Zelda's 2019 French Log

[zjones]

Weekly Update Jan 26, 2019

French

I'm only updating for French this time. I finished Harry Potter Tome 4 and I'm currently reading and listening to L'Affaire des Corps sans Tête, a historical-fiction detective novel. My husband is playing Witcher 3 in French. I'm not sure if he put it in French for him or for me, but I'm super happy to get the French practice because I love watching him play games. There are subtitles so I can understand pretty much everything. If one of the characters goes off on a long-winded story that my husband can't follow, I paraphrase the story for him in English. It makes me feel so great to use my French to help him understand something!

One of my new LE partners is fantastic, he is serious about working on languages so he recommended scheduling our exchanges three times per week. So far we have had three full exchanges and they are great! He is very helpful and corrected some problems that I was surprised by (I say "J'adore" like "Je dors"... oops...).

(Warning: Next paragraph ended up being a rant.)

My new LE is willing to let me help him in English too! It can be frustrating to meet LEs who say that they want to work on English, but when it comes time to talk, they refuse to speak or write to me in English because their English "so bad". I totally understand where they're coming from, but when I'm being vulnerable and staying stupid things in French, it can be annoying to be treated like I'll judge them. The whole exchange usually falls apart at that point, because either they realize they didn't actually want an exchange, or I back off because I don't want to feel like I'm leeching off random people. I've had a couple lasting lopsided exchanges, but they never felt truly comfortable.

The hardest part about French right now is running into words that I don't know but I feel like I should know (i.e. "activité" can mean occupation, not just an activity). It's happening a lot more than normal because I'm branching out into new areas like news, education and commerce. Finding words like this is par for the course, but when I rush to rectify my lack of knowledge it's because I feel ashamed of myself. I'm working on adjusting my approach to this situation, because I know that beating myself up about it is not going to help me.

My main fear about the DELF, not necessarily about French, is that I struggle with open-ended or True/False exam questions. I tend to overly complicate answers when I take tests and I know that's not a good thing. I remember getting lots of True/False answers wrong as a child because I could almost always think of an exception to the "truth" being stated. In French it is even worse because the questions aren't always immediately clear. When I'm using my DELF prep book, I get answers wrong because I'm not being careful enough. I suppose the only thing I can do in this case is keep practicing, and take more time to read and understand the questions I'm being asked.

My goals for this week: Take an old DELF B1 test at home. Mimic the DELF B1 writing exercise every day (45 minutes, timed). Speak with LE partners regularly. Read a chapter of my French book every day.

[rdearman]

My new LE is willing to let me help him in English too! It can be frustrating to meet LEs who say that they want to work on English, but when it comes time to talk, they refuse to speak or write to me in English because their English "so bad".

I have a lady who does this. I love speaking with her. I'm happy to use English and it is her loss if she sticks to French. So I don't think I'm ripping her off, and as she gets more confident with me, she speaks a little more.

[Cavesa]

Weekly Update Jan 26, 2019

French

I'm only updating for French this time. I finished Harry Potter Tome 4 and I'm currently reading and listening to L'Affaire des Corps sans Tête, a historical-fiction detective novel. My husband is playing Witcher 3 in French. I'm not sure if he put it in French for him or for me, but I'm super happy to get the French practice because I love watching him play games. There are subtitles so I can understand pretty much everything. If one of the characters goes off on a long-winded story that my husband can't follow, I paraphrase the story for him in English. It makes me feel so great to use my French to help him understand something!

Sounds great! Do you like the French dubbing of the game?
One of the big advantages of the games over movies, in my opinion, is the fact that all the versions are dubbings, including the original one. That takes away some of the usual "but the original is always better" feelings.
I suppose that should we move abroad, I'll need to make my boyfriend learn through games too.

One of my new LE partners is fantastic, he is serious about working on languages so he recommended scheduling our exchanges three times per week. So far we have had three full exchanges and they are great! He is very helpful and corrected some problems that I was surprised by (I say "J'adore" like "Je dors"... oops...).

Your subconscious mind wants to say J'adore dormir

The hardest part about French right now is running into words that I don't know but I feel like I should know (i.e. "activité" can mean occupation, not just an activity). It's happening a lot more than normal because I'm branching out into new areas like news, education and commerce. Finding words like this is par for the course, but when I rush to rectify my lack of knowledge it's because I feel ashamed of myself. I'm working on adjusting my approach to this situation, because I know that beating myself up about it is not going to help me.

