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Gimmick
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Student

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Joined on 8/20/08

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Comments

Ah, the DELF. They only have two exams for it now, whereas in my day it used to be 4.

En tout cas, félicitations ! Entraîne-toi pour les prochaines épreuves.

I guess you mean the DELF and the DALF? Which 4 exams were they in the past?

Merci! Je vais passer le DELF A2 le lundi prochain (...mais ca serait plus difficile que l'A1...)

The DELF comprised the A1 through to 4, and the B1 through to 4. I'd finished the A2 of the DELF under the old system, and I was expected to go through several levels of exams.

But then the new system came along and after the A2, it was suddenly decided that I had basically the level of *current* B1 and I skipped right up to B2. One wonders how I did it with my poor concentration and poor oral comprehension, but I did get through it.

D'ailleurs, je tape sur PC et ce clavier n'a pas d'accents sauf l'accent aigu, donc je ne vais pas utiliser d'accents tant que j'utilise le PC. Oui certes, ce serait plus difficile que l'A1, c'est ca la progression, mais tant que tu utilises ce que t'as appris, il ne faut pas s'inquieter. Allez fonce !

Rather interesting! I wonder if the higher levels just got merged into DALF C1 / C2. On the other hand, when looking at the "estimated amount of time required to learn french", figures commonly quoted range from 1100 to 1400 hours, which seems like a suspiciously low time to learn a language up to the level spoken by a native.

Oui, tu as raison: il faut que l'A2 soit plus difficile que l'A1 sinon il n'y aurait jamais de progression. Pourtant, je ne pense pas que je fasse beacoup de progres (visiblement) envers A2, sauf la grammaire, parce qu'il semble que j'oublie plus de la moitie du vocabulaire que j'apprends chaque jour(nee?), et j'ai entendu que le vocabulaire est vraiment important pour les parties de production (oral, ecrits, etc.)...selon mon professeur, evidamment.

(...heh, j'ai verifie dans la dictionnaire au moins 6 fois en ecrivant ce paragraphe)

I can verify the time needed being around 1100 - 1400 hours, I have gotten there in less. It all depends on how one is taught really, but I relate with you when you said you consulted the dictionary X number of times. ?

(I removed the duplicates) Yeah, I'm currently doing an immersion course at the Alliance Francaise in this city which people say is one of the best in India, but it sometimes feels like I'm struggling to speak sentences (pausing, forgetting, etc.) even when I plan the entire sentence in my mind beforehand. It's not much of a surprise in that context that my reading and writing is far better than my listening and speaking, then; in addition, the "problem" with such courses is that it seems a bit detached from reality - the moment you leave the place or stop speaking French or whatever language you're supposed to be immersed in, it seems like you forget it because it's a separate part of the day or something, as if it's dependent on location rather than on anything else.

Je me debrouille quand meme - par exemple, je cherche les francais ou les francophones sur IRC quand je reviens a mon ordinateur. Mais ca n'ameliore que la comprehension et la production des ecrits, et pas l'autre. Puisqu'il n'y a pas de francophones autour de moi en realite (dehors l'Alliance) je ne sais pas comment ameliorer les parties d'orale.

(Et oui, selon moi, ca serait le cas au debut d'apprendre une langue, parce qu'on ne peut pas savoir ou traduire immediatement les mots - cette fois, j'ai consulte le dictionnaire 5 fois : "reviens", "ameliorer", "puisque", "dehors", "traduire"...je sais pas si je me les souviendrai plus tard)

The first part of the reply (in english) took about 2 minutes or so to write, typing included. The second part (in french), well, about 15 or more heh. Maybe I'm expecting too much too fast.

Well, to that I say: if you haven't set your PS2 or prior console in French, do so now. I'm not sure if this applies for more recent consoles BUT — in some cases (cf. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, the entire Jak & Daxter trilogy), the game language, or at least the game's spoken language, changes with the system settings.

Try it. Not only would you be kept on your toes listening and reading, you'll also get a natural feel of the language and some of its expressions.

That, in large part, is how I got better. Also, watching Joueur du Grenier on YT. Then there's the obvious bit of speaking with Francophones; I'm in the Epic Battle Fantasy Discord server and they've got language specific channels, and I hang out with les frenchs fairly often.

Yeah, I figured as much - J'ai mis le francais sur le plupart des jeux auquels je joue sur mon portable (mais pas d'ailleurs parce que je ne joue pas beacoup sur PC actuellement, je suis devenu "casual") mais j'ai remarque que ca c'est un peu trop facile, et il ne me fait pas beacoup en realite - Most of the time an A1 level vocabulary is used in (casual) games, and for the rare cases where it uses higher level stuff, I'd have to search for the parts I don't understand, and it impedes playing the game quite a bit. Not to mention some translations seem a tad awful, atlhough I have no doubt that it gets better on PC than mobile.

Same! Got recommended JDG when starting out, and I now know how to swear in french :p These days on PC I mostly play games like osu! because of the (almost exclusively) french IRC channel it has (along with others, of course - which I ignore for the most part). Do you _speak_ speak with them or just type out stuff, by the way?

I type out stuff. There's no dedicated voice channel so it's all I can do.

Doesn't stop me typing as though I'm speaking, so it appears that I have been hesitating less with the language. ^_^

Ah, I see :p Good luck with your french as well! (although i imagine you'd not need it as much heh)

Solid scores, Congrats!I take it the DELF has something to do with French...?

Yeah, it's a certificate stating you've learnt up to X level in french. (Whether you've forgotten it entirely is a different matter since it has a lifetime validity and a lot can change in that time :P)

Pretty cool. :) A certificate you can get at a distance? Local stuff?

Not a distance based test, unfortunately - you have to go to a centre which offers those tests. Usually these centres would be affiliated in some way with the French embassy - the Alliance Francaise in my city sure is.

Interesting. Might have to check how it is over here some day.

Why your interest in French in particular btw? Planning on moving somewhere where that's the main lingo?

In the future, yeah most likely.

Cool. :)

Thanks :) it's day after tomorrow lol, I don't think i've prepared enough :<

Ey, one day to master the language! :D Ganbatte!

Arigato gozaimasu, senpai! :p