A language learners’ forum

Well, I guess I'm now in the same boat as those of you who would like to sit the exam in December of this year. My schedule just got moved up quite a bit, and not to my liking. I had wanted to sit the exam in April or May of 2018, but I see now that most test centers don't seem to be able to send out the diplôme until two to five months after the exam date! That's a real disappointment, especially when I think how the Goethe-Institut generally releases the Zertifikat to test-takers in three to ten days after the exam.

I must have something in hand by late May of next year so that I can include it with my university applications. I guess that means sitting the exam by the end of this year or early next year at the very latest. I've already had to put off applying for university programs just now by one whole year due to a bureaucratic snafu (e.g., credentials not being delivered to me within the promised time frame). I would hate to miss the deadline again next year by a hair's breadth due to a similar "don't call us, we'll call you, it's in the mail!" situation.

I will bring my whining to an end now. Know that I am stepping up my pace and hope to be able to sit some sort of exam in December. I wish everybody luck!

Thanks for the invite, PM, and apologies for the delay in joining. I've decided that if I don't get into my program, I'll take the C2 test at the end of the year. One of my italki teachers gave me a copy of the alter ego C1-C2 textbook, and I think I'll be taking a look at it from time to time simply to get back into the habit of doing QCMs, which I haven't really done since grad school econ, heh. I like gamifying the process and doing online grammar drill quiz things from time to time, so this might be a fun addition. I should probably properly look at the test anyway, since I have some materials downloaded that I've never really touched.

I've posted elsewhere on this forum that I was going to give myself a break after my interview and let myself consume non-French content; it's safe to say I'm basically back to exactly what I was doing before, though with slightly fewer hours of French and slightly more time-wasting online. I've also let myself sort of do whatever I want with French, so I've started a few books simultaneously instead of slogging through one before starting the next. I think that if I don't get in and therefore have another year-ish to work on my French at a distance, I'll probably start cutting down on hours of news/debates and filling that time with more intensive work on specific content, like writing more and speaking much, much more. I'm still desperately hoping I'll get in, though

I'm supposed to find out this week, so that'll determine my course of action. In the meantime, whatever the outcome, I've been thinking about launching an all-French blog, one I would actually keep up and write in, for real, unlike the one I was supposed to have been writing all along, ahem ahem, whistle whistle, and having that be a daily French activity. I still feel like I wobble between C1 and C2-level expression sometimes, so that would be a way to consistently keep working at it. Hmm

I found a bit of software which will produce IPA from text. Useful if you want to make anki cards from French words and have the IPA pronunciation guide included without having to look it up in a dictionary.

http://espeak.sourceforge.net/

whatiftheblog wrote:Thanks for the invite, PM, and apologies for the delay in joining. I've decided that if I don't get into my program, I'll take the C2 test at the end of the year......

Welcome whatiftheblog You're welcome. And speaking of welcome, you're indeed a welcome addition to this group as a very determined French learner on a C2 mission. I've added you on the first page members list. I will pop in your resources another time, as I am sorely in need of sleep right now, as it's a just a tad late here, and I have an early morning start tomorrow (at work I mean)... yuck! Hope you're learning heaps! Good luck!

Monsieur le PM

I've finally got round to posting here. Thanks to PM for setting up this group.

Introduction

I did French at school to a basic level, but being from the UK it really was basic. As a child living on the south coast we went to France a lot and I worked a summer in a Brasserie in Normandy when I was 19. I then forgot about French. In my early twenties I spent four and a half months in South America learning Spanish and that pretty much replaced what little French I had. I remember the next time I went to France trying to explain to the people I had worked with that I had forgotten French saying "j'ai aprendí espagnol".

Over the next ten years I did beginner courses in Russian and Italian at different times, but I never got anywhere. Then when my wife and I learnt that we were going to have a baby I decided that it would be cool if I could teach her another language. At that point I had a purpose and motivation to learn and it has kept my motivation ever since. The problem is, as it turns out, learning a language is actually really hard and it is taking a lot longer than I first (naively) thought. On the up side, it's quite addictive too and the more you understand the more interesting it gets.

