Well here I am again. I'm no stranger to humility or is it humiliation? I make so many changes of plans, say so many crazy things, say that I'm quitting the forum and come back the same day so often. Am I a tad unstable?
Just make it easy and call me crazy
Anyway, here I am many years later after first beginning this thread, yet predictably asking myself similar questions - Can I? How long? What to study? Which level? Can it be done? Can I actually do it? bla bla bla.
To be fair to myself, yes I did pas the B2 a while ago now. I also had some major uphievals in my life with a potential moving to Saudi Arabia which never took place. However it did shake up my plans and do a lot to destroy my serious momentum. Although, really, I cannot blame the uphieval entirely for that, burn out and boredom were likely strong components as well.
I've returned to this thread so many times. The last time was last night. I'm so stubborn that I'm learning the lessons written amongst the wise posters here years later, very slowly indeed. Anyway, I feel this thread is worth posting in once again to perhaps potentially resurrect it (depending on interest out there), as it's not just useful for me, but for many others, as the thread indicates, who have been appreciative of the information contained within. I also want to post my latest study plan, almost as if the last 2 years have been sucked into a vaccuum, or as if the story written on a long tapestry could be folded over so that the last ~2 years disappears and the journey continues. Needless to say, I'm contemplating this C1/C2 task yet again.
Here's my latest routine, a rotation of four one hour blocks of study:
Hour one
15 minutes SRS
45 minutes INTENSIVE READING using:
* Think French
* Bien-dire
* maybe Science et Vie
* maybe Le Monde
Hour two
15 minutes of SRS
45 minutes of WATCHING using:
* Initially Buffy transcripts. Listening to episode content and pausing to refer to transcripts when listening comprehension fails. The idea is to do this until I let refer less and less to the transcripts and can watch the series on the fly. Thus this listening hour will commence with intensive listening and eventually become full hour long extensive listening of various series (the 15 min SRS would be eradicated eventually).
Hour three
15 minutes of SRS
45 minutes of a COURSE
*rotating between pertinent language courses at advanced level and DALF manuals. NO easy peasy lemon squeezy language courses, ONLY the MOST relevant language course content. Although I wanted to expand this hour out to two, I need to keep it at a minimum but useful amount of time, so as more time is spent on the other three focus areas in the other hour long study blocks.
examples of courses:
*To complete: Practise Makes Perfect: The French Subjunctive
*Production Écrite : Niveaux C1/C2
*Assimil Business French
*Réussir le Dalf : Niv C1/C2
*Dalf Tests complets corrigés
*CLE Vocab. Progressif du Français
*CLE Grammaire Progressive du Français
Hour four
one hour of EXTENSIVE READING.
I've not included writing YET. I intend to add it as 5th block as I build confidence and have a bit more of a framework to adhere to. I also intend on utilising a tutor perhaps once a week down the track.
Why now? Why not? Better late than never? I really truly feel like a broken record here, but hey at least I have progressed in my French in the last 2 years, even if it hasn't been that much. Next year I have other plans for languages, and to be quite frank, I'd really appreciate any opinions on whether or not I can make it to C2 in 6 months. I can probably safely say I'll get in 2 hours of study a day, although I'll be aiming for 3 or 4. When I say 'study', that means following of the above routine, there will be added reading to my children as usual, speaking with my children and watching some TV and listening to podcasts not mentioned in the above study routine. I'm likely to be able to reach 3 hours or more a day, but not all within the above routine (some within, some outside of it). Why not? Well, the above study routine is all about sitting down and focusing on dedicated deliberate study to move towards C2. All indications are that I cannot and will not achieve this by November 2019, but in theory, can I?
What will be challenging is that my family life has become busier, demands on my time outside of language learning have increased. Some days I just will not be able to get much done through no fault of my own. And next year the DALF format will change, so I'd like to imagine I could get this done in November 2019, also allowing me to focus on other things in 2020. Should I just sit the C2 and not care if I fail?
I know I've said it before, but such good information in this thread. If you're planning on sitting the DALF, another advanced language exam, or take a langauge from intermediate to advanced, then please take the time to read back through this thread, there really is a wealth of info from many people in the know.