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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5955 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes  Studies: French | Message 137 of 243 03 January 2013 at 6:40am | IP Logged | ||
Put me solidly down for Lauzon, on the basis of that first sentence. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5208 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 138 of 243 04 January 2013 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||
D'accord! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5208 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 139 of 243 04 January 2013 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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A new year, a new start, and an old quote: Two
mottoes to study by. I highly recommend that whole thread, starting with EMK's first post. Edited by songlines on 04 January 2013 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5792 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, FrenchC1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi | Message 140 of 243 04 January 2013 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Happy New Year and Good Luck!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5208 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 141 of 243 09 January 2013 at 8:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Update: I've now updated my 2012 summary, and filled in the place-holder for my 2013 outline, both on the
previous page of this thread. Edited by songlines on 09 January 2013 at 8:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5208 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 142 of 243 11 January 2013 at 6:32am | IP Logged | ||
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As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd like to have more French conversation this year, and have been browsing
through the Couchsurfing "Guests looking for a couch in your city" digests, keeping an eye open for Francophones. - I've already had one CS French-speaking guest this year, but - since he wasn't actually at home much - didn't get a lot of French practice in. Still, I've now discovered several gaps in my vocabulary: I know the words for "spoon", "fork", "knives", etc, but not the one for "cutlery" or "utensils". Ditto "plates, cups, bowls", but not "tableware". And sentences like, "The automatic switch-off for the kettle will only work if you cover the spout with a tea towel" are beyond me: I had to use a Boris Shekhtman technique and simplify it, "One must cover the spout like this. This automatic button does not work." An amusing discovery: the French term for "shower head" is "la pomme de douche" - apple of the shower! Vocab: -cutlery (table) - le couvert, les couverts, la coutellerie ("la coutellerie" can also refer to a cutlery works/factory.) -disposable cutlery - la coutellerie jetable -cutlery (more for kitchen utensils?) - l'ustensile (masc), l'ustensile de cuisine -tableware - la vaisselle -tea towel - le linge à vaisselle (Que - only?), le torchon à vaisselle (Fr) -cloth - le torchon -switch (as in a light switch) - le bouton, l'interrupteur (masc) And, my favourite: -shower-head: la pomme de douche. ------- Hospitality exchanges as a language-learning resource: Some of you may have read Benny the Irish Polyglot's post about Couchsurfing.org. I've been a member of three different hospitality exchange sites for several years now: Hospitality Club, Couchsurfing, and BeWelcome . I've pretty well abandoned HC because of its antiquated interface. Be Welcome was started as a more transparently-run site, by a core group of members who were unhappy with the direction of HC and CS; I hope it'll grow, but it's still very small, with many blank profiles so far. CS is thus the main hospitality exchange website that I use. These hospitality websites can be a good way of meeting native speakers of your target language. Some members also organize social events at pubs, coffee houses, etc. where you can meet other hosts and travelers. Or you can set your profile to offer "a drink or meal" only. Use common sense and sound safety precautions: - You don't have to host everyone who sends a request: I'll decline anyone who has an empty or almost empty profile, for example. And I'll ask for a photo if they don't have one on their profile. - On my own profile, I also warn guests that I'll follow the HC practice of asking to have a mutual viewing of identification (e.g. passport, driver's licence). - I have on occasion sent PMs to previous hosts to ask about prospective guests. - I do occasionally accept guests who have recently joined and have no references yet, because when I myself was starting out, many kind folks took a chance on hosting me. (But if they've been members, travelling, and couchsurfing for a while, and still have no references, that's a red flag!) But you can certainly increase your chances of having a happy (for both parties) visitor experience and a useful linguistic one, by doing the following: -State on your own profile that you welcome speakers of your target language(s). -Check prospective host/guest profiles for general compatibility e.g. tastes in music or books, types of social activities enjoyed, introvert/extrovert personality matches, professional/work backgrounds, and - of course - languages shared. -Look for some indication that prospective guests have actually read your profile (and feel they're compatible), and aren't just looking to freeload for free accommodation. The more you and your guest (or host) have in common, the easier it may be for you to hold conversations - and strike up a friendship - in your target language. Couchsurfing won't be for everyone, and it certainly has had its problems (see the Wikipedia article for some of them). I do have issues with some of the leadership/corporate decisions, but at the personal level, it's been a positive experience. I've had the good fortune to meet some wonderful people, and also been hosted by generous members. Some of their homes have been remarkably beautiful (a stellar one in that regard being a houseboat in Seattle); but regardless of architectural distinctions, they've always been warm and welcoming. And, as a bonus which I hope to extend, half-a-dozen of those host/guest CS encounters have been with French speakers..! Edited by songlines on 12 January 2013 at 4:24am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5208 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 143 of 243 15 January 2013 at 8:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Summary of French since Dec 31, 2012:
Reading: 199 pages, from: Bilbo, le Hobbit, Petit Nicolas, volumes 1 & 2 of collected editions, and Arthur Conan-Doyle "The Adventure of the Three Students". Flashcards: 5 minutes. Films: 115 minutes. Je l'aimais. With Daniel Auteuil and Marie-Josée Croze. Tally for the time also includes "extras" interview with Auteuil. And the aforementioned Couchsurfer visit, with a few minutes of French conversation. --------- Je l'aimais had some quite favourable "blurbs", but I'm not quite as keen about it as those reviewers apparently were. Auteuil and Croze are both good actors, but I was never quite convinced of the strength of their passion; I didn't understood what each character saw in the other, nor felt that they had that screen "chemistry". However, there were a few good scenes which give tantalizing glimpses of a better, stronger film. A couple of cultural and language-related quibbles: Croze's character (Mathilde) and Pierre (Auteuil) meet when she acts as his interpreter for a business meeting in Hong Kong. She goes beyond just interpreting, covering for him when he's asked a technical question which seems to stumps him. She suggests an answer for him, asking him, "...Isn't that right?" Would an interpreter, hired independently, really insert herself into the negotiations like that? Pierre also seems surprisingly clueless about HK business and cultural etiquette - forgetting his business cards, and casually accepting proffered ones with one hand. He does bring gifts for the HK people, but puts them, unwrapped and open, in a higgledy-piggledy pile on the negotiating table. I don't know whether these details are in Gavalda's novel. Perhaps they're a metaphor for how much Pierre is "at sea" in this foreign culture (cp with the emotional terrain that he enters when he falls in love), but for me, they just seemed to make those scenes inaccurate. While I'm grumbling, I've lately also been finding Captain Haddock rather irritating in On a marché sur la lune (and other titles); Someone should do an intervention and get him to an AA meeting, rather than having him bumbling about half-pissed half of the time. Edited by songlines on 15 January 2013 at 8:29am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6084 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 144 of 243 15 January 2013 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Are you already through "De Charybde en Scylla"? Maybe your 199 pages will incite me to finally make it through another chapter.
I got tired of Bilbo le hobbit and switched back to "Tout est sous contrôle" but I've read the first three chapters so often, stopping and starting over the past two years, that pages 16 through 18 have loosened from the spine and keep falling out every time I open the book. I guess it's time for me to start thinking about an iPad.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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