In order to progress we need to be able to not only acknowledge our progress but also realistically identify where we are lacking confidence.
I keep a list in my language learning journal of specific aspects of the language that I notice I need work on. Here are a few things that are currently on my list:
1. Geography - a couple days ago, my husband and I met a woman in the park. When she told us where she was from, we didn't know the place, she seemed surprised that we didn't know it, so it reminded me that we should work on some french and world geography understanding with our language helpers
2. Calendar term use - describing when things take place on a calendar or on a time-line, I understand this easily but still don't feel confident saying many of the terms
3. Time and date production - when I come across times and dates written I still think them in English, I need to work on producing these more complex words confidently
4. The subjunctive verb form
5. The conditional verb form
6. Ear training - continuing to drill "u" vs. "ou" and "ai" vs. "é" in our language sessions
7. Use of "chez"
8. Talking about emotions and expressing feelings of delight, surprise, regret, etc.
9. Always continuing to work on masculine and feminine agreement and classification of nouns
10. Continuing to work on intonation and speech rhythm
What are some of the things on your list?
Ahhh yes. 'u' vs 'ou' and 'ai' vs 'é'. I fondly remember my French Phonetics professor drilling the difference into our heads, telling us our ears were weak and we sounded ridiculous!
ReplyDeletepronouns! You think you've got them nailed no problem (especially since English and Dutch are so similar) then you find yourself saying 'in' where a native speaker would say 'on.' Pronouns are killers.
ReplyDeleteIbukun