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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 73 of 243 14 February 2012 at 7:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Have fallen by the wayside with my log posts, but fortunately haven't lagged quite as badly in my
language-learning. A quick summary of language-related activity since my last post: Finished the Tadokubot in 45th position, with a total of 294 pages read. Started the Six Week Challenge, with Mandarin as my "official" target language, but with plans to focus on my French instead. Did a brief Chinese Pod stint just to get off the absolute bottom of the leader board, and am currently at 9 hours 50 mins for my "total languages" tally. (Updated to correct: had typo in one of my tweets, and the Bot didn't count it.) Finished: L'Invention de Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. Le Secret de La Licorne, by Hergé Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge, by Hergé Still also reading: Seras-tu là? by Guillaume Musso Mais que lit Stephen Harper? by Yann Martel Harry Potter et la coupe de feu, by J.K. Rowling. Up to only the 60th lesson in Assimil; also having trouble disciplining myself to do the "second wave". Watched in French: -Un Jour, by Lone Scherfig. Charming leads; but the film is cinematically unchallenging. -Marie Antoinette, by Sofia Coppola. Amazing location shooting, with a frothy, confection-hued colour palette. (Think of Ladurée macarons.) I've admired both Coppola's and Kirsten Dunst's work, but hesitate to recommend this; a provocative interpretation of the historical events/personages, and musical choices, among other things. Filming at Versailles itself must have been quite an experience, though. (Impressive production design and art direction.) -Monsieur Lazhar, by Philippe Falardeau. (Mentioned previously; re-watched at the cinema with a friend). Edited by songlines on 14 February 2012 at 8:43am 2 persons have 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 74 of 243 14 February 2012 at 7:49am | IP Logged | ||
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L'Invention de Hugo Cabret, by Brian Sezlnick
http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/ I wanted to read this before going to watch Scorsese's film, and am glad to have done so. For those who aren't familiar with it, the book is an unusual hybrid: neither a conventional (for want of a better word) novel, nor a "graphic novel". The narrative is carried through both the illustrations and the text, each supporting and interweaving the other. Set in a 1930s Paris train station, its central protagonist is an orphaned boy, one of a long line of horologists, who takes on (in his uncle's stead) the task of maintaining the station clocks. Meanwhile, he tries to repair an automaton - one of two things left of his father's - all the while hiding from authorities who could send him to an orphanage. In his quest to repair the automaton, Hugo steals toy parts from an old toymaker, and is caught doing so; but is then himself tangled up with the toymaker's life in unpredictable and wondrous ways. A fascinating work, rich with diverse and sometimes surprising elements: childhood; the period between the wars; automata; the history of the early years of film-making, especially that of silent films; and Paris itself. Selznick celebrates the magic of cinema, and the power of art to connect like-minded spirits, whether years hence, or across generations. - Well worth reading, whether or not one's planning to watch Scorsese's Hugo. One side note: the margins in the book are generous, and a good third of the book is comprised of full (or double)-page illustrations. (I accordingly prorated my 6WC page count.) Call me shallow, but there's also something very satisfying about reading a thick, substantial book in a second language, and feeling that I'm whizzing through it. ("Reached page 100 already..."; "Now, 175..!") Of course, after I finished it in French, I went to the local big-box store, sat down with the English original, and finished that in a mere fraction of the time I'd taken to do so in French! Edited by songlines on 15 February 2012 at 6:57am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5948 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 75 of 243 15 February 2012 at 1:18am | IP Logged | ||
Wow, how perfectly and deliciously descriptive! 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 76 of 243 15 February 2012 at 4:03am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, Spanky. But to be perfectly honest (and fair to Coppola and her production team), the macarons themselves make an appearance in the film itself (though not in Ladurée box, bien sûr), and are also - if memory serves -mentioned as an inspiration in one of the DVD commentaries. 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 77 of 243 29 February 2012 at 5:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Summary for the past fortnight: Currently at 24 hours, 25 minutes for my French total, as recorded by
6WCBot. -News was a combination of Le Téléjournal Ontario, RFI, and France 24. -One quite interesting podcast from Le Service Protestant, on "le Christianisme social". (Perhaps more on this later.) Still: Harry Pottering, still on Guillaume Musso, and also Yann Martel. Still: Assimil-ing. Finished: Amours Fragile: Katarina, a bande-dessinée, by Jean-Michel Beuriot, & Philippe Richelle. I came across this series a few years ago, and was pleased to find this fourth instalment at the library. It is, I understand, quite well known in France. Set in the period before and during the Second World War, it follows the lives of a number of characters; some German, others French. Started (and recommending this for other "Romantics" at French A2/B1 CEFR levels): Read and Think French, a book and CD set. Not all of the articles in the book are on the CD, but - on the plus side - there are handy glossaries in the margins of each page, explaining