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Team "Deuxième". French team thread.

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songlines
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 Message 97 of 232
05 February 2014 at 4:56am | IP Logged 
Kanewai : Any thoughts on which ot the options you might prefer?

Christianoo: Some interesting ideas. I wonder if it may be better - certainly for the beginner activities -
holding off till later in the year, when we've had a bit more study time under our belt? I myself would prefer
ones which focus more on the "fun" factor, rather than the "study" element. - But others might feel otherwise.

Jeffers: Yes, I like both of those options too. The "Word of the Week" should be easier to get running
on an impromptu basis, though. -After all, every one discovers new words fairly regularly, don't they? - But
you don't even have to choose a word discovered that same week. What about holding the "song" idea in
abeyance for a future month?

PeterMollenburg: As I understand it (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), the 6WC is meant
to spur language-learners on for a "big push" in a relatively short, concentrated period. Whereas the TAC is a
(one assumes less intense) push over the year. But if you're already pushing as hard as you can, and plan to
continue that at that pace over the TAC period, the 6WC would certainly be redundant.

Of course, not everyone who enters the 6WC is doing a TAC; and not everyone on a TAC team (or individual
TAC participant) does the 6WC either.

And getting back to our February challenge: What do you others on Deuxième think? - Enrdbrow, Evilado,
Iolanthe, Luke, Sizen, BonneVivante,
and Microsnout ?

Edited by songlines on 05 February 2014 at 5:15am

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BonneVivante
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 Message 98 of 232
05 February 2014 at 6:13am | IP Logged 
I'm not doing the 6WC for the same reason kanewai listed: I tend to get frustrated with the extra time and hassle in tracking and reporting. It reminds me of my days in law, when I had to track my time precisely (in 6 minute increments) for billing clients. Not a fun memory, and not something I want to insert into language learning. I will however be cheering on any of my teammates who find such things motivating! À chacun son goût, as they say.

I love the idea of a less formal mini-challenge. My favourites from those suggested are the word of the week idea and the song lyrics idea. Translating songs is actually something I already sometimes do and I think it's a great way to make yourself think about the flavour of meaning in each word.

Speaking of songs, I want to share a funny mixup I had this week. There's a song by the French singer Camille (whom I adore!) called 'Jolie bruine' and it's a marvellous song but I never really listened too closely to the lyrics...I always thought it was about a pretty brunette. Imagine my surprise when I came across the word 'bruine' in another context and realized she was singing about rain. *facepalm*

Thankfully I did not accidentally expose my mistake in front of any francophones. I saved it to expose here intentionally!
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Jeffers
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 Message 99 of 232
05 February 2014 at 12:24pm | IP Logged 
I'll kick off the word of the week, with a phrase I learned from Lego City Undercover:

Le coup du lapin.

While driving around the city, you inevitably crash into a lot of things, and Chase
McCain (your character) shouts out things such as, "Mais non!", "Desole!", etc. The one
that I couldn't make sense of was, "Oh, le coup du lapin!". I finally looked it up on
Google translate, and it means "whiplash". What do rabbits have to do with automobile
accidents?
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Iolanthe
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 Message 100 of 232
05 February 2014 at 12:59pm | IP Logged 
I like the song lyrics idea and the word of the week idea. I know it's already February but
following the example of other teams, I think it would be nice if we could all introduce
ourselves in French. Not necessarily as a challenge, just to get to know each other.
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evilado
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 Message 101 of 232
05 February 2014 at 2:57pm | IP Logged 

"En effet, on tue traditionnellement le lapin par un coup direct derrière la nuque..."
Wikipedia Fr: Coup du lapin

Turns out that wikipedia had the answer this time, but does anyone have a preferred
etymological dictionary for French? I haven't done much research, but this site looks
pretty good: http://www.cnrtl.fr/

Thanks Jeffers!
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enrdbrow
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 Message 102 of 232
05 February 2014 at 10:09pm | IP Logged 
I'm already achieving option A, putting in over 30 hours in per month. I love my food so I'm always up for a foodie challenge and plan on posting a few more of my attempts throughout the year. I think my favourite option from that list would be "D". It would be interesting to see what quirky and unsual words/phrases people have come across such as the example Jeffers has given above.
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songlines
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 Message 103 of 232
06 February 2014 at 12:32am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the replies, BonneVivante, Jeffers, Iolanthe, Evilado, and Enrdbrow.

---------------
So it looks like we have a mini challenge for February: Word of the Week.

Quote:
D: Word of the Week: Share a new/favourite word/phrase/idiom each week: . it can be a quirky, difficult, beautiful, amusing, or unusual word which you found ; or something that you learned a long time ago, and are delighted to unexpectedly come across now; or something that has an interesting story or usage behind it.    
Or perhaps it could be a word which you have an interesting story about - perhaps a "false friend" which you used incorrrectly, to your later embarrasment?
.

The challenge is quite open-ended, and you're welcome to interpret however you see fit. Have fun!
-------------

-Thanks for getting the ball rolling on that, Jeffers, and the follow up, Evilado. It's an interesting phrase. I'll post one when I get home later tonight.

Iolanthe, great idea on the intros. No reason why we can't do that as well; not, as you say, a "challenge", but just to get to know each other. - A reminder to all: don't forget to include an English translation too, for those whose French may be at a lower level than yours.

And there seems to be enough interest in the "songs" idea, and perhaps also the "food" ideas, to keep them for a following month.


Edited by songlines on 06 February 2014 at 12:39am

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songlines
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 Message 104 of 232
07 February 2014 at 1:15pm | IP Logged 
Following up Jeffer's Word of the Week, here's one I discovered in Blake and Mortimer last year: "
écraser le champignon":



According to Wordreference.com, it means to accelerate suddenly (when driving): "écraser" meaning "to
crush" and "le champignon" being "mushroom". So then one has the image of a foot, heavy on the
accelerator pedal, pushing it down. - Love it! Especially the association with old-fashioned automobiles (think
1950s-style ones), with their cute little mushroom-shaped accelerator pedals.

Wordreference

For those who aren't familiar with it, Blake and Mortimer is a popular bande dessinée series of Belgian origin.
Since it originally dates from the 1940s and 50s (it is is now being continued by other authors), there are quite
a few archaisms in the language (the English characters exclaim, "By jove!", for example) and 1950s-era
stereotypes and attitudes, but it's still an enjoyable adventure series.

Wikipedia, Eng
Wikipedia, Fre

I first discovered (thanks to Geoffw) the series through Izneo , a wonderful French bande dessinée site.
French-based, Izneo sells digital copies of BDs, but will also rent them for a low fee.
(There's also a monthly subscription plan.) They have an extensive collection of titles, browsable by genre,
(and you can preview the first 5 pages of most titles first, though this feature seems to work on my computer,
but not on my iPad app) and several of us on Htlal (e.g. Emk, Kanewai, and myself, among others)
have become frequent users of the site. - Check it out!

Izneo.

And does the villain Sharkey's driving lead to an accident and a "coup du lapin" for anyone...? Well, you'll
have to read the book (Le Mystère de la grande pyramide, Tome 1) to find out...

-------
My translation for the BD frames:
-D*mn! The red light! - Tough! (or "too d*mn bad!")
Flooring the pedal, Sharkey launches the Lincoln across the intersection/ crossroads.
-------

Edited by songlines on 07 February 2014 at 3:03pm



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