That's alright, no need to beat yourself up over this. It will improve a lot with tons of books and tv series and at the higher levels. Old words will be appearing with new meanings and uses all the time. And you are still at the beginning of this part of your path, you are not supposed to be perfect. You are doing fine and have achieved a lot. Knowing just some meanings of the word and being able to figure out the rest is very good for a B1/B2ish learner. There is no reason to be ashamed.

My main fear about the DELF, not necessarily about French, is that I struggle with open-ended or True/False exam questions. I tend to overly complicate answers when I take tests and I know that's not a good thing. I remember getting lots of True/False answers wrong as a child because I could almost always think of an exception to the "truth" being stated. In French it is even worse because the questions aren't always immediately clear. When I'm using my DELF prep book, I get answers wrong because I'm not being careful enough. I suppose the only thing I can do in this case is keep practicing, and take more time to read and understand the questions I'm being asked.

My goals for this week: Take an old DELF B1 test at home. Mimic the DELF B1 writing exercise every day (45 minutes, timed). Speak with LE partners regularly. Read a chapter of my French book every day.

I see. this is one of my main problem with multiple choice tests in medschool . They are often more like telepathy tests than the knowledge tests, as the way they are worded often leaves room for interpretation.

Yes, practice the model exams, that is the best thing you can do to learn how to "think properly" during the test. But as a bit of encouragement, I'd like to point out:
1.You are not supposed to be perfect. The DELF/DALF exams are supposed to be hard, getting a not perfect score doesn't mean you are a fraud. There is space for some mistakes. As I've observed, the americans tend to be more nervous about getting seeminly low scores, as the exams you are used to seem to not discriminate most people until they get a really high score, and obsessing whether you have 92 or 94 % makes sense in such a context. In a DELF, any pass is a pass result. The more points you get, the better. But should you get over 90%, I'd say it only means you should have taken a higher level. So, if you don't get over 80 (for example) , it will still be awesome and a huge achievement.
2.It is obvious you are gonna get lots of points elsewhere, even if you mess up something due to the specific logic of the question. Do your best, but don't despair because of this weekness
3.You were originally considering B2, weren't you? So B1 should leave you a lot of reserve space. Your "extra" experience will be useful and show during the exam. The people overall barely at B1 need those true/false questions more than you. I am honestly convinced that should you get few points in the written comprehension (I don't think you risk not passing the part), you will definitely make up for it in the productive skills.

Writing practice within the time limit is awesome!

You seem to be doing really well, keep going!

[zjones]

Do you like the French dubbing of [Witcher 3]?
One of the big advantages of the games over movies, in my opinion, is the fact that all the versions are dubbings, including the original one. That takes away some of the usual "but the original is always better" feelings.
I suppose that should we move abroad, I'll need to make my boyfriend learn through games too.

Yeah I do like the dubbing! But neither of us has played Witcher 3 in English. From what I remember, the game is based off a Polish story, so it was cool to see that Polish dubbing is available too.

I have also played Assassin's Creed in French, but I preferred playing the most recent game (Odyssey) in English. For the English version they got Greek natives for almost all voice actors, which I thought was really cool. The French voice actors didn't sound Greek -- or at least they didn't have a strong accent because I couldn't notice it.

That's alright, no need to beat yourself up over this. It will improve a lot with tons of books and tv series and at the higher levels. Old words will be appearing with new meanings and uses all the time. And you are still at the beginning of this part of your path, you are not supposed to be perfect. You are doing fine and have achieved a lot. Knowing just some meanings of the word and being able to figure out the rest is very good for a B1/B2ish learner. There is no reason to be ashamed.

I see. this is one of my main problem with multiple choice tests in medschool . They are often more like telepathy tests than the knowledge tests, as the way they are worded often leaves room for interpretation.