the trickier vocab. - A tremendously handy time- saving feature! Articles include a range of news-magazine type topics, in the areas of: Culture, Voyages, Tradition, Célébration, Biographie, et Coutumes. Nothing too taxing, but still offering interesting glimpses into French culture and la francophonie. Sample topics: -The bustling markets of Senegal -Pastis, a traditional drink from Provence -The maple harvest of Quebec -Bises ou pas bises: To kiss or not to kiss? -Easter in France. (Though, for me, the best possible essay on Easter in France remains the greatly amusing one by David Sedaris, in his collection "Me Talk Pretty One Day": in which a class of French language learners, collectively without sufficient vocabulary, try to explain "les Pâques" to a Muslim classmate. ) The book's from the editors of Think French magazine. Compared to the $100 subscription fee for Think French online, this $20 book-plus-CD set, with approx. 100 two-page articles, seems much better value indeed. Or you might even be able to borrow it from your local public library, as I've done, which - for me - is best. Much as I find this useful, it's not the type of book which I'm likely to want re-read. Updated to add: I've realized that the Amazon link also allows you to preview (text) samples from the book. - Check it out! Edited by songlines on 29 February 2012 at 5:45pm 4 persons have 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 78 of 243 01 March 2012 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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For all website addresses below, please copy and paste any non-linking website addresses, removing extra
spaces inserted by the forum software. As mentioned above, one of the podcasts I listened to a couple of weeks ago was an interesting episode from the Service Protestant: http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-service-protestant-la-r elance-du-christianisme- social-2010-07-18.html (The audio for this archived sermon is no longer available online, but I still had it in my iTunes feed.) The pastor, Stéphane Lavignotte, is affiliated with "la Mission populaire évangélique de France"; and his sermon was on the "la relance du Christianisme social" (loosely translated as the "revival of Social Christianity"). I had been previously unaware of this movement, but it seems to be one which focuses on social justice issues. Fittingly, the music was also something of a departure from the usual Service Protestant round of hymns interspersed with classical music. This podcast included: La Butte Rouge http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Butte_rouge , an anti-war song popularized by Yves Montand (among others); Le chant des partisans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chant_des_Partisans which Wikipedia describes as "the most popular song of the Free French during World War Two" ( so much so that it was later a candidate for the French national anthem); a piece entitled "La nuit du 10 au 11 mai http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_68 ; and it closed with a Curt Smith cover of "On ira tous au paradis", which left me humming the refrain well after the song had faded out. I loved the fact that not only was much of the music appropriate to the topic of the sermon, but that many of the pieces also seemed so profoundly French, - A culturally enriching bonus to my linguistic diet. Which brings us to... Vocabulary: -la misère ouvrière: working class poverty -saper : to undermine (of course! "sappers" in the trenches during WW1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapper And, thanks to Wikipedia, we learn that it's derived from an archaic French word for "spade". ) -la tentation: temptation -mepriser: to despise, to scorn -assoiffé de paix: thirsty for peace -l'analphabétisme: illiteracy -en décalage avec une realité sociale: out of step with social reality -les militants: activists -les croyants: believers -le joug: the yoke -le péché: sin (noun). (Now, if fish could sin... ) -"manif" - short for "manifestation": demonstration -les échappatoires: loopholes (I keep thinking there should be an English word, "echap(p)atory" derived from this, used as in "his echap(p)atory manoeuvres were useless once he was audited by the tax authorities"; but the word seems to be a figment of my imagination.) -la louange: praise (noun) -la miséricorde: mercy (noun) . (And I've just realized the etymological connection with misericords in church pews: they were also known as "mercy seats". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misericord ) If anyone notices any mistakes in the vocab list above, please feel free to give me a shout. - Thanks! Edited to correct typo ("louange"). Edited by songlines on 03 March 2012 at 7:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 79 of 243 01 March 2012 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a great vocabulary list. I want to work some of those into my conversation!
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 80 of 243 02 March 2012 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, so do I! But seriously, one of the nice things about a list like this one is that the ecclesiastically-oriented words it it (e.g. praise, sin, mercy, believers, temptation) will be certain to pop up again if I continue listening to the Service Protestant. So the reading (or LR-ing) should get easier as I build my vocabulary. There are different authors/preachers for the sermons, so there's enough variety to stay interesting, but many of the same themes will continue to be explored, and often using the same key vocabulary. And, of course, you never know when social activism vocabulary will come in handy...! Though if you're learning "la manifestation", let's hope you don't also perforce learn "le gaz lacrymogène". [smile] Edited by songlines on 02 March 2012 at 7:25am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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