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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 121 of 243 26 October 2012 at 5:56am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Thanks - I hadn't thought of that! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 122 of 243 15 November 2012 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Have been reading Jules Verne's Le Tour du monde en 80 jours / Around the World in 80 Days, aided by the
Project Gutenberg translation in English, and the Litteratureaudio.com free audiobook in French. A few unexpected discoveries: Phileas Fogg, instead of being an enthusiastic traveler as I had supposed, seemed largely indifferent to the countries through which he was speeding. Granted, he was on deadline, but - even when there was time to do so - didn't make any effort to explore. (Perhaps this may change later on in the book, but I somehow suspect not.)
There are also some nice touches of humour, occasionally with gentle digs at les Anglais as above, or with dry humour. In the following passage, Fogg is examining, with some consternation, his dish of "rabbit".
There are some unexpected Anglicisms, such as the "mylord" in the above extract. Edited to add: Also "gentleman", as in "Le Morning Chronicle assure que c'est un gentleman". And also a subplot I hadn't previously known of, involving the theft of fifty-thousand pounds from the Bank of England. Edited by songlines on 17 November 2012 at 5:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 123 of 243 20 November 2012 at 2:13am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Summary:
Flashcards: 86 minutes Assimil: 56 minutes TV: 31 minutes News/Documentaries: 274 minutes (4 hours, 34 minutes) Films/Dramas: 4 Films, 375 minutes (6 hours, 15 minutes) Reading: 66 pages. Jules Verne. Le Tour du monde en 80 jours. --------- The less said about two of the films, the better. Suffice to note that they belong to the genre a friend (rightly) disparages as "humour of humiliation". I did, however, enjoy a third film, Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz. All three main actors were excellent, even if their characters themselves were sometimes not particularly sympathetic. It was, for me, a beautiful "small" film - heartbreaking at times, but with a lot of emotional truth. But it's had a mixed reception, so I'd suggest that people read the reviews first, and decide for themselves if it's something they'd like to watch. (Though, of course, one person's heartbreak and emotional truth may be another person's shallow hipster self-absorption.) One thing we can agree on, though: Toronto's never looked so beautiful on film. With my return to watching the news, I also learned how much one's audio skills can degenerate if not maintained. I'd taped Radio-Canada's Téléjournal, and found, to my dismay, that there were some sections which I had to rewind and play three times before I understood what they were saying. - And this was with the closed captions, mind you. Just to complete my suffering and masochism, I also stayed and watched sections of Tout le monde en parle, but found - to my surprise! - that it wasn't the complete viewing disaster that it usually is for me. But that may be because one of the guests, Justin Trudeau, as a former drama teacher and current politician (he's in the running for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party), is probably trained to speak very clearly. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to follow all of the flirtatious by-play between author Grégoire Delacourt and one of the female guests. (Someone in the studio called out to them, "Get a room!" in amused response.) Tout le monde en parle The Wikipedia.fr entry describes Delacourt's writing style in La liste de mes envies as having been criticized for being "un peu trop simpliste". - In which case, that may be at my level. I've placed a hold on the library copy. (As an aside, does Grégoire Delacourt remind anyone else of Daniel Auteuil? - Especially around the mouth and lips...?) And, to mix things up a bit, I also watched some Swiss broadcasts from Radio Télévision Suisse. I've been late to start my Italian Assimil Experiment. This week...! Edited by songlines on 20 November 2012 at 5:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 124 of 243 11 December 2012 at 1:20am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Another infrequent Summary of my (also infrequent) language-learning efforts:
