Ani's Log - French et le finnois

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Ani
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Ani's Log - French et le finnois

Postby Ani » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:08 pm

I have learned French on my own for a while now and I'd like to have a little more community feel and better tracking of progress.

By way of introduction, I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom of littles. I teach them French with FLL programs and would like to make the move into truly bilingual education in the coming years, although we are not there yet.

I also have found myself wanderlusting lately and may begin another language near the end of the year.. I have my eye on Russian, Japanese and Arabic. I'd really like to learn a new alphabet/way of writing. Or perhaps I'll refresh Italian (my heritage language). So many choices and so few hours in the day :)
Last edited by Ani on Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Ani
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:08 pm

Books Read in 2016:
Harry Potter à l'École des Sorciers
Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets
Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban
Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu
Harry Potter et l'Ordre du Phénix
+ (too many to count) children's books

TV Series/Movies 2016:
Jessica Jones saison 1
Homeland saisons 1-4
Orphelin Black saisons 1-2
Sense8
Ombline
Marseille
Charmed saison 1
.. lots of dessin animé avec mes enfants
+probably a bunch more that I have already forgotten, or tried and didn't like.

Completed Coursework 2016:
Grammaire Progressive du Français, débutant

Books in Progress:
Justine
Harry Potter et le Prince de sang-mêlé

TV in Progress:
: 1 / 8Marseille --intensive study
: 8 / 144Buffy contre les vampires
: 5 / 22 Charmed saison 2

Course Work in Progress:
: 19 / 23Vocabulaire Progressif du Français, débutant
: 0 / 55Grammaire Progressive du Français, intermédiaire
: 3 / 16Conjugaison Progressive du Français

I have joined the Output Challenge and I'll add my progress on that when I can.
Last edited by Ani on Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:22 am

I am 3 days (or is it 4? shoot) into Harry Potter 5 and I have only hit 20%. Well below my goal of 10%/day but it has been a very busy week, and will only be a busier weekend. Since I have never read the HP series in English, I am finding I really enjoy it. I read by kindle and I am finding a new word every few page clicks, which is often enough to feel useful but not so often as to be annoying. I have started highlighting interesting sentences or phrases too so that I can revisit them later along with the words I have looked up. Not sure what I will do with it at this point, but I am considering copying them all out and then just throwing them away. I really do need that kinesthetic action of writing things by hand and I think that has been my biggest weakness in learning so far. I have gone too high tech and everything is in one eyeball and out the other.

As an Orthodox Christian, this is our Holy Week so I am going to set HP aside until Monday and find some more suitable reading for the weekend, still in TL. I also need to prep a bunch of French lessons for the kids so I will do that from now through the weekend when I have a little free time. All of them are going through Tatou le Matou 1 (a repeat for my oldest) and my oldest is also doing Alex et Zoe. After this weekend, my plan is to finish HP5 and binge watch both seasons of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Can't say I absolutely love it so far, but they speak more quickly than other series I have been watching which makes my brain feel warm and fuzzy in a very happy sort of way. And it is kinda funny. Once those are out of the way I will go back to a better schedule of coursework.
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Wed May 04, 2016 7:59 am

So much for any of that plan. I better just stick to saying what I have done, rather than what I will do. I went almost 24 hours procrastinating on finding new reading material. I had only read in French about 15 minutes and I realized it would be my lowest day in a very very long time.. So I completely freaked out. Had this massive melt down about how terrible I am, how little I know, and how I'll never learn.. Then went and knocked out 100+ reviews on Memrise and listened to the first 2 weeks of Assimil NFWE in hopes of doing an active phase soon. I mostly had those lessons memorized after shadowing them to death a couple years ago. Over the next two days I copied out all the text by hand and wrote out the exercises. My spelling is atrocious and fact that it have done most of my writing on my phone with Swype hasn't helped. I need to be writing by hand.
.. Anyway.. I had ordered Grammaire Progressive du Français. The debutant books came on Monday. I didn't realize *exactly* how debutant they would be. Super super easy. I considered putting it on the shelf for my son for next year and just waiting for the intermediate books to arrive but the pages were so tempting and shiny. I figure I'll race the post man and see if I can finish the book before the next come. My DH looked over at me today and asked if I was doing the children's school work lol. Uhhm.. Kinda sorta?? :) I did 10 out of the 60 lessons today. I had a very serious allergic reaction on Sunday and I am still trying to recover my brain power so this is nice. I'll keep doing with this this week and I also want to grab there next couple weeks of Assimil and write them out before the weekend.
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Wed May 04, 2016 8:36 am

