It’s been about two and a half years since I started learning French in earnest, albeit as a hobby.
What is your current level of competence?
At the moment, I have passed Level 2 of the French Proficiency Test (Diplôme d’Aptitude Pratique au Français). Unfortunately, I failed the second level in the first round.
「ヨーロッパ言語共通参照枠とのおよその対応関係」で言うと、A2「学習を継続中の者・初級者」のレベルで次の中級へとステップアップする直前といったところでしょう。
I think you’re certainly as good as you say you are here.
Understand commonly used sentences and expressions related to areas of direct relevance, such as very basic personal and family information, shopping, neighborhood, and work.
To the extent that it is simple and routine, I can respond to information exchange on familiar and routine matters.
I can explain in simple terms things about my background and surroundings and areas of direct need.
It seems that I still need to work hard before I can say that I am at an intermediate level.
Current Study Method: Daily Edition
As of March 2017, I wake up at 5:30am almost every weekday morning and leave home before 6am. Partly to avoid the commuter rush.
- 平日は毎朝、Day One2にフランス語日記を書く。まず駅に着くまでに何を書くのかを実際に話しながら考える。そして電車の中で実際に話した内容を書く。
- 平日は毎朝、Journal en français facileを10分間しっかりと聴く。その後transcriptionを見ながらわからない用語などを調べて意味をしっかり理解する。
- 気になる単語、わからない単語、覚えたい単語は、Mac/iPhoneのメモ帳に記録して覚えようと心がける。5回以上その単語を入力して、より覚えるよう心がける。
- 気になる単語の一部は自作のフランス語対策ボットのデータベースに入力する。
My daily diary has been going on without any setbacks.
I don’t think I’ve made much progress in terms of what I write, but I do think I’ve gotten faster at writing.
And the twitter bot I made last year is running smoothly. There are still some spelling mistakes, but I think it’s much better than before. I found that I was already tweeting more than my main account.
The way to create it is the same as the most beautiful village in France twitter bot that was already running. The trick is to tweet randomly from a new MySQL database.
Current study method: Online conversation section
I’m gradually getting used to the French language and my study efficiency has improved, so I think the amount of study and study time has increased a lot. It’s been a year since I started taking French lessons at Cafetalk. Since last October, I’ve changed my lessons from 40 minutes to 50 minutes, and I try to have a free talk for about 15 minutes almost every time. I try to think about what I’m going to talk about beforehand because it’s hard to improvise every time.
You made the right choice with the lunch break & car share! I was able to continue for one year. We hope to continue in this format for the foreseeable future.
French game “Undertale” in a game
By the way, independent study and lessons alone can be tiring, so I’ve adopted this way of studying.
一部の間では話題沸騰中のUNDERTALEというPCゲームです。原作は英語ですが、各言語に翻訳できる非公式のパッチがあるため、楽しみながらフランス語を学ぶよい機会と思い、フランス語パッチを入れてフランス語プレイしていました。
楽しみながら、といってもやっぱり慣用句も多く辞書を常に調べながらのプレイでかなり「ホネ」が折れました。
I completed the first game the day before, but it was all in French, so I’m playing it again. For the second time, I decided to play it again with the Japanese patch, just to make sure I understood it well. Well, I dare not say much about it. I don’t dare to say too much about it, but I hope you’ll give it a try.
In addition, I tried to play Final Fantasy XV in French, but I failed. I can still manage an event of this speed, though.
It was too hard for me to understand the menu screen abilities etc.
I’m still overwhelmingly not good enough. I think you have to be quite advanced to make it difficult. I really felt that if I wanted to start playing in French, I would prefer a simpler game.
Future goals
Dream big! Here’s what I’m thinking.
- 2017年中に仏検2級に合格する。3年以内に仏検準1級に合格する。
- 2018年4月から通訳学校に通う
- 5年以内にフランス語サイトを立ち上げる
- 10年以内に仏検1級に合格する
- 仏検ボットデータベースをもとにテスト形式のアプリとかボットをつくる。可能なら機械学習とか実装する。
I feel like I’m going to have a lot on my plate and not be able to say what I want to say, but as always, I’m going to keep going at my own pace and not be in a hurry.
After all, academics haven’t changed much since college.
To be honest, I’ve always been bad at languages and had a complex about them. I still am. In fact, my English was really bad. But in the end, my ability to remember grammar, memorize words and phrases, and apply them is not so different from when I was in high school or university.
要は「やるかやらないか」、それだけなんだなあと思っています。年齢はおそらくほとんど関係がない。
However, I am also glad that I acquired the skills and tips to continue studying when I was young. Perhaps age has nothing to do with this either, but when I look around me, I don’t get the feeling that people who don’t have a strong habit of studying when they are young, especially when they are university students, are doing much lifelong learning. I was not a skinny learner, but I always think that it is important to have the experience of being interested in and enjoying studying, regardless of what you did.
明日からもさらなる精進！
