Postby sillygoose1 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:13 pm
French & Italian:
Double update since I'm doing the same exact thing and will be doing it again for my other languages in the very near future.
Besides casual podcast listening of Les Grandes Gueules, C dans l'air, Quotidien, and La Zanzara I've taken the focus off of book vocab and movie/TV maintenance for the moment.
I can read any given book with relatively high speed and even after my problems with Italian that made me give up for a while I just finished a book on WWI in like two days. My real vocabulary gaps are tools, household items, bathroom items, car, clothes, animals, and some foods. Up until now I've focused only on slang, dialects, and literary vocabulary and I've gravely neglected everyday items. I've neglected media that I deemed too easy because I put way too much importance on making out words in speech without realizing I could write a poem or essay with more ease than live in the French or Italian countryside for a week. I put so much focus on what I thought was the most important without realizing that the media I deemed too easy ie Cooking shows, podcasts, reality shows have the most casual speech that would help me better communicate with others without having to stoop to describing items. Up until yesterday I realized I didn't even know how to say paper towels. I always assumed it was just "papier de cuisine" but it's either "essuie-tout" or "papier absorbant". I didn't know the name of some tools and utensils like "sander" (ponceuse), "flakes" (I always just assumed it was morceaux or pepites, it's "copeaux" for shavings), food processor (robot menager), drying rack (egouttoir).
So what I've been doing is just browsing Amazon for hours on end to start. I've been reading reviews, looking up items, reading their descriptions. I've been going in the Office supplies, Bathroom appliances, Kitchen appliances, Back to school, Clothes, Car, everything. Learning how to better describe, learning more specific vocabulary. A lot of them I remember but they obviously fell out of use and got forgotten. I learned how to better word things. I shouldn't say learned because I'm still doing it. I just learned paper clip (trombone) which I always thought I could get by with "epingle" or "pince". But I don't want to just get by, I want native skills.
Besides Amazon, I've been looking up supermarkets in France and Italy and just browsing their sections learning food and everyday items. I've also been using Wordreference lists to learn really niche vocab like animal sounds. Although most of them I remember reading in fairy tales, there were still some I didn't know.
It really says a lot when I can understand and keep up with a show like Braquo, watch movies, or watch Dieudonne without much problems but that before yesterday I probably would be in trouble living the everyday life.
So my plan of action is to keep doing that. Just getting familiar with everything. When I go to a grocery store I'm going to quiz myself and keep a list of what I don't know then practice it online. I'm also going to start watching cooking shows and other shows with more casual conversations. I'm going to try to browse Amazon and market sites once a month for a few hours until everything is set in my head. My next language to go through this will be Spanish then German. Russian still has a ways to go.
German:
Series:
Finished Hadafing
Episode 1 Season 4 Der Tatortreiniger
Books:
More Verwirrungen..Torless..
Russian:
Series:
The Sniffer - season 1 done
2 x