MISSION: Spend 3 days talking only in French till August 31st (B2 level) | Page 5 | My language mission and my log | Forum

What I did:

- learned 5 new words on memrise

What I did:

- learned 14 words on memrise

What I did:

- lesson 49 of Assimil

- learned 10 new words on memrise

What I did:

- practiced old words

- started lesson 1 of French in 4 weeks

What I did:

- practiced old words

- I was at a party with French people where I also talked a bit in French

Speaking like a Tarzan has some good sides. It can help in quick filtering people you want to spend time with. If somebody can not appreciate that you are trying speak and learn their native language, then they are probably not gonna be good friends. There is also nothing painful when you make some funny mistake, as long as you can laugh at it and make even bigger jokes out of it then your friends

What I did:

- I finished lesson 1 of French in 4 weeks

- practiced old words

No, I have no chance reaching it, as the goal was to spend 3 days talking only in French and being satisfied with the day.

I will write in 1-3 days my assessment of the mission, what I learned from it and what are my future plans.

What I did:

- learned 15 new words on memrise

Ok, so here is the summary I said I will write.

During these 3 months of learning I:

- practiced 36 lessons of French with Ease, Assimil. Currently at a lesson 51/113

- practiced 21 lessons of a course Blondynka na Językach. Currently at a lesson 36/125

- learned 379 words on memrise.com

I would estimate my current level of French as A2, though I have to admit, that I have never taken a test in any language, to evaluate it accordingly to this scale. My girlfriend's proficiency in Polish was evaluated in a school as B1, when she started her 1 year Erasmus program and I think that now she could be at a very strong B1 level if not B2. I certainly speak worse French than she does Polish, so that's were the conclusion about my level comes from.

I didn't achieve the goal of the mission. Actually I was not even close, but I learned some insights.

1. Tracking my progress on a forum gives me an extra motivation. I felt shameful, when writing posts about days in which I didn't learn anything. The difference in results is also clear. Before I was tracking myself, my progress was at least half of the one in this mission, but probably even slower. In those last 5 days since my mission ended I did just 1 lesson and I learned a few words on memrise. The positive influence of tracking is clear to me. 

2. Habits. Most of my actions and even thinking patterns repeat themselves every day, therefore I am my habits. My bad habits were a big obstacle for me in this mission and I couldn't change them. Going to bed late, not exercising much, socializing to little with French people, spending lots of time in front of computer, surfing on web, on entertainment and short term gratification or sometimes even on more productive thinks, but which aren't currently my main goal. All these things were definitely not helping me. Hell, I recently even noticed that when I sit bended in front of computer, I am probably doing something unproductive and feel numbed, while if I sit straight I suddenly feel more focused and sharp. Self discipline is a very scarce resource, especially if you don't train it. I need to work on my bad habits and change them gradually, as all of them are gonna screw my future endeavors, whether connected to learning a language or not.

3. Environment. I came into a conclusion that people I spend time with and general environment has a HUGE impact on my life. Trying to learn French in a tiny, dark, noisy, 11m2 flat, shared with a person I talk all the time in English and with an access to a computer with Internet connection, while having bad habits, is a poor choice of an environment. My environment was pulling me back, instead of pushing me to succeed. Now, let's imagine living in some community, where everybody speaks only French, everybody spends time learning their topic of choice, on set hours everyday, in well prepared rooms for learning. Breaks would consist of doing fun activities or sports and everybody would have an access to a teacher who would monitor progress of students and spend time helping with their problems. I think that clearly, in such an environment, it would be harder for me NOT to learn French then do. I don't know of any such dream opportunity, but there is plenty of space for improvement between those two environments. In future I will pay more attention to setting the right social and physical environment that supports my goals.

4. Motivation. I thought that, when I will arrive in Paris, it's gonna be impossible not to learn French and my motivation is gonna be high. Boy, was I wrong. I discovered that I don't really NEED to speak French in order to live here. Recently I even meet an American woman, that is living in Paris since 27 years and she still doesn't speak French! What if I was offered a 10 kg of gold if I would succeed in my mission? What if without being able to communicate in French, my life would be in danger? Would all of the problems with habits or environment be able to stop me from succeeding, if I were to die after 3 months, if I wouldn't be able to communicate at a fairly comfortable level? The best way to ensure that you will go through the fence is to throw your hat first. This mission involved punishment, if I wouldn't write a post in this topic everyday. I think that I should have included a punishment for not learning, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea of learning 2-5 hours every day for 90 days. Next time I will introduce some external negative and positive motivation that takes into account the work I put in.

I hope that somebody will find helpful for themselves, this summary and all my language log

I start a new mission soon