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French, 22 years later - TAC 2013 PaX

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tastyonions
Triglot
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 Message 49 of 70
16 January 2013 at 12:22pm | IP Logged 
That's a pretty tough review. I had never seen the word "fade" before.

I've never tried out any adapted content, really. I just try to find something that seems like it will be slow and simple enough for me. Sometimes it takes a bit of looking, but definitely less than it used to.
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Quique
Diglot
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 Message 50 of 70
16 January 2013 at 9:40pm | IP Logged 
Assimil: I did lesson 44. #14 was a revision unit, so no dictation today.

Some new words: décoré (with a decoration), cadre (executive), accueillir (to receive, to meet), foule (crowd).

Reading: I read almost half of the Maigret book.

Even though Clé International places it on the B2 level, I don't think it's so high. While the grammar is pretty advanced, I'm finding the vocabulary rather simple, with very few unknown words. B1 seems more appropriate. Still, I don't think I could read it at my current stage in Assimil if I had not studied French as a kid.


By reading other PaXers' logs, I realized that I'm not practicing much pronunciation, something that I really should do. But that means allocating more time for French... Not so easy.

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songlines
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 Message 51 of 70
17 January 2013 at 5:40am | IP Logged 
Quique wrote:

Quote:
un livre réecrit avec un minimum de mots dans le but de rendre la lecture "facile" !!! facile? mortelle,
ennuyeuse, fade... Comment veut-on inciter qui que ce soit à lire avec des phrases d'une telle briéveté, et des
mots insipides? Pauvre Simenon!



Wow. The reviewer's really enjoying him (or her)self, isn't he?   It's a hoot to read, but I'd keep a couple of
points in mind:

- The reviewer, as a native speaker, is not the target audience for the book. It may well be that someone
struggling to learn the language will find the "boring", "insipid, and bland" prose perfectly okay.

- It's a lot more entertaining to pan a book than it is to write a measured review.

Mind you, the book could well be that bad. I myself must admit to a certain prejudice/snobbery in that
regard - a prejudice I try to stifle (or at least hide) when people come to my (public library) reference desk,
looking for drastically