Oh and one more add on.. BEFORE the allergic reaction on Sunday. I read in French for about a minute in front of ~150 people. :shock: Woot Woot! Agape Vespers is a polyglot's dream :lol:
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Cavesa » Wed May 04, 2016 2:52 pm

Hi, welcome to the forum! (late but still).

I am excited with your log as I recognize a possible new member of our "French Fantasy Fans" comunnity in you!
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Rebecca » Wed May 04, 2016 6:26 pm

Hi Ani!

Thanks for stopping by my log earlier and commenting. :)

Wow - that is an impressive number of books you have read this year already along with lots of TV shows! Are you signed up for the Super Challenge too?

May I ask how long you have been learning French? How did you begin? Did you use mainly Assimil, or other things too?

I know exactly what you mean about often needing to write things by hand. I am quite Old School in that regard, and often prefer the lower tech option, though I don't often come across many people who share my preferences. :lol:

I have subscribed to your log and will enjoy following your progress! Good luck!
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: 13 / 100 French Super Challenge - 100 Films
: 0 / 5000 French Super Challenge - 100 Books

Super Challenge Log

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Ani
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Thu May 05, 2016 8:23 am

Cavesa wrote:Hi, welcome to the forum! (late but still).

I am excited with your log as I recognize a possible new member of our "French Fantasy Fans" comunnity in you!


Thanks for the welcome :) Is the French Fantasy Fans an active group on here somewhere? I don't think I have come across our but I'd love to see what people are reading and watching.
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Ani » Thu May 05, 2016 8:46 am

Can't figure out how to multi-quote from my phone so another post it is :)

Rebecca wrote:
Wow - that is an impressive number of books you have read this year already along with lots of TV shows! Are you signed up for the Super Challenge too?

May I ask how long you have been learning French? How did you begin? Did you use mainly Assimil, or other things


Thanks for stopping by! Although I had a French best friend in highschool, I didn't graduate with many more words then coucou! Bisou! Passoire and concombre..A few years ago I realized what a huge opportunity I had missed because I was shy and I started studying. I found HTAL and AJATT while trying to figure out how to even approach the challenge. I still have a warm fuzzy place in my heart for Katz but I spent a LOT of time listening to incomprehensible input that was still incomprehensible months later lol. HTLAL gave me the details I really needed. I started with Assimil but took a break after 50 lessons and managed to lose my CDs for a couple years. Then I jumped to Memrise for the first 1000 words in French course by Coralie (huge help!!) And then another Memrise course while watching oodles of cartoons. Started with TroTro and worked my way up to my little pony. After that I slowly started to read on Kindle and watch grown up TV.

I am not doing the super challenge but I did tadoku in January and I am doing the Output Challenge. I am not a fan on logging every little detail so i plan to only use them where I need some extra accountability or motivation and right now I am doing OK with the input.
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Re: Ani's French Log

Postby Cavesa » Thu May 05, 2016 10:21 am

Ani wrote: Is the French Fantasy Fans an active group on here somewhere?


We haven't got any thread (yet?) but there is definitely a circle of such enthusiasts, sharing our experience and reviews in the logs. But perhaps we would have enough people to form a non-anglophone fantasy fanclub, even though that wouldn't fit to FFF :-)
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