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Gary’s 2015 TACtivation: FR, IT | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 89 of 187 30 March 2015 at 12:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Interesting... It seems like quite a common alternative to using an adverb: you could probably say parlare chiaramente (or parlare chiaro, likely frowned upon for "correct" usage but accepted in colloquial usage), but in some situations "in modo" + adjective just sounds better. Italian has "limpido"; to me that seems more appropriate for describing something that is visually clear (the sky, etc.) as opposed to speech, but of course I'm not a native speaker so I can't say whether my instinct is right! Edit: Another "adverb alternative" I hear sometimes is con + noun. Once I arrived at a party and an Italian friend asked, "hai trovato l'appartamento con facilità?", literally "did you find the flat with ease?" as opposed to "easily". "Facilmente" just doesn't sound as good in that sentence, although I'm not sure why. Sarnek: Grazie! Jeffers: My guess would be Portuguese, although it's not a language I'm very familiar with so I can't be sure. Doesn't sound like Greek... my Greek knowledge isn't great either but half of my family is Greek so I like to think I at least know what it sounds like :). Anyway I know about that album but I've not listened to it yet. I'll try to give it a listen this week, it sounds interesting. Edited by garyb on 30 March 2015 at 12:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 90 of 187 30 March 2015 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Limpede (and limpide in French) both also have the clear meaning when referring to water
or the sky, but you can use them figuratively about speech. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 91 of 187 30 March 2015 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm back from holiday, so time to begin the French burst in earnest, by writing in French about my holiday and my recent reading. The usual: corrections welcome and translations supplied.
Je viens de passer une semaine dans les Alpes autrichiennes. Je suis déjà allé plusieurs fois dans les Alpes, mais toujours dans la partie française : Val d'Isère, Tignes, Les Deux Alpes, Les Portes du Soleil ( ce dernier compte aussi une zone suisse ; il y a même un télésiège qui vous mène de France en Suisse ). Donc ça faisait un peu bizarre de voir les noms des pistes et des remontées en allemand. À l'allemand je n'y connais rien ; heureusement j'étais avec une amie qui l'a étudié à l'école. I just spent a week in the Austrian Alps. I've already been to the Alps a few times, but always in the French part: Val d'Isère, Tignes, Les Deux Alpes, Les Portes du Soleil (the latter also has a Swiss part; there's even a chairlift that takes you from France to Switzerland). So it was a bit strange seeing the names of pistes and lifts in German. I know nothing of German; fortunately I was with a friend who studied it at school. Les conditions n'étaient pas idéales : quelques jours la visibilité était mauvaise et on voyait seulement une dizaine de mètres devant, alors que d'autres jours on voyait bien mais la neige était trop dure ou trop fondue. Mais le domaine skiable était immense ( quelques stations dans la région, liées par autobus et des fois aussi par télésiège ) et on s'est bien amusé malgré le temps et la neige imparfaits. The conditions weren't ideal: a few days, the visibility was poor and we could only see about ten metres ahead, while other days we could see well but the snow was too hard or too slushy. But the ski area was immense (several resorts in the region, linked by bus and sometimes by chairlift) and we enjoyed ourselves despite the imperfect weather and snow. Pendant mon séjour, j'ai eu pas mal de temps pour la lecture. J'ai terminé mes deux livres, Esche vive et L'appel de l'ange. Esche vive m'a vraiment commencé à plaire vers la fin, c'est une belle histoire. À vrai dire, L'appel de l'ange a une intrigue ridicule... au début ça parait une comédie romantique, et puis un thriller qui parle de la police, des services secrets britannique et américain, d'un cartel de drogue mexicain, des enlèvements, des fusillades, des requins qui mangent un cadavre, et j'en passe. Mais comme je l'ai déjà dit, le livre est captivant et je ne voulais pas arrêter de le lire, comme ça je l'ai terminé en peu de temps. Et pour lire un français moderne et familier, il a été un choix parfait. Tout compte fait, je suis motivé pour lire plus de livres de Musso. During my stay, I had a fair bit of time for reading. I finished my two books, Esche vive and L'appel de l'ange. I really started to like Esche vive towards the end, it's a nice story. To tell the truth, L'appel de l'ange has a ridiculous plot: at first it seems like a romatic comedy, and then a thriller about the police, the British and American secret services, a Mexican drug cartel, kidnappings, gunfights, sharks that eat a dead body, and I could go on. But as I already said, the book is absorbing and I didn't want to stop reading, so I finished it quite quickly. And for reading modern and familiar French, it was a perfect choice. All things considered, I'm keen to read more of Musso's books. Edited by garyb on 30 March 2015 at 5:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4005 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 92 of 187 30 March 2015 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for sharing a little about your vacation! It is an area I have dreamed of seeing - and it sounds like you
had a great time! My synopsis of Musso's L'Appel d l'Ange was much the same. I couldn't figure out if the book was a romantic comedy or a thriller, and it was quite unbelievable at times. However, as you, I will read Musso again - definitely for the rich Modern vocabulary! A later book Central Park, seems to be more firmly in the thriller genre - which is more the genre I enjoy. It's interesting to note that Musso is one of the current top-selling French authors. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 93 of 187 30 March 2015 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yep, the Alps are beautiful, the landscapes there never fail to amaze me and of course it's great for snowboarding there.
