Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
joecleland
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Languages: English (N), French (A1/A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 18#p147718
x 240

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Thu Sep 19, 2019 2:10 pm

StringerBell wrote:
joecleland wrote:Lastly, in terms of reading…I keep seeing posts that users state what really helps them solidify their learning is just input through reading. I know there are two approaches to this but wanted to know what you all thought?

A) Push through the reading and just absorb the material
B) Look up every word you don’t know before continuing

I am in the process of improving my vocabulary to the point where I can easily read extensively in Italian. I've been experimenting with various ways to get myself there, and so far the things that I like the most are doing a combination of the following:

1) Parallel reading: Read a chapter (or even a page) first in English, then read it in the T2 (French). I get the English versions of the books from my library so I don't have to waste the most money possible. Having read a section first in your native language makes guessing unknown words from context A LOT easier and it reduces some of the cognitive burden of trying to piece together what's happening.

2) R-L: This is listening to the audiobook in French while reading the English version, then on the second pass, listening to the audiobook in French again while reading the French book. I've found this is more useful at an intermediate level, but there's a monster thread on the old HTLAL forum about doing this from the beginning. You can do variations of this, like read a chapter in English, then read in French while listening to the French audiobook. I've done that in the past and really enjoyed it.

3) Reading on a kindle and using the electronic dictionary to tap on words.

I personally find intensive reading (looking up every unknown word) to be the most useful thing to do, but it's also the most laborious and results in me not wanting to read very often. So I try to mix it up and do intentive reading for a certain period of time, then switch to a different thing when I need a break. There's a balance between what's the most effective vs. what doesn't make me hate reading. A lot of people seem to make improvements with just doing extensive reading and pushing through all the unknowns, but that doesn't really work for me. I'm curious to see what you decide to do!

This is great advice. I actually just purchased - The Little Prince: A French/English Bilingual Reader from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0956721591/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think i will try your method. It comes with both French and English text side-by-side. It even comes with an MP3 CD. I will have to let you all know how this goes.
0 x
    Complete
  • Pimsleur French 1
  • Fluent Forever 625 Word List
  • Assimil NFWE - 77/113 Lessons (68%)
  • iTalki Conversations - 26 Hours

    Currently Using
    Lingoda Level A1 - 100 hours
  • A1.1 - 45/50 Hours Complete (90%)
  • A1.2 - 7/50 Hours Complete (14%)

User avatar
Carmody
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1747
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:00 am
Location: NYC, NY
Languages: English (N)
French (B1)
Language Log: http://tinyurl.com/zot7wrs
x 3395

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby Carmody » Thu Sep 19, 2019 2:45 pm

I love Podclub and went to soundcloud.com/podclub for Balades and all is fine but I can't find the transcripts in this new format. Can you tell me where to click to get them?

Thanks.
0 x

User avatar
siouxchief
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 8:36 am
Location: Ireland
Languages: Learning French
x 125

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby siouxchief » Wed Sep 25, 2019 11:00 am

Really interesting log, thanks. You seem to be progressing at a similar speed to me although I am doing Pimsleur and Assimil in parallel. I must sign up for italki asap to try to increase my automaticty when replying to people as I've never spoke to anyone. I'll also do Using French I think eventually. Just wondering do you shadow as I don't enjoy it and stopped?

Good luck with your studies.
1 x

User avatar
joecleland
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Languages: English (N), French (A1/A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 18#p147718
x 240

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Wed Sep 25, 2019 1:31 pm

siouxchief wrote:Really interesting log, thanks. You seem to be progressing at a similar speed to me although I am doing Pimsleur and Assimil in parallel. I must sign up for italki asap to try to increase my automaticty when replying to people as I've never spoke to anyone. I'll also do Using French I think eventually. Just wondering do you shadow as I don't enjoy it and stopped?


I do shadow along but what I do is a little different. I used to play the drums and when learning new beats I would slow down the tempo about half-time. I'm kind of doing the same thing for shadowing. Instead of paying for a software membership, I use an open source transcription tool called https://otranscribe.com/ to just replay the sentence as many times as needed. Since I have the mp3 Assimil NFWE it gives me each individual sentence in a separate audio file (which is awesome). If I am having trouble staying up to speed with the speaker, I slow it wayyy down and work my way faster than the normal spoken speed in Assimil. It kind of takes the headache away and distracts you from the annoyance that I was originally having shadowing- which sounds like why you stopped. I truly believe it has enhanced my ability to pronounce words more accurately than if I hadn't used it!
5 x
    Complete
  • Pimsleur French 1
  • Fluent Forever 625 Word List
  • Assimil NFWE - 77/113 Lessons (68%)
  • iTalki Conversations - 26 Hours

    Currently Using
    Lingoda Level A1 - 100 hours
  • A1.1 - 45/50 Hours Complete (90%)
  • A1.2 - 7/50 Hours Complete (14%)

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby PeterMollenburg » Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:34 pm

joecleland wrote:
siouxchief wrote:Really interesting log, thanks. You seem to be progressing at a similar speed to me although I am doing Pimsleur and Assimil in parallel. I must sign up for italki asap to try to increase my automaticty when replying to people as I've never spoke to anyone. I'll also do Using French I think eventually. Just wondering do you shadow as I don't enjoy it and stopped?


I do shadow along but what I do is a little different. I used to play the drums and when learning new beats I would slow down the tempo about half-time. I'm kind of doing the same thing for shadowing. Instead of paying for a software membership, I use an open source transcription tool called https://otranscribe.com/ to just replay the sentence as many times as needed. Since I have the mp3 Assimil NFWE it gives me each individual sentence in a separate audio file (which is awesome). If I am having trouble staying up to speed with the speaker, I slow it wayyy down and work my way faster than the normal spoken speed in Assimil. It kind of takes the headache away and distracts you from the annoyance that I was originally having shadowing- which sounds like why you stopped. I truly believe it has enhanced my ability to pronounce words more accurately than if I hadn't used it!