My daughter is now almost three and she watches French cartoons and I speak to her in French from time to time. She's interested in it and asks what things are in French (although she did ask me a couple of days ago what "Bonjour" is in French!) I want to spend more time with her speaking French from about aged 3.

So, the major objective is C1+ in French. I intend to learn a bit of Polish on the side because there is a large Polish population where we live and it would be helpful at work. Once I'm in the Cs with my French I'm hoping to return to Spanish.

Plan

The objectives are:

• 500 hours audio
• 175 hours speaking
• 10,000 pages read
• 30,000 words written

With a weekly target of 20 hours.

I don't intend to set out precisely what I'm planning on doing because I think that will change over time, but it's clear to me that my weaknesses are:

• Speaking. Time for this is limited - I fit French in when I can, which is usually on short notice, so ITalki time is difficult to arrange. But getting more passive knowledge into my active vocabulary is a priority.
  
• Writing. I just have to be more disciplined.
  
• A lack of vocabulary is holding me back a bit in all areas. Specifically verbs and to a lesser extent adjectives.
  
• Specific grammar points keep causing issues.

Realistically I think it will take until the end of 2018, but it will take as long as it takes.

Bon courage à toutes et à tous, allons-y !

Jim wrote:I've finally got round to posting here...

Thanks for sharing your background Jim. Actually I found many similarities with my language past and motivation for learning French when reading your story. I hope your French learning is coming along well!

I hope everyone out there is still doing plenty of useful French learning....

This question may have been posed in the past and, if so, please accept my apologies for diverting your attention to something that has already been dealt with. I am looking for French-language Language Forums, similar to this one, and would greatly appreciate responses containing links to such forums. Merci à l'avance!

Speakeasy wrote:This question may have been posed in the past and, if so, please accept my apologies for diverting your attention to something that has already been dealt with. I am looking for French-language Language Forums, similar to this one, and would greatly appreciate responses containing links to such forums. Merci à l'avance!

There isn't any link there ???

rdearman wrote:

Speakeasy wrote:This question may have been posed in the past and, if so, please accept my apologies for diverting your attention to something that has already been dealt with. I am looking for French-language Language Forums, similar to this one, and would greatly appreciate responses containing links to such forums. Merci à l'avance!

There isn't any link there ???

He may have been underlining the fact that he's looking for a French equivalent of HTLAL/LLORG. I've looked and unortunately the couple of forums I was able to find were as dead as HTLAL (minus the archives).

Merci d'avance sounds better.

Yet another "one of those times" when I thought that I had expressed myself clearly but, in reality, had left considerable room for doubt!

rdearman wrote:

Speakeasy wrote: ... similar to this one ...

There isn't any link there ???

reineke wrote: He may have been underlining the fact that he's looking for a French equivalent of HTLAL/LLORG. I've looked and unortunately the couple of forums I was able to find were as dead as HTLAL (minus the archives).

So then, with my apologies, "similar to this one" means "similar to -- this -- the Language-Learners' Forum." That is, I am looking for a language forum which functions in French. I presume that the vast majority of the participants would be native-speakers of French and that they would be more familiar with French-language-based materials such as Assimil, et cetera, than either the relatively few native-speakers of French who are members of this forum or those members of this forum for whom French is a second/studied language.

More specifically, I am trying to track down the audio recordings accompanying the "Assimil l'allemand des affaires" course that was published in 1979. The cassettes were sold under the title "Deutsch im Geschäftsleben." Sales of these items were rather lackluster and Assimil eventually ceased publication of them; my appeals to Assimil and my searches of the internet have been fruitless. In a final, desperate effort at locating the audio recordings, I am hoping "to cast a wider net" amongst a population whose members might have acquired these materials in the 1980's, preserved them, and well, you know ...

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Speakeasy wrote: ... Merci à l'avance!

reineke wrote: Merci d'avance sounds better.

Les deux se dissent et leur emploi n'est qu'une question de préférence.

EDITED:
Tinkering