Yes, practice the model exams, that is the best thing you can do to learn how to "think properly" during the test. But as a bit of encouragement, I'd like to point out:
1.You are not supposed to be perfect. The DELF/DALF exams are supposed to be hard, getting a not perfect score doesn't mean you are a fraud. There is space for some mistakes. As I've observed, the americans tend to be more nervous about getting seeminly low scores, as the exams you are used to seem to not discriminate most people until they get a really high score, and obsessing whether you have 92 or 94 % makes sense in such a context. In a DELF, any pass is a pass result. The more points you get, the better. But should you get over 90%, I'd say it only means you should have taken a higher level. So, if you don't get over 80 (for example) , it will still be awesome and a huge achievement.
2.It is obvious you are gonna get lots of points elsewhere, even if you mess up something due to the specific logic of the question. Do your best, but don't despair because of this weekness
3.You were originally considering B2, weren't you? So B1 should leave you a lot of reserve space. Your "extra" experience will be useful and show during the exam. The people overall barely at B1 need those true/false questions more than you. I am honestly convinced that should you get few points in the written comprehension (I don't think you risk not passing the part), you will definitely make up for it in the productive skills.

Writing practice within the time limit is awesome!

You seem to be doing really well, keep going!

Thanks so much! Your encouragement makes me feel better. I don't have a lot of experience with exams because I was homeschooled, so part of my anxiety is just lack of knowledge about what an exam is like. You're right, I'm not really worried about passing but I'm worried about my score, because I feel like I should be between B1/B2 and for that reason I would feel like a failure if I got any lower than 80% on the B1. But I also know there are lots of factors to consider when thinking about the overall score, and test anxiety can make a score come out lower just due to nervous mistakes. So I'm trying to approach the B1 test with as much self-compassion as possible. I'm kind of amazed that I'm even willing to take this exam on my own prerogative since I've put off taking the SAT (for college entrance) for years. I'm putting the money down, practicing every day, and driving to Seattle just to take an exam that I have anxiety about! That in itself is an accomplishment for me.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen the evaluation grid for the DELF B1 production, but it makes a lot of room for "serious errors" and "obvious influence of the maternal language". I keep reminding myself of this. My DELF B1 prep book makes the desired answers seem much more complicated than what the examiners will actually expect from students at B1.

[Cavesa]

a polish story... pffft. A legendary polish high fantasy series!!! One of the most famous non anglophone fantasy series ever, if not the most famous one.

The dubbings are crazy, withthe original being English with an accent . But of course it would be ideal to play everything in the appropriate language. The Assassin's creed games must be the best in Italian, Greek, or Turkish. Actually, the Brotherhood was one of the pieces of motivation to start Italian. The Witcher in Polish is great, from what I've heard some bits online. Mafia is situated in the US, but the original Czech dubbing is great. But Kingdom Come is only in English, with Czech being present only in the names (with English pronunciation, which is sometimes hilarious), cursing, and songs.
.........................

I think you are doing really well, fighting your exam anxiety.

People tend to think a lot that the set of DELF/DALF exams is basically a continous stream and a B2 learner must get 95 in the B1 exam, a C1 learner 95 in the B2 exam, and a C2 learner in the C1 exam.

Not necessarily. The exams are different in form too, not only in the expected level. So yes, it is reasonable to expect a high score in a "too low level" exam, but not getting the full points doesn't mean you should not consider yourself half way to B2. I picked the C2 exam not only because I was told my speaking had been at that level already but also because I was finding its format in some ways easier than that of the C1 exam.

In the Cambridge exams for the English learners, you can get more levels in one. In the FCE, you get B2 as the standard result, but grade A means C1. In the CAE, the middle people aim for is C1, but you can get only B2 or also C2. This is not the case of the DELF/DALF exams. Your B1 score will tell you less than you think about your B2 skills.

So, there is not much reason to stress about this. Being at the top of or above the required level will be your advantage, it shouldn't be a self-torture tool

if it makes you feel any better: I felt like a failure after my DELF B2 ages ago. But I had 50 points! That's what "barely passing" means. And while it was affected by the testing center not sticking to the rules during my speaking exam, I still felt a bit like a fraud. But that passed. It would have sucked to get just 49 Whether you get 70 or 90 won't be that much of a difference. Let's not forget that one particular set of assignments could fit you much better than another one, and one day you might feel and perform better than at another time. Aiming for great scores is good but this is not a competitive exam, where every point means losing to a hundred other candidates.
..........
Yes, there is room for imperfection in the evaluation grids. Don't worry about it too much.

