I figure if I read one page a day, that in fifty days... I'll be approximating what you do in one day :PP
Heee. Well, I do have a lot of *time* on my hands, and I'm more committed to making this happen now, it's true. :)
I just know there's a good chance I'll never be this motivated to study French or German again, and if I get my reading skills to a reasonable place now, then I can hopefully *maintain* them such that I can use them for other things. Like especially in Classics, there's a bunch of stuff I want to read in German, but not badly enough to study German for. But with reading group, and gossip, and so forth, now's the time!
I think it is pretty standard reading curriculum for high school French
So I gather, but as you know, I went to an unacademic high school, and after I took all the French that was offered, we still weren't reading anything. We were still just doing textbook exercises consisting of individual sentences, Duolingo-style.
We did The Little Prince in eleventh-grade *English*. Not that we weren't also doing more complicated English prose, but we certainly were not in a position to read that in French. To the extent that I can make heads or tails of French for Frederician purposes, it's because I'm generally good at languages and picked some things up here and there since then, not because my high school French got me up to being able to read entire paragraphs. (Because why send your intellectually talented, ambitious, and frustrated daughter to decent schools, when you could tell her the quality of her education doesn't matter and send her to some of the lowest-ranked ones in two of the lowest-ranked states for education in the US. Though at least no one beat me for studying Latin! Poor Fritz.)
But now I have a method! And I have plans! But before then, I have a long reading list for German. Plus hopefully Yuletide. So you should have more than 50 days to practice. :)
Actually, what with Yuletide, I might actually not start French until next year. We'll see. I did tell Royal Patron we're not starting Greek as soon as I'd originally projected, what with me getting serious about German, then RMSE happening, possibly Yuletide, and hopefully French, lol.
We did The Little Prince in eleventh-grade *English*. Not that we weren't also doing more complicated English prose, but we certainly were not in a position to read that in French.
*blinks* Well, I'm glad you appended that note about doing more complicated English prose, because... what?? But still.
We were still just doing textbook exercises consisting of individual sentences, Duolingo-style.
Yeah, that's not right. My first high school had surprisingly good French, which meant that the second year when we walked in the teacher started talking to us in French and expecting us to respond in same, which we were all very upset by :) (But it turns out that this kind of on-the-fly practice is a really great way to force language learning!) My second high school had great everything except my history teacher, who was terrible (although there is evidence she used to be less bad and was going through some personal problems that year), and the French teacher wasn't nearly as good as my old one. We didn't read books in my third-year class (which first!French teacher would have made us do) but we did read paragraphs!
Now, what your class reminds me of is my Spanish class (at first high school). I don't think I have mentioned before that I took a year of Spanish, which is because I learned and retain next to zero from that class. My parents really wanted me to take Spanish, as it's such a useful language to know in the US, and as an adult living in SoCal I don't disagree with their assessment -- it would certainly be a practical language to know. (Though French was definitely the right choice in terms of life happiness -- useful in a wide range of literary, historical, and musical contexts! :D )
We spent every class, every day, doing the exercises from the book (which are much more repetitive than Duolingo) -- you know, I have this vague memory that we didn't even do them ourselves; I think the teacher told us the answer and we wrote it down -- and then we would be tested on exactly those exercises. This meant that it was much easier to memorize the exercises that one would be tested on than it was to actually learn the language. So I'd dutifully memorize the exercises, and then promptly forget them, and so I know no Spanish. (Well, I mean, living in SoCal, and having done French and Italian, I know enough to pick out words and such, but I can't understand or read as much as I could after even a semester of, say, Italian.)
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Re: Librarian update
Heee. Well, I do have a lot of *time* on my hands, and I'm more committed to making this happen now, it's true. :)
I just know there's a good chance I'll never be this motivated to study French or German again, and if I get my reading skills to a reasonable place now, then I can hopefully *maintain* them such that I can use them for other things. Like especially in Classics, there's a bunch of stuff I want to read in German, but not badly enough to study German for. But with reading group, and gossip, and so forth, now's the time!
I think it is pretty standard reading curriculum for high school French
So I gather, but as you know, I went to an unacademic high school, and after I took all the French that was offered, we still weren't reading anything. We were still just doing textbook exercises consisting of individual sentences, Duolingo-style.
We did The Little Prince in eleventh-grade *English*. Not that we weren't also doing more complicated English prose, but we certainly were not in a position to read that in French. To the extent that I can make heads or tails of French for Frederician purposes, it's because I'm generally good at languages and picked some things up here and there since then, not because my high school French got me up to being able to read entire paragraphs. (Because why send your intellectually talented, ambitious, and frustrated daughter to decent schools, when you could tell her the quality of her education doesn't matter and send her to some of the lowest-ranked ones in two of the lowest-ranked states for education in the US. Though at least no one beat me for studying Latin! Poor Fritz.)
But now I have a method! And I have plans! But before then, I have a long reading list for German. Plus hopefully Yuletide. So you should have more than 50 days to practice. :)
Actually, what with Yuletide, I might actually not start French until next year. We'll see. I did tell Royal Patron we're not starting Greek as soon as I'd originally projected, what with me getting serious about German, then RMSE happening, possibly Yuletide, and hopefully French, lol.
Language classes
*blinks* Well, I'm glad you appended that note about doing more complicated English prose, because... what?? But still.
We were still just doing textbook exercises consisting of individual sentences, Duolingo-style.
Yeah, that's not right. My first high school had surprisingly good French, which meant that the second year when we walked in the teacher started talking to us in French and expecting us to respond in same, which we were all very upset by :) (But it turns out that this kind of on-the-fly practice is a really great way to force language learning!) My second high school had great everything except my history teacher, who was terrible (although there is evidence she used to be less bad and was going through some personal problems that year), and the French teacher wasn't nearly as good as my old one. We didn't read books in my third-year class (which first!French teacher would have made us do) but we did read paragraphs!
Now, what your class reminds me of is my Spanish class (at first high school). I don't think I have mentioned before that I took a year of Spanish, which is because I learned and retain next to zero from that class. My parents really wanted me to take Spanish, as it's such a useful language to know in the US, and as an adult living in SoCal I don't disagree with their assessment -- it would certainly be a practical language to know. (Though French was definitely the right choice in terms of life happiness -- useful in a wide range of literary, historical, and musical contexts! :D )
We spent every class, every day, doing the exercises from the book (which are much more repetitive than Duolingo) -- you know, I have this vague memory that we didn't even do them ourselves; I think the teacher told us the answer and we wrote it down -- and then we would be tested on exactly those exercises. This meant that it was much easier to memorize the exercises that one would be tested on than it was to actually learn the language. So I'd dutifully memorize the exercises, and then promptly forget them, and so I know no Spanish. (Well, I mean, living in SoCal, and having done French and Italian, I know enough to pick out words and such, but I can't understand or read as much as I could after even a semester of, say, Italian.)