Sounds like a good technique Joe!

With Assimil and other course audio I did something similar in that I’d pause small sections of the audio and repeat/shadow those sections (making my way through the dialogue/audio) while slowing my voice down with trickier syllables/ succession of syllables until I was comfortable I could speed up my voice and stretch out or drop the breaks/pauses in the audio without damaging my pronunciation. This is why I value slower than native speech course audio. By the end of each lesson, putting in the work, I could shadow all the audio in a lesson without breaks and with pronunciation close to matching the original. To focus on developing good pronunciation from the outset of learning French and all along my French journey has led to great pronunciation today. Good work joecleland with your similar technique, I think it will serve you well!

My advice to anyone - don’t treat pronunciation like a separate skill, focusing on it should be synonymous with almost any use of the language (i even think correct pronunciation while reading silently).
3 x

User avatar
joecleland
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Languages: English (N), French (A1/A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 18#p147718
x 240

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Wed Sep 25, 2019 3:49 pm

Today is DAY 79 of learning French.

Later today I will be completing Assimil Lesson 45. I will also be around 395/625 words complete from Fluent Forever word list. I am really starting to notice a difference with material learned but this is probably from spending over an hour on every single lesson on top of an hour of reviewing previous sentences from ANKI every day. I have only taken a couple days off in just shy of 3 months. My off days still consist of a few hours of input from YouTube, podcasts, or Netflix and of course my hourly ANKI review. – Some off day, eh?

Going into this week’s iTalki lesson, I will start to use my ANKI deck a little more (with my tutor) to create some fun while learning sentence structure. I will use my Fluent Forever word deck from ANKI and let the deck throw a random word at me. I will then have to create a sentence on the fly with my instructor. My goal is to complete the first sentence and when I receive my next word, I will try to use both the 1st and 2nd word in one sentence. The overall goal will be to build up to 3 words in one sentence, but this may take some time!

I feel by doing this will allow my brain to really think about creating sentences rather than memorizing sentences from covered material in books. Also, I feel this will allow the iTalki sessions to be a little more productive. I still owe you guys a progress video, which I will get to soon. I purchased the bilingual reader (audio book) of Le Petit Prince. I still haven’t been able to crack the book yet, but I think I will start on this very soon.

As for now, I have 5 ½ months until I visit France. I will continue to grind away and share my experience with you. Thank you everyone for being so helpful/motivating through your responses.
4 x
    Complete
  • Pimsleur French 1
  • Fluent Forever 625 Word List
  • Assimil NFWE - 77/113 Lessons (68%)
  • iTalki Conversations - 26 Hours

    Currently Using
    Lingoda Level A1 - 100 hours
  • A1.1 - 45/50 Hours Complete (90%)
  • A1.2 - 7/50 Hours Complete (14%)

User avatar
joecleland
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Languages: English (N), French (A1/A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 18#p147718
x 240

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:11 pm

SIDE NOTE:

I took a self-assessment, listening comprehension test on Glossika - it gave me 30 sentences. I have no idea how in/accurate this is.

For A1 - 18/20 correct - (however, I knew one of the one's I got wrong but second guessed myself :roll: )

For A2 - 7/10 correct - They gave me 10 questions before stating this is a good level if wanting to start their program.

I only took this test as it was suggested before starting a 7 day free trial. I may mess around with this for the week and see how I like it. I'd be interested to see where they assess my listening after finishing the 113 lessons in Assimil NFWE.
3 x
    Complete
  • Pimsleur French 1
  • Fluent Forever 625 Word List
  • Assimil NFWE - 77/113 Lessons (68%)
  • iTalki Conversations - 26 Hours

    Currently Using
    Lingoda Level A1 - 100 hours
  • A1.1 - 45/50 Hours Complete (90%)
  • A1.2 - 7/50 Hours Complete (14%)

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
x 4824

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Sep 26, 2019 10:52 pm

One of the pleasures of this forum is folks like you joining to learn from the members but what happens is that we learn from you. :) This is good stuff, Joe.
3 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
joecleland
Yellow Belt
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:09 am
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Languages: English (N), French (A1/A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 18#p147718
x 240

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Fri Sep 27, 2019 10:40 pm

Today is DAY 81 of learning French.

I don't have much to post today. However, I made a progress video in French. (See below URL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI9K7hNGDRA&t=1s

There are definitely some mistakes made but some that I can hopefully learn from. I have finished Assimil Lesson 47 today (Active Only Approach), and I have learned around 415/625 most common words from the Fluent Forever word list.

Please take it easy on me with the video, for those that watch. I welcome feedback graciously. Please note - It takes a little courage to create something like this. 81 days ago, I didn't know a single word in French. I can say I have put a minimum of 1 hour a day but I am averaging between 2-3 hours every day, as of lately and have never taken a day off since I have started.
8 x
    Complete
  • Pimsleur French 1
  • Fluent Forever 625 Word List
  • Assimil NFWE - 77/113 Lessons (68%)
  • iTalki Conversations - 26 Hours

    Currently Using
    Lingoda Level A1 - 100 hours
  • A1.1 - 45/50 Hours Complete (90%)
  • A1.2 - 7/50 Hours Complete (14%)

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
x 4824

Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:05 pm

First, I understood everything you said in your Youtube broadcast.
Second, I admire your willingness to struggle "in public" with producing the language.
Third, the more you listen to Dix pour cent (or really any French) the better your pronunciation will become.
Keep it up!
4 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests