Feedback request: study priorities for year two of French

[davidtd]

Hi all,

Long-time forum reader, first-time poster.

I'm very interested in receiving feedback on how I have decided to structure my second year of learning French. I started in May 2018 and self-assess as having reached B1. My first year was very haphazard, but I did accomplish quite a bit and made what I feel is good progress. My goal is to reach B2 by the time I return to France around May 2020, so a little less than two years from now.

Here is what I accomplished during my first year of study (5/1/2018-5/1/2019)...

Grammar:
Duolingo (12260 XP); French In Action (23/56 chapters); Grammaire Progressive Du Français (Débutante and Intermédiaire)

Reading/Vocabulary:
Books (Le Pendentif, Voyage en France, Voyage à Marseille, Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, Harry Potter et la prisonnier d’Azkaban, Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu); LingQ (13994 known words, 219790 words read); Anki (FIA vocabulary, French Verbs, Harry Potter vocabulary, others); French In Action (23/56 chapters)

Listening:
Audiobooks (Le Pendentif, Voyage en France, Voyage à Marseille, Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets); LingQ (65.4 hours); YouTube (Des Racines, French Authentique, others); Netflix (A Very Secret Service, Dix Per Cent, others); French In Action (23/56 chapters)

Speaking:
Conversation with tutor (20 hours); France (7 weeks); Pronounce It Perfectly in French (2x)

And here is what I have developed for my second year (5/1/2019-5/1/2020). There is much more of a focus on listening.

Daily Dedicated Schedule:
Reading - 1.5 hours per day/10.5 hours per week
Listening - 3 hours per day/21 hours per week
Grammar - 30 minutes per day/3.4 hours per week
Vocabulary - 1 hour per day/7 hours per week
=42 hours per week

This is supplemented by what I call bonus time, which is time I can use to study French but that I can't "dedicate" like the hours above. This includes listening to French while I work (max 8 hours per week), studying French on afternoons off (max 15 hours per week), watching French TV at night with my partner who is also learning French (max 14 hours per week), and studying in bed before going to sleep (max 7 hours per week).

And this is what I'm doing...

Grammar:
I have entered all of the individual sentence drills from Schaum's Outline into Anki. I read a section, then I do the drills in Anki. I have 4460 cards for this so it's going to take a while.

Reading:
I do two types of reading. Most of my reading is on the Kindle or on LingQ, and I suppose I'm basically word and sentence mining. I highlight anything interesting, then I eventually go back and add the highlights into Anki (this is a slow process). I'm doing this currently with a podcast called French Voices (basically two people having a 20 minute conversation in French, http://frenchyourway.com.au/category/frenchvoices) whose transcript I port into LingQ, the Harry Potter series (I'm on book 5), and the French in Action textbook. When done with these I'd like to move on to Rowling's mystery series and French in Action textbook volume 2. I also do what I call pleasure reading, which is reading paperbacks without doing any highlighting or looking up. I've read one Murakami novel this way and it was very satisfying. I'm currently reading Maupin's Tales of the City (books 1-3), and hope to read Asimov's Foundation series next.

Vocabulary:
As mentioned above I've created an Anki deck for all of the highlights I make while reading. Every note is reversed to make two cards, so I currently have 2301 notes/4602 cards. I review 50 new cards per day. Every card consists of the English word or phrase, the French word or phrase, part of speech, gender, example sentence featuring word or phrase snipped from source, and the pronunciation from the wonderful people at Forvo. For French to English I'm currently only prompting with the audio, which is great fun.

Listening:
I'm currently listening to the French Voices podcast mentioned above. I listen, then I mark up the transcript in LingQ, then I listen again. I'm also listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks (I'm on book five), I watch series on Netflix (currently Call My Agent), I watch a lot of YouTube (Des racines et des ailes, stand-up comedy, documentaries, etc.), and I occasionally listen to French pop music. For Netflix and YouTube I'm using French subtitles but hope to wean off of those by the end of this year. I'm also watching the French in Action videos before I read the accompanying chapter in the textbook, then watching them again after.

