Hi everyone,
I was hoping to get some feedback on the approach I am taking to bring my French from a A2/B1 level up to a C1 level. Aiming to put around 300 hours in until end of Jan 2022.
Background
My partner is French-speaking and therefore I have been exposed to the language in varying degrees over the last 5-10 years. I have never studied formally, but slowly built up knowledge of the language over this time, which we think is borderline A2/B1. My speaking and listening are obviously much better than my writing and reading. I would like to pass a DELF C1 test in February next year.
My Opinion on Methodologies
I've reviewed as much as I can of the approaches put forward by the online language-learning community and where I stand at the moment can be summarized as follows:
- Language learning apps are of varying quality (duolingo < .... < linq, ... < busuu, speakly, ...) but all suffer from the same fundamental flaws:
- a cookie cutter approach which is not adapted to the particular difficulties of a student and also their interests, immersion in well chosen content + anki decks can therefore achieve superior results
- content in these apps is often somewhat inauthentic, be it the AI-generated audio snippets or the strange phrase usage
- nearly every app involves translating from one's native language to the target language, which is inefficient and is to the detriment of developing the ability to think in the other language. It also seems to me that since different languages say things in different ways (eg. Il fait froid vs It is cold or I miss you vs tu me manque), there is a fundamental difference in the approach which is obscured when one learns to translate phrases)
- Grammar is not learnt efficiently in the traditional way, it's more efficient to learn it as necessary in authentic contexts, although some grammar textbook review can be useful to identify areas for improvement
- There is a clear disconnect between the Fluent Forever (FF) and Refold (ideas of Krashen) over whether one should start speaking early and the use of Italki early in the process. I have personally sided with the FF method, particularly due to success stories like this one. Also my intuition tells me that phrases for my Anki deck (see next bullet) which come about because I wanted to say something and couldn't formulate properly or which my Italki tutor said and I didn't understand are going to expand my abilities most efficiently. These are ultimately the things I want to say!
- Anki + Sentence mining seems to me like the secret sauce of language learning. I have prior experience with SRS software (menemosyne in fact) and I know that anything that goes into that deck will be in my brain! I do however believe that how I formulate the cards and their quality (presence of images and authentic (NOT AI) audio) is what is going to drive the efficiency of this process - this is why I want feedback from the community.
The Approach I have Just Started
Italki Sessions
I am taking 5x1-hour Italki sessions a week centered around a Frequency dictionary and occasional grammar exercises. The sentences which I can not form correctly + grammar exercises + sentences formed with the words in the frequency dictionary are recorded as part of my sentence mining regime.
I try to use this approach: https://blog.fluent-forever.com/italki-tutor-guide/ but honestly we spend more time in english than I would like to at the moment and I plan to improve this.
Native Content
I am watching around an hour of French netflix material an evening (with french subtitles) and whilst I have not started this yet I am working on an approach to pull screenshots + audio + subtitle text of sentences which are just out of my reach, for addition to the sentence mining regime. By out of reach I mean maybe I know all the words and not the particular conjugation of the verb or everything except a single word. Matt from Refold calls these i+1, and I think this is a solid approach. I ultimately plan to rewatch the same Netflix shows having sentenced mined i+1 phrases to see if this then reveals new i+1 sentences.
During the day (i.e. 9am - 5pm) I do not have time for any significant study but I try to listen to News in Slow French or RFI Journal en Francais Facile during the dead space in my day (walking around or solo breaks). I currently don't sentence mine these, but I eventually plan to perhaps spend some time on weekends sentence mining these programs.
Since I live near France we often visiting family and therefore I have maybe 6 days a month where I can be in a fully French-speaking environment. I'm trying to write down as many sentences from this as I can.
Sentence Mining SRS Regime
I'm taking all the sentences identified above to make high-quality anki cards. At the moment I am aiming for all cards to have sound, but for the netflix cards a screenshot will also be used. I am mainly following the FF approach: https://blog.fluent-forever.com/italki-tutor-guide/ for cards and strictly avoiding the use of English on the cards.
At the moment I manage around 15 cards per weekday. I want to eventually get this up to 30/day including weekends (mainly by pulling the average up on weekends). I am aware this will lead to 1.5hr review sessions in the long run and I'm ok with this.
Conclusion + Next Steps
In the end I plan to take the C1 exam in February unless there is no hope. If this post sees some interest I will most certainly keep everyone updated on my progress. After this exam I plan to commence learning German for work reasons using the lessons-learned from this "experiment".
Thanks in advanced for any feedback.
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