Assimil: 254 minutes of French; 67 pitiful minutes of Italian. Flashcards: 20 minutes (this should go up in the next few months, as I switch from commuting by bicycle to public transit; bit hard to do flashcard work while cycling). News: 137 minutes. A mix of RFI and Le Téléjournal on Radio-Canada. Other TV: 142 minutes. Swiss TV online. More of which later. Song lyrics: 95 minutes. Thanks to sctroyenne for the suggestion of the French concept album (by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Alain Boublil + Jean-Marc Natel (lyrics)) for Les Misérables. I was able to find a site with the lyrics and another with the music. An enjoyable change, as I don't usually listen to much music. Books: 111 pages of Jules Verne. Le Tour du monde en 80 jours, in print format. (Though I fell back on the online version for a week when I lost my copy of the book.) Occasionally aided by the Litterature Audio.com version for LR. 71 pages of The Book Thief, La voleuse de livres . I'm linking to the English version, as Google Books has a significant portion of the first part of the book available for previewing; It's one of my personal favourites (in English), and I strongly encourage people to read it. Beautiful writing, with some stylistically interesting elements (the book is in part narrated by Death); and quite moving. Some of you may remember my post several months ago about wishing to be emotionally touched by what I was reading, even when in French? - It's finally happened with this book! As an aside, although it's set in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and the events of the story are understandably a bit bleak and sad, it's not a depressing book. - Well worth reading, in whichever language you can manage. One aspect I particularly like is the depiction of the tender father-daughter relationship between Liesel (the eponymous "book thief") and her foster-father. It doesn't actually get mentioned that frequently, but -in my reading - runs as an unbreakable thread throughout the narrative. As an early example, Liesel regularly has nightmares, and Hans Hubermann takes to sleeping on a chair in her room to calm her when she wakes. Eventually, he begins reading to her (and teaching her how to read), from the only book she then owns: a Manual for Gravediggers. An unlikely choice of reading material perhaps, but love sometimes expresses itself in unlikely ways. Edited by songlines on 11 December 2012 at 1:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 125 of 243 11 December 2012 at 2:15am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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In addition to some news clips, the Swiss TV programme I've been watching is
Un hôtel à la maison, from www.rts.ch. It's a reality TV programme in which four couples from four different cantons of Switzerland (Vaud, Valais, Jura, and Neuchâtel) create bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Unlike much North-American style reality TV, the ambience here is supportive, rather than competitive. Experts are brought in to critique/advise on cuisine, decor, etc, but they're tactful and helpful, rather than doing Gordon Ramsay-style rants. Even some of the more - umm - eccentric ideas, such that of an owner-designed toilet which used a metal pail, car tyres, and sawdust, is presented with a minimum of actual or figurative eye-rolling. Very interesting, getting these glimpses of the Swiss countryside and Swiss homes, and hearing the accents. Some of the experts (such as a chef) aren't originally from Switzerland, so there are also French accents, and possibly others (which I can't identify). Tried listening for any mentions of "septante", "octante", etc (see other thread here on Htlal), but didn't hear any. I couldn't - not by a long shot - understand everything that was said, but the visuals (and replaying online) helped me to follow the "action". Some vocabulary from "Un Hôtel à la Maison", and TSR.ch: - l'Arc lémanique: area around Lake Geneva Wikipedia -la Suisse Romande: French-speaking West Switzerland. Wikipedia -un Valaisan: a resident of (surprise, surprise) the canton of Valais. -le (and presumably also "la") maraîchère: market gardener -les Templiers: Templars, the Knights Templar. - le menuisier: carpenter, joiner And, unusually, - Les préservatifs: food preservatives. I know this is usually "condoms" (!), and a French term for "food preservative" would "le conservateur alimentaire"; but I listened carefully, and on "Un hôtel..." they definitely used "préservatifs" in the context of organic food (I think it was referring to jams and spreads). Can someone confirm whether this usage is common is Switzerland? If memory serves, it may have been Marie-Laure, in Vaud, who was speaking. (Whenever I hear the name "Marie-Laure", I think of Mireille's younger sister in "French in Action". ) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 126 of 243 17 December 2012 at 6:15am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Will do a year-end summary after Christmas; the hope being that, while I'm home for the holidays and away from
