now! In addition to my usual stack of kids' books, YA, fantasy, and sci fi, I found a few goodies in the languages section! I picked up all 3 books in the French Bescherelle series: L'art de conjuguer, L'orthographe pour tous, and La grammaire pour tous. Now I do some series reading about French grammar, in French! Any tips on the best ways to use these books would be appreciated!

As a bonus, I picked up a couple things for my future language fun times. I got a teeny tiny little Collins Gem Français-Italien/Italiano-Francese dictionary! Perfect for when I start my French->Italian adventure next year! It doesn't have a lot of information in it; it could literally fit in a pocket. But that'll make it a nice quick reference, and maybe nice for word lists! I also got a little Berlitz Swedish-English/Engelsk-Svensk dictionary.

Hooray new books!!

[Adrianslont]

Hi Lianne. I look at your log occasionally because I’m learning French as well.

I just saw that you are a recent graduate from YA lit to Jules Verne. I’ve done most of my learning with audio so far but bought a kindle a few months ago and have been reading French translations of Sherlock Holmes stories recently and enjoying them even though I’ve previously thought they were not my sort of thing.

They have a reputation for being clearly written in English and I find the translations not too hard. And I like short stories in general.

There are several great things about them in terms of learning French. The stories, and the four novels, are available at wikisource. And a number of the stories are available as audiobooks on Spotify, so I listen, then read, then listen again.

Alice dan le pays des merveilles is likewise available at wikisource and Spotify.

Maybe those might appeal to you after Around the World.

[PeterMollenburg]

Hooray new books!!

I don't know what your language-learning book collection looks like, but be warned, take it from me, it can soon get out of hand!

[Lianne]

Hi Lianne. I look at your log occasionally because I’m learning French as well.

I just saw that you are a recent graduate from YA lit to Jules Verne. I’ve done most of my learning with audio so far but bought a kindle a few months ago and have been reading French translations of Sherlock Holmes stories recently and enjoying them even though I’ve previously thought they were not my sort of thing.

They have a reputation for being clearly written in English and I find the translations not too hard. And I like short stories in general.

There are several great things about them in terms of learning French. The stories, and the four novels, are available at wikisource. And a number of the stories are available as audiobooks on Spotify, so I listen, then read, then listen again.

Alice dan le pays des merveilles is likewise available at wikisource and Spotify.

Maybe those might appeal to you after Around the World.

I wouldn't call myself a graduate! I've only read a few pages of Jules Verne so far, and am still actively reading YA. So, we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the recommendation! I've only read a little bit of Sherlock Holmes in English, but I honestly wouldn't have thought of them as being very simple, maybe just because they're a bit old-timey. But I'll give them a try in French sometime and see! I also love Alice in Wonderland (I own it in Esperanto too!).

Hooray new books!!

I don't know what your language-learning book collection looks like, but be warned, take it from me, it can soon get out of hand!

Ha! Oh, I know that all too well. I don't know if I've mentioned that I'm a library tech? And I also have a bit of a book hoarding problem. My (primarily English) book collection fills about 5 book cases, mostly double stacked. My language books aren't too out-of-hand, though I do have a cardboard box full of French books that I just don't have a shelf to spare for.

[Lianne]

Day 117:
10 minutes Memrise (French Nouns 1)
29 minutes watching Au service de la France

Day 118:
30 minutes Memrise (French Nouns 1)

I haven't really been using Memrise lately, and wanting to get back on that. I'm all caught up on my reviews now (mostly by doing the speed reviews, which I have mixed feelings about), and even learned some new words today. I've done the first 560 nouns now. Only 19917 nouns to go! I kid. Kind of.