Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

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

Postby joecleland » Sat Sep 28, 2019 3:26 pm

joecleland wrote: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
MorkTheFiddle wrote: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!


Haha, Vous êtes trop gentil. I can read and understand better than I produce. Since speaking is my main objective I am willing to accept these struggles...example: how I said "today is day 81 years" in my video. After I watched this, I thought, "what is wrong with me?" mdr. I am used to introducing myself when practicing speaking french by saying 'j'ai 30 ans'. In future, I will be more conscious of even this simple mistake. Also, you're so right about watching the media and helping pronunciation. I have found a couple times already that I couldn't understand how one person would say a word (which is the first time I hear it), but when I hear other forms of media or another speaker it resonates better with me and sinks in. This ultimately allows me to re-position the way I 'attempt' to say the word correctly. :P
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby StringerBell » Sat Sep 28, 2019 5:50 pm

I think that making videos of stream-of-conscious talking is such a great idea - especially because as time goes on, you can compare your current abilities with what you were doing weeks, months, or even years ago. I wish I had done what you are doing when I first started learning Italian, but I didn't have the courage to record myself. When you get to a certain point, it's hard to tell if you're making progress or not, and having actual videos to compare seems like it would make that evaluation more objective.
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joecleland
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:55 am

Today is DAY 87 of learning French.

I have learned 450 words of Fluent Forever’s 625 Most Common words. I have also completed Lesson 51 of Assimil NFWE. Even though I have AND will continue to learn using the Active only approach, I have decided to cut my card review count down for ‘each deck’ to 30 review cards each day plus the new cards from my daily lessons. The cards were starting to pile up creating too much review time.

Although, I have no regrets during the first couple months doing this, it’s starting to take its toll on me. For that reason, I will allow myself one day a week to just relax and ‘enjoy’ the language how I want to; rather than be so regimented- i.e. binge watch TV with subtitles. I was in the military for 7 years, so I am very structured however my mind only knows one setting…all or nothing.

I finished my 7-day trial using Glossika. I have to say, I kind of like it. One thing I didn’t like is not understanding why things are translated as they were. There were a couple sentences that I was certain were typos, but who I am to second guess the content? My curious self wanted to find the reasoning behind the translations but only left me scratching my head. It seems to be a no hand holding approach. I think I would need to take those questions and discuss them with an iTalki tutor at the beginning of my weekly sessions.

As of right now, I think Glossika might be what I dive into after Assimil NFWE. I will probably wait until Feb-March to begin Assimil Using French.

I found there is a local meetup group in my community, but I am a little too intimidated to interact, or even go to listen at my current level. I know any exposure is great exposure. Also, the more you allow yourself to become uncomfortable in the language, the sooner you will feel comfortable. I am ignoring these sorts of comments with a bashful smile for the time being.

I am taking my language learning very seriously. For this reason, I have recently decided my first BIG milestone will be to work my way up to becoming B2 certified. I am not putting a time limit on this but will continue to work every single day for a minimum of 1-2 hours- like I have been. I’ve made my decision as I know I want to be ‘fluent’ and this a big step towards achieving this before the C level. There is a testing center in the same city I live in at a French Immersion School.

The school is for K-Grade 12, but they allow volunteering, etc. which I think would be pretty neat. I don’t think anything like that would be considered available unless you were the ‘real deal’. I would love to get to this point where I can help others with their journey. That’s way down on the other end of the binoculars for me though.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Oct 05, 2019 11:52 pm

joecleland wrote:T
Although, I have no regrets during the first couple months doing this, it’s starting to take its toll on me. For that reason, I will allow myself one day a week to just relax and ‘enjoy’ the language how I want to; rather than be so regimented- i.e. binge watch TV with subtitles. I was in the military for 7 years, so I am very structured however my mind only knows one setting…all or nothing.

If my experience is anything to go by, the day off will help. I think the brain needs time to rise, if you get my bread analogy. Good work!
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby siouxchief » Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:45 am

MorkTheFiddle wrote:
joecleland wrote:T
Although, I have no regrets during the first couple months doing this, it’s starting to take its toll on me. For that reason, I will allow myself one day a week to just relax and ‘enjoy’ the language how I want to; rather than be so regimented- i.e. binge watch TV with subtitles. I was in the military for 7 years, so I am very structured however my mind only knows one setting…all or nothing.

If my experience is anything to go by, the day off will help. I think the brain needs time to rise, if you get my bread analogy. Good work!


I agree, I'd even go further in saying that learning not to beat one's self up over missing the odd day or two is key to consistency. Beat yourself up too much and you risk not going back to it. Think of it as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Setting yourself a target is nice and can help but reassure yourself it's not the end of the world if you miss it by a month or two also.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Thu Oct 10, 2019 5:42 am

Solid advice Mork and Sioux!

Since it's past midnight I suppose it's technically DAY 94 of learning French!

After my previous post, I took 2 full days to relax. I hardly give myself one day, so 2 in a row felt like a vacation. I think it's just what I needed as I am now energized. I just completed Assimil Lesson 54. and will complete 55 today. I am also up to 487/625 words in my Fluent Forever book.

I've been wanting to start Le Petit Prince audio book, but I have been procrastinating. I think this might be something I will squeeze in a Chapter a day very soon. I'll read one Chapter in English first then in French to try to absorb the material better.

Side Note - I've been trying to find other logs where people have completed the Active Wave of Assimil just to see in terms of motivation, output, general feeling and overall consensus of the material. What I have been finding (only a few actual logs) is that a lot of people don't believe in the Active Wave or feel the material is the same in the second half of the book; just reworded. I'm curious for those that read this, what is your opinion on the topic? I admittingly am too stubborn to stop, but I am learning new words, grammar, and sentences with each new lesson.