I agree, I like a good thriller, and I don't object to a well-done romantic comedy which is what I had expected at first. But this book was a bit of a strange mixture of the genres, and the plot relied too much on improbable elements of coincidence and serendipity. Not really what I had expected from a top-selling and highly reviewed author. But as I say it did the job for modern language and for keeping me reading, and I'm quite curious to see how his other work is. I know Expugnator has also read a few of his books. I didn't mention which books I've started reading after these, so here they are: - Yet more Michel Houellebecq: Plateforme. So far it seems very standard fare for his work, lots of sex and pessimism, and it has more dialogue than the other novels of his that I've read so far. - Voci by Dacia Maraini, since as I said before I was looking for something by a female author in Italian. I do enjoy all the typical "heterosexual male" stuff (of which I suppose Houellebecq would be the extreme example...) since I can relate to it, but a change of perspective is nice and refreshing. It's a detective novel with a theme about violence against women, and so far it seems well written and interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4005 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 94 of 187 30 March 2015 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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garyb - I have never read Michel Houellebceq before. I have seen him mentioned on your log a few times.
Can you recommend a good book or two of his to start with? Thank you in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 95 of 187 31 March 2015 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||
Houellebecq certainly isn't for everyone, but I enjoy his writing even if I don't agree with all of his philosophy, and I think he's worth a try. My favourite so far is La possibilité d'une île, although it's quite long. A better introduction might be his first, Extension du domaine de la lutte, which is a relatively short and easy read and reminded me a lot of Camus. It doesn't cover quite the same range of ideas, but it should give a feeling for his work. I've not yet read La carte et la territoire (which I've seen described as more "tame") or his new one Soumission. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 96 of 187 03 April 2015 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ces jours-ci je suis un peu malade ; ça m'arrive souvent après les vacances. Rien de grave, j'ai juste attrapé un rhume, mais ça rend un peu difficile le travail, que ce soit au boulot ou à la maison. Tout ce que je veux faire, c'est dormir et manger : à l'évidence, j'ai besoin de récupérer des forces.
I've been a bit ill in the last few days; that often happens to me after holidays. Nothing serious, I've just caught a cold, but it makes work a bit difficult, be it at my job or at hom. All I want to do is sleep and eat: obviously I need to recuperate and recover my strength. Les invités sont toujours chez moi, le temps qu'ils trouvent une chambre dans un appartement : chose énormément difficile dans ma ville, d'autant plus qu'ils sont en couple. L'italien a commencé a travailler, alors que la française cherche encore du travail et elle est donc souvent à la maison. Comme ça j'ai eu pas mal d'occasions de parler avec elle ces derniers jours. Ça tombe bien, puisque j'ai envie de pratiquer le plus possible avant d'aller en France. The guests are still at my house, until they find a room in a flat: an extremely difficult thing in to do in my city, all the more so since they're a couple. The Italian has started working, while the Frenchwoman is still looking for work and so she's often at home. That way I've had quite a few chances to speak with her in the last few days. Which is handy, since I want to practise as much as possible before going to France. Au vu de la maladie et de la fatigue, je ne parle pas très bien et j'en suis plutôt conscient ; on dirait que mon français a régressé de quelques années. Mais ça n'a pas d'importance : je sais que ça va passer, et d'ailleurs elle est patiente et, à la différence de quelques français, ça ne lui pose pas de problème que je ne parle pas parfaitement la langue, l'important c'est de communiquer. Comme ça je suis plus à l'aise et je n'ai pas peur de faire des fautes, ni d'avouer que je n'ai pas compris quelque chose. Je sais que j'écris souvent des propos négatifs sur les français et leur attitude envers ceux qui apprennent leur langue, donc il est important de se rappeler qu'ils ne sont pas tous comme ça et il y en a aussi des sympas ! Given the illness and tiredness, I'm not speaking very well and I'm quite aware of it. You could say my French has regressed by a few years. But that's not important: I know that it'll pass, and moreover she's patient and, unlike some French people, it's not a problem for her that I don't speak the language perfectly, the important thing is communicating. That way I feel more at ease and I'm not afraid to make mistakes, nor to admit that I haven't understood something. I know that I often write negative remarks about the French and their attitude towards those who learn their language, so it's important to remember that they're not all like that and there are also nice ones! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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