all those distracting other books on my bookshelf, I'll be able to devote myself to the the few, carefully chosen French ones that will fit into my suitcase (and Air Canada's luggage allotment limits). And thereby perhaps bump the tally up from "affreux" to merely "pitoyable". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 127 of 243 17 December 2012 at 6:51am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Name change for my log reflects my TAC 2013 plans. As mentioned in the edits on page one of this thread, I'll
be on what's now confirmed as "Team Pax" for my French and Italian, and will start my German with Team Schnitzel when I've finished my Assimil Italian challenge. Hence: "The Peaceful Schnitzel". Well, it's unusual, anyway. Team Pax logs: Pax Team Thread: TAC 2013 Team Pax Adrean: Croissants and Panettone Anya: Anya's TAC 2013 Darustet: Log to be added later. Fezmond: Beginning French Flarioca: TAC 13 (Ita + cat)/ Assimil Garyb: Gary's TAC 2013 Geoffw: Geoffw's TAC 2013 log Gragazzo: Concentrazione Jinx: Jinx and Too Many Languages Kanewai: Kanewai and the Romantics Kerrie: Team Divan Nebun Pax Mir LittleBoy: Rob's Log '13 Margh19: Margh19 TAC 2013 Quique: French 22 Years Later Rout: Rout TAC 2013 Sillygoose1: My Language Journey Sctroyenne: Adv Fre, Beg Spa & Irish Songlines: The Peaceful Schnitzel Tastyonions: 1,000 Hours of French Associate member: Solfrid Cristin. ---- Apologies for the wonky formatting; I think it's because I'm using Chrome as my browser. Edited by songlines on 29 January 2013 at 7:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 128 of 243 20 December 2012 at 10:56am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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The flight home was delayed for over an hour, but I was perhaps one of the few people in the departure lounge
smiling despite the delay: I had my copy of Le Petit Nicolas, and was able to spend the time re-reading and chuckling at his antics, all recounted with René Goscinny's dry wit. Assimil Experiment participants may particularly enjoy the story on page 60, in which Agnan, who fancies himself to have some English skills, tries to speak to George MacIntosh, a new (Anglophone) student. Upon hearing him, George laughs heartily at Agnan's efforts, tapping his forehead to indicate that he thinks Agnan is crazy. It turns out that Agnan is telling him, among other things, that his tailor is rich! A lot of the vocabulary is repeated through the dozen-plus stories in the book, and I suspect that the repetition also extends to the numerous other books in the series. I enriched my Quizlet sets with many additions relating to childhood concerns, especially - amusingly - vocab about getting into trouble. Herewith, a Petit Nicolas glossary of sorts: -au piquet (in school context) : in the corner (punishment at school) -avoir mauvais mine: to look unwell -a bêtise; les bêtises: foolishness nonsense, idiocy -le cafard; note also idiom from Assimil, "avoir le cafard": cockroach, roach (inf); note also idiom fr Assimil, "to be depressed" -le chou-chou de la maîtresse: "teacher's pet", teacher's favourite -une combine épatante: a marvelous ploy, a marvelous trick -se dissiper: to be inattentive -une éclaboussure: a smear, a splatter, splash. -embêter : to annoy, to bother, to hassle -se fâcher: to get cross, to get angry, to blow a fuse. -fichu (slang, inf): had it; is shot, as in "the bike's had it" -gronder: to tell off, to scold (inf, reprimand, rebuke -la gifle: a slap, a smack in the face -le guignol (note also character "Guignol" in puppet plays): a clown. -lâcher: to let go, to release -la maîtresse: school teacher (of young children); Note different meanings in other contexts, e.g. lover/mistress; dominatrice. -malin (adj): shrewd, cunning, clever, sly -se méfier: to be suspicious, to be wary -mon poussin (fam): my pet, my poppet, my honeybun -la noise; chercher noise: a quarrel, trouble, fight; to pick a fight. -le photographe: the photographer -la photographie: a photograph -la plumeau: feather duster -racler: to scrape -la récré, la récreation (fam): school recess -rigoler: to laugh, to joke, to kid (fam) -sale: dirty, scruffy. [note: salé is "salty"] -"sale mioche" (fam): horrible brat (literally, "dirty little kid") -le surveillant: (school) supervisor; also in other contexts: warden, warder. -la tache: the stain, the mark (also: freckle, blemish) -taquiner; se taquiner: to tease, to annoy; to tease each other -la tirelire: money box, piggy bank -le vaurien: good-for-nothing, little rascal Edited by songlines on 20 December 2012 at 7:04pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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