Speaking and Writing:
I'm currently planning to wait until year 3 before really diving deep into these areas. That will give me a solid year of mainly speaking prep before my next time in France. For speaking I plan to use community tutors on iTalki, and for writing use the correction system at LingQ.

So that's my plan. I only work about 16 hours per week so I have some time to devote. Any feedback on whether you think this is a solid program, or whether you see room for improvement/changes/additions/subtractions, is most welcome.

Thank you!

David

[addylad]

I think you should be targeting B2 by the end of the year...

I started around April 2018, and took the B2 last month. I'm waiting for my results, but fairly confident. I didn't take the B1, so I can't compare the two, but I suggest you book your December exam now and work towards that in the next six months. You seem to have plenty of variety, just don't ever touch Duolingo again and use either RFI's Journal en français facile and TV5Monde for listening practice. The B2 listening exam is usually a radio broadcast of some description. Other than that, write a few letters to get used to the format. You seem to have the speaking and reading practice well covered. Don't wait till next year, start it all right now.

[lavengro]

For what it may be worth from my limited perspective, that's really great progress David, congratulations! I don't really have anything substantive to add, other than perhaps rethinking your decision to largely defer speaking and writing until the third year. You may find some divided opinion on the forum about the merits of that approach; for me, it is usually not until I try engaging in speaking and writing that I figure out what I do not yet know well.

Hi all,

My goal is to reach B2 by the time I return to France around May 2020, so a little less than two years from now.

I'm thinking there is a typo here - perhaps you intended either "May 2021" or "so a little less than one year from now"

Again, congratulations, that is really impressive progress.

[lusan]

Hi all,

Long-time forum reader, first-time poster.

I'm very interested in receiving feedback on how I have decided to structure my second year of learning French. I started in May 2018 and self-assess as having reached B1. My first year was very haphazard, but I did accomplish quite a bit and made what I feel is good progress. My goal is to reach B2 by the time I return to France around May 2020, so a little less than two years from now.

Here is what I accomplished during my first year of study (5/1/2018-5/1/2019)...

Grammar:
Duolingo (12260 XP); French In Action (23/56 chapters); Grammaire Progressive Du Français (Débutante and Intermédiaire)

Reading/Vocabulary:
Books (Le Pendentif, Voyage en France, Voyage à Marseille, Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, Harry Potter et la prisonnier d’Azkaban, Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu); LingQ (13994 known words, 219790 words read); Anki (FIA vocabulary, French Verbs, Harry Potter vocabulary, others); French In Action (23/56 chapters)

Listening:
Audiobooks (Le Pendentif, Voyage en France, Voyage à Marseille, Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers, Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets); LingQ (65.4 hours); YouTube (Des Racines, French Authentique, others); Netflix (A Very Secret Service, Dix Per Cent, others); French In Action (23/56 chapters)
.........

So that's my plan. I only work about 16 hours per week so I have some time to devote. Any feedback on whether you think this is a solid program, or whether you see room for improvement/changes/additions/subtractions, is most welcome.

Thank you!

David

No rest!? And me getting exhausted after 2 hrs of French! Actually 3: Anki 1, grammar 1, listening 1. This is enough for me to begin to understand TED Talks in French. You seem to be putting so many hours a day. Maybe I can get a way with 3 hours because I am a native Spanish speaker and french seems a Spanish dialect?!

I would get going with Italki as well as joining a French meetup group. I joined the local one and I get 1 hour of conversation every week with francophones.

Be careful with burn out.

[smallwhite]

My goal is to reach B2 by the time I return to France around May 2020

Long and detailed question from a diligent learner with a goal.
Helpful answers.

Then silence.

I wonder how OP is doing?

[rdearman]

I suspect the trip was cancelled.