Re: PM’s French Re-entry into the Matrix - Phase 1: 500 Hours Extensive Reading

[Xenops]

Any luck yet? I expect to be invited to the wedding! Maybe if it ends up being in the Faeroe Islands, you could invite all of us from the forum, all expenses paid for by the Faeroese Government on the grounds of cultural expansation/exploration (whatever is best PC for their gov’t), as they will also be paying for all of our Faeroese language courses and we’ll be all speaking to each other in this language at the wedding. We’re going to need at least 6 months off work back home for the duration of this challenge too, so if they could foot the bill for that too? Great, ready everybody... 6 months full time Faeroese A0 to C2 begins... now! ? Edit: Also if you could kindly request from their government that these courses be all made in various base languages (i’ll take Faeroese from a French base thanks!).

Currently my matches are in France and Ireland, so...Let's have an Irish-learning spree!! I'll get in contact with the society responsible for endorsing Irish, because, you know, they need foreigners to learn Irish to keep their language alive, so of course they will pay us to learn it. If I end up in France, well, we should be grateful if they speak to us in French.

[PeterMollenburg]

Any luck yet? I expect to be invited to the wedding! Maybe if it ends up being in the Faeroe Islands, you could invite all of us from the forum, all expenses paid for by the Faeroese Government on the grounds of cultural expansation/exploration (whatever is best PC for their gov’t), as they will also be paying for all of our Faeroese language courses and we’ll be all speaking to each other in this language at the wedding. We’re going to need at least 6 months off work back home for the duration of this challenge too, so if they could foot the bill for that too? Great, ready everybody... 6 months full time Faeroese A0 to C2 begins... now! ? Edit: Also if you could kindly request from their government that these courses be all made in various base languages (i’ll take Faeroese from a French base thanks!).

Currently my matches are in France and Ireland, so...Let's have an Irish-learning spree!! I'll get in contact with the society responsible for endorsing Irish, because, you know, they need foreigners to learn Irish to keep their language alive, so of course they will pay us to learn it. If I end up in France, well, we should be grateful if they speak to us in French.

Could your French contact(s) happen to reside where a minority language is spoken? Surely we can convince the French government to ratify the European charter for minority and regional languages

[PeterMollenburg]

I've been very active here lately, too much so. Too much talking, too much turmoil, not enough studying.

Would you believe I went back to my master list of courses and started working through FSI's Introduction to French Phonology, the very first course on the list (the list I compiled goes from easiest to hardest)! Bloody idiot! I love the idea of working through all my courses, on a MASSIVE MISSION! But realistically, after talking to my wife again this evening and discussing our plans for the near-ish future (we often do this), it would be much better if I could get my ass into gear and at least sit the C1 in November, as next year I'm likely to have much less time. As for kayaking, I need to keep exercising and I'm certainly enjoying it, but dreaming of world titles, I think getting a little ahead of myself right now. Maybe I'll revisit at a later date. When I'm 78 and wonder if I can do it before I die? For French, this means, back to an efficient plan, one in which I'm not fiddling around with easy courses, one in which I'm using every moment I can to advance...

I also saw Fortheo had mentioned in Ani's log having taken the kwiziq placement test for French online. I couldn't resist! I scored C1, and areas that came up as problematic for me (aside from some dumb errors!), were how to use the verb 'devoir' to express 'should have', use of penser with the pronoun y was a little off, and I was a bit weak on a couple of relative pronouns.

So, back on track!

And since I don't want to create a challenge, can't join the 6WC as an advanced learner and am not keen on any other challenges, I've got my own. I've stated similar before, but here it is:

The earliest the oral test for the C1 would be is the 7th of November (2018). The written component on the 13th of Nov. I am considering sitting C2 at the same time. It's a stretch. There are no dates specified for C2 yet. So I'll draw it back to the start of the same week for the oral C1 exam. That makes it Monday the 5th of Nov. We'll see how I feel as the date approaches, as to whether I really will sit the C2. I don't want to flunk both because of greed. So starting tomorrow (24rd of Feb '18) through to and including Sunday 4th of Nov '18, there are 254 days.

My personal challenge is, I'm going to aim for 1000 hours of French in those 254 days to the C1 (and maybe C2) exam(s) in November 2018. Before I go to sleep tonight I will update what I've done so far this year (as I might watch something yet), and thus I can come back and see how much over 1000 hours I need to be by the end of this personal challenge. I'm going to continue to exercise regularly and work full time if not overtime at times and spend time with family and minding the kids while my wife works some days. Thus, I'll need to be efficient. And since I want every chance of passing at least C1, I will need to be efficient with every hour. Furthermore since I need to obtain an average of nearly four hours a day of French, I also need to find moments EVERYWHERE I can. I want to cease being sleep deprived and improve my health. Goodbye PM the nutty human being, hello PM, monsieur le cyborg, et à la fin, monsieur PM, le robot à 100%.

I've changed my log title. Suddenly this is real. Now let's get to it shall we?

Edit: I'm going to sleep shortly. As it stands I have done 129 hours and 59 minutes of study so far this year. So at the end of Sunday November the 4th, 2018, I will need to have obtained 1129 hours and 59 minutes or more to have achieved the objective. Then I will sit the exam(s).

In discussing the plans with my wife just now, and with future plans having just been discussed, we have agreed that past this/these exams in November, that I will reduce my daily desk study time from 3 hours to 90 minutes. I can't dillydally any longer, if I want to pass these exams in Nov, it's get on with it now or never potentially it won't happen for many years from now. If I make the hours, but don't pass it won't have been a failure. I certainly be content with that accomplishment.

I shall update my log periodically, perhaps fortnightly? to discuss my progress.

My study routine will consist of an aim of an aim of 3 hours of study per day at my desk. Extra time will need to come from commuting and other stolen/hidden moments.

For my desk study, to begin with (will modify as/when needed) a four hour rotational routine.

Each hour will contain a beginning 10 to 15 minutes of isolated vocabulary study. The remaining 45 to 50 minutes out of each hour of study will be made up of these four activities to begin with:
1. A challenging course (and when the time is right, exam-specific course/material).
2. Watching/Listening using Yabla initially, then Buffy with transcripts, then GLOSS and onto series when moving towards more extensive listening work (or I may rotate between intensive and extensive listening).
3. Intensive reading using Bien-dire and/or Think French.
4. Extensive reading.

[Fortheo]

You can do it PM. You're one of the few French learners who I remember seeing around for years now. That alone is a testament to your dedication.

How are your listening abilities these days? Do you do any type of listening exercises regularly, or do you mostly just listen in general in hopes that your abilities will improve?

My listening abilities still have some room to grow, so I'm looking around to see what others have done to get their listening to the next level.

[PeterMollenburg]

You can do it PM. You're one of the few French learners who I remember seeing around for years now. That alone is a testament to your dedication.

How are your listening abilities these days? Do you do any type of listening exercises regularly, or do you mostly just listen in general in hopes that your abilities will improve?

My listening abilities still have some room to grow, so I'm looking around to see what others have done to get their listening to the next level.

Thanks Fortheo for dropping by. My listening has improved substantially in the last 18 months. I can watch the news and understand 95% or more. Rather than odd words I could pick out in a sea of unknowns in the beginning 3-4 years back, which moved to full sentences perhaps 18 months back, it's now paragraphs and paragraphs of understanding. I watch the news perhaps for half an hour on TV every 3rd day on average at a guess, which I've done now for the duration of those 4 years. I still listen to RFI Journal en français facile (and sometimes read the transcripts), which I've been mainly using perhaps in the last 2 years at a guess, sometimes a lot, other times not using it for months while doing audio courses while commuting, then coming back to it later. Comprehension level pretty similar to TV news now. Some comedy podcasts remain very difficult to follow, particularly with multiple speakers. This is an area I need to work on - varying my podcasts more and upping the difficulty. Movies and series are at a guess around 75% comprehension, still somewhat challenging, but with perhaps a couple of series, I can see that improving dramatically. I listen to audio for 25 minutes on the way to work and 25 minutes on the way home (usually those RFI journal en fr facile podcasts). And I probably do that commute 5 days a week. If I get a chance at work I'll go over the transcripts, but that's relatively rare. I do the odd intensive listening practice with Yabla at home. So I do get a fair degree of listening practice, which is predominantly extensive - it's not uncommon for me to watch an episode of a series in the evening, perhaps 3 days a week recently, and following iguanamon's advice a couple months back, I turned off any subtitles where I could - that helped quite a bit, as I stopped reading and started listening! Like most people, I do find my mind wandering at times (especially with podcasts, without the visual cues of TV) and I find I have to almost try and hear every single word to stay focused, but it doesn't take long if I'm driving to work for example, for my mind to wander again. I'll keep working on that This is where getting sufficient rest and staying healthy and alert helps.

Most of my intensive listening has come from course work, while I've done a good degree of extensive listening from TV news, series/movies and podcasts.

Cavesa has written some really good posts throughout the forum with regards to listening. If you come across her posts while sifting through some threads on the topic of listening, she definitely has a lot of good insights on listening practice worth paying attention to.

[smallwhite]

I think you will end up averaging between 1.85 and 2.05 hours from tomorrow until the exam

[PeterMollenburg]

I think you will end up averaging between 1.85 and 2.05 hours from tomorrow until the exam

Nice, some counter measures to fire me up!

I think your comment is pretty safe and valid, given my past record(s). This time it's different! There are other factors weighing in and making this more of a must do, than a casual plodding, but hey, you could be right, but I'm going to give myself some positive self talk here and say I'm definitely going to prove you wrong!

[reineke]

I've been very active here lately, too much so. Too much talking, too much turmoil, not enough studying.

Would you believe I went back to my master list of courses and started working through FSI's Introduction to French Phonology, the very first course on the list (the list I compiled goes from easiest to hardest)! Bloody idiot! I love the idea of working through all my courses, on a MASSIVE MISSION! But realistically, after talking to my wife again this evening and discussing our plans for the near-ish future (we often do this), it would be much better if I could get my ass into gear and at least sit the C1 in November, as next year I'm likely to have much less time. As for kayaking, I need to keep exercising and I'm certainly enjoying it, but dreaming of world titles, I think getting a little ahead of myself right now. Maybe I'll revisit at a later date. When I'm 78 and wonder if I can do it before I die? For French, this means, back to an efficient plan, one in which I'm not fiddling around with easy courses, one in which I'm using every moment I can to advance...

I also saw Fortheo had mentioned in Ani's log having taken the kwiziq placement test for French online. I couldn't resist! I scored C1, and areas that came up as problematic for me (aside from some dumb errors!), were how to use the verb 'devoir' to express 'should have', use of penser with the pronoun y was a little off, and I was a bit weak on a couple of relative pronouns.

So, back on track!

And since I don't want to create a challenge, can't join the 6WC as an advanced learner and am not keen on any other challenges, I've got my own. I've stated similar before, but here it is:

The earliest the oral test for the C1 would be is the 7th of November (2018). The written component on the 13th of Nov. I am considering sitting C2 at the same time. It's a stretch. There are no dates specified for C2 yet. So I'll draw it back to the start of the same week for the oral C1 exam. That makes it Monday the 5th of Nov. We'll see how I feel as the date approaches, as to whether I really will sit the C2. I don't want to flunk both because of greed. So starting tomorrow (24rd of Feb '18) through to and including Sunday 4th of Nov '18, there are 254 days.

My personal challenge is, I'm going to aim for 1000 hours of French in those 254 days to the C1 (and maybe C2) exam(s) in November 2018. Before I go to sleep tonight I will update what I've done so far this year (as I might watch something yet), and thus I can come back and see how much over 1000 hours I need to be by the end of this personal challenge. I'm going to continue to exercise regularly and work full time if not overtime at times and spend time with family and minding the kids while my wife works some days. Thus, I'll need to be efficient. And since I want every chance of passing at least C1, I will need to be efficient with every hour. Furthermore since I need to obtain an average of nearly four hours a day of French, I also need to find moments EVERYWHERE I can. I want to cease being sleep deprived and improve my health. Goodbye PM the nutty human being, hello PM, monsieur le cyborg, et à la fin, monsieur PM, le robot à 100%.

I've changed my log title. Suddenly this is real. Now let's get to it shall we?

Edit: I'm going to sleep shortly. As it stands I have done 129 hours and 59 minutes of study so far this year. So at the end of Sunday November the 4th, 2018, I will need to have obtained 1129 hours and 59 minutes or more to have achieved the objective. Then I will sit the exam(s).

In discussing the plans with my wife just now, and with future plans having just been discussed, we have agreed that past this/these exams in November, that I will reduce my daily desk study time from 3 hours to 90 minutes. I can't dillydally any longer, if I want to pass these exams in Nov, it's get on with it now or never potentially it won't happen for many years from now. If I make the hours, but don't pass it won't have been a failure. I certainly be content with that accomplishment.

I shall update my log periodically, perhaps fortnightly? to discuss my progress.

My study routine will consist of an aim of an aim of 3 hours of study per day at my desk. Extra time will need to come from commuting and other stolen/hidden moments.

For my desk study, to begin with (will modify as/when needed) a four hour rotational routine.

Each hour will contain a beginning 10 to 15 minutes of isolated vocabulary study. The remaining 45 to 50 minutes out of each hour of study will be made up of these four activities to begin with:
1. A challenging course (and when the time is right, exam-specific course/material).
2. Watching/Listening using Yabla initially, then Buffy with transcripts, then GLOSS and onto series when moving towards more extensive listening work (or I may rotate between intensive and extensive listening).
3. Intensive reading using Bien-dire and/or Think French.
4. Extensive reading.

Is that in addition to around 5000 hours you already spent on French? You should consider hiring a tutor.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I see this as PM's "C1 without a tutor" challenge. There must be someone else on the forum who has sat a C1 exam under sub-optimal circumstances (e.g. no tutor, not living in the country where the language is spoken etc.).

It may not be the most efficient way to C1, but it probably can be done.

[smallwhite]

He doesn't need 6000 hours. He just happens to have 6000 hours. Real pity that kayak thing didn't come up before French did. Now it doesn't stand a chance because, what, FSI Phonology must be done and must be done now.