ANKI - I feel like I am putting sooo much time adding each individual sentence from every lesson into Anki..Positive Note: I am remembering things. I think this is the point though, right? However, I feel my time could probably be better utilized if I had only taken words I think I would actually use or helpful sentences to learn word order. Instead I have memorized sentences about horse races and saying thinks like "it's useless to articulate like that, I'm deaf" LOL. I don't know when I will need to say something like that but I certainly have learned the words in appropriate context.

Music - I have been finding a bunch of songs that are just beats where people tend to talk over them like a techno-podcast lol. It sounds kind of weird, but I absolutely love it. I don't know why I felt the need to write this here, but I've been listening to stuff like that as background music all day while I work. Here is an example of what I am talking about: Bon Entendeur - Entrevue séduction (feat. Pierre Niney) https://youtu.be/WQTCzi-6aOQ.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby siouxchief » Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:32 pm

I'm on lesson 30 of Assimil French and have now written out the French of the first 4 which I'm finding useful.

I found that when I listen back to the lessons using audio alone the audio helps you remember the story in English so you think you know it in French but really you've just rembered some of it in English and your brain has filled in any blanks.

Writing them out without listening is a real test if you know every individual word I feel. I don't beat myself up too much with spelling once I get the gist and could have spoken it correctly.

In summary I think active phase is good and for what it's worth I don't do the fill in the blanks exercise but treat exercise 1 as a further listening test but don't re-revise it either. I do find I can listen to some exercises and know them all immediately and others I am missing 10 words. Very up and down.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:16 pm

joecleland wrote:Music - I have been finding a bunch of songs that are just beats where people tend to talk over them like a techno-podcast lol. It sounds kind of weird, but I absolutely love it. I don't know why I felt the need to write this here, but I've been listening to stuff like that as background music all day while I work. Here is an example of what I am talking about: Bon Entendeur - Entrevue séduction (feat. Pierre Niney) https://youtu.be/WQTCzi-6aOQ.
Good listening practice. Thanks.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby Cèid Donn » Sat Oct 12, 2019 7:31 pm

I've been trying to find other logs where people have completed the Active Wave of Assimil just to see in terms of motivation, output, general feeling and overall consensus of the material. What I have been finding (only a few actual logs) is that a lot of people don't believe in the Active Wave or feel the material is the same in the second half of the book; just reworded. I'm curious for those that read this, what is your opinion on the topic? I admittingly am too stubborn to stop, but I am learning new words, grammar, and sentences with each new lesson.


Well, I've been doing a little of this with Assimil Le Breton, and at least for this particular text, Lessons 50 and on are not rewordings of previous materials (if I understand what you are saying correctly). Rather at the end of each chapter it says "Deuxième vague : leçon ..." to refer you back to the corresponding lesson in the first half. At least with the way the Breton text is, this is simply to encourage the advancing learner to review earlier chapters, as far as I can tell, just will a little added challenge to it. On the preface of the book, the learner is advised to translate the dialogues from French to Breton and if taking it a step further, to write out the Breton translation. Seems basic enough, and I see no reason why such reiteration wouldn't beneficial. Perhaps boring but beneficial. I'm actually 1) translating the written French verbally and then 2) transcribing the Breton dialogue from the audio into my Breton notebook. I personally find that a bit more helpful for me.

I've never seen a copy of Assimil French so I don't know how similar or different that text is from the one I have for Breton.
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Re: Learning French (self-study) - Joe Cleland

Postby joecleland » Wed Oct 16, 2019 6:52 pm

Today is DAY 100 of learning French.

Firstly, I am very happy I made it to the 100 day mark with the same motivation as I started. In terms of progress, I have completed 58/113 lessons of Assimil NFWE and 544/625 words from Fluent Forever frequent word list. I will admit the Assimil lessons are kind of dragging on. In a previous post I mentioned I am too stubborn to not finish a program; so that's that. I do not think it's Assimil itself but I think it's taking each sentence from every lesson and translating it in ANKI, then doing review lessons before working on any lesson for that day. It is very time consuming and was initially used as a 'warm up' to get my mind into thinking French (with a review instead of jumping into a new lesson). Now, I categorize it as a 'burn out' before I even get started :lol:

Jokes aside, I am retaining information but feel maybe taking new words used in sentences (maybe 1-4 cards from each lesson) instead of the small stack I make each day. The problem is when I complete Assimil I will want to continue to review the entire book to just randomize sentences from lessons and throw them at me and feel I would short change myself by only adding the 1-4 cards from each lesson itself. I guess there are no shortcuts and you get what you put into it. When I feel like taking my mind off of the active learning or procrastinating, I am always looking up best ways to learn. I have found myself spending a TON of time just researching the best ways to learn ANY language (not just French) and watching/learning from others experiences. I also enjoying watching YouTubers speak French and talking about the culture in France and Quebec. After this sort of hypnotism, I eventually snap out of it and get back to studying- recharged.

I really envy those that state they learn languages from watching television. I'd like to put more focus on this. I feel like when I watch French series or movies (at this point) I get sucked into the English subtitles and realize I am just following along in my native language rather than truly focusing on the target language. For those that induce a heavy volume of audio, do you feel it's easier to train/learn using the subtitles in L1/L2/or no CC at all? I'm still in the 'Input Stage' so I don't expect to be further progressed than what I currently am. I'm just trying to understand this a little better as this is a trouble area for me.
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