[zjones]

Your B1 score will tell you less than you think about your B2 skills. (my emphasis)

So, there is not much reason to stress about this. Being at the top of or above the required level will be your advantage, it shouldn't be a self-torture tool

if it makes you feel any better: I felt like a failure after my DELF B2 ages ago. But I had 50 points! That's what "barely passing" means. And while it was affected by the testing center not sticking to the rules during my speaking exam, I still felt a bit like a fraud. But that passed. It would have sucked to get just 49 Whether you get 70 or 90 won't be that much of a difference. Let's not forget that one particular set of assignments could fit you much better than another one, and one day you might feel and perform better than at another time. Aiming for great scores is good but this is not a competitive exam, where every point means losing to a hundred other candidates.

Yeah, I didn't even think about the fact that each exam differs. And of course your story does make me feel lots better! Especially knowing how extremely high your French skills are right now. My intention is to keep making progress with French over the long-term. I will start working toward the B2 as soon as I get out of the B1 exam, and I hope to take the B2 exam in December. I like having something definitive to work toward, because I always make the most progress when I am pushing myself to get somewhere.

[zjones]

I registered and bought the DELF B1 from L'Alliance Française Seattle, and the process of purchase and registration was terrible! The registration and purchase were two totally separate processes that were not well-linked -- it would be easy for someone who is not computer-literate to totally miss one or the other. I don't even know if my registration went through. I sent an email on Monday asking for confirmation, but have not heard anything.

Also, if you want your certificate mailed to you, you have to pay $10 in (domestic) postage fees.

[MamaPata]

Well I'm glad that it's useless everywhere!

Exciting times!

[zjones]

Well I'm glad that it's useless everywhere!

Exciting times!

Yep, 5 business days later, two emails sent asking for confirmation and... NOTHING. Ugh. I'm actually sad that other people have to deal with this, I was hoping it was just the Seattle website... It's leaving a very bad taste in my mouth about the Alliance Française. I should just call them, but I have phone anxiety so I'll put it off for at least another week.

[zjones]

Weekly Update Feb 2, 2019

Greek

I have 150 cards to review in Anki, and I've done about a dozen this week. I was surprised to see what I remembered and what I didn't. Over half of the cards I got wrong, but that's good for how long I've neglected Greek.

French

I work with my DELF prep book every day. I'm still struggling with the listening comprehension because I haven't figured out how to write something down at the same time I'm listening. Right now I'm trying to focus on remaining calm and alert when I'm listening, instead of panicking. I'm working on lots of RFI listening exercises too.

LE partners are a huge part of my life right now, I try to speak to at least one every day (through audio messages).

As for my goals for last week, I did not do a DELF B1 mock exam OR listen to a chapter of my book every day. It's not a big deal though because I've been doing a lot of other French things in the meantime. It's actually kind of crazy how much easier it is to produce French now. It feels natural and I'm surprised at the expressions I am able to remember.

So... I have not really been tracking for the Output challenge. I still have the recordings and the writing that I have done, but I have not counted the words (most of my writing is on paper, not a good idea...) or entered times in my spreadsheet. I've said it before, I'll say it again: tracking very quickly becomes overwhelming for me. I should switch to writing on my MacBook, but I like writing on paper because 1) I'll need to write by hand for the DELF, 2) writing by hand feels relaxing and therapeutic for me, and 3) I want to use my fountain pen and inks all the time.

One last thing I wanted to note. I took Hugo's 198 Expressions and Phrases to Understand Spoken French (a free ebook with audio) and split the audio in Audacity so I could create a whole Anki deck of common phrases. I didn't use every single expression but I think I used over a hundred. Since I'm translating from English > French in the deck, I'm hoping that a few of these phrases will start to creep into my everyday vocabulary when I am speaking with others. Examples of these phrases include: "Je me suis rendu compte que..." "Ça n'a rien à voir".

I also made a deck of common news vocabulary ("un attentat" "le parquet" "une fusillade", mostly sad stuff) from a list I found online.

Goals for this week: Work on the monologue part of the DELF with my teacher. Get feedback on my writing exercises. Finish finding/inventing stuff to stay about my past and future, for those inevitable questions where the examiner wants to know what my plans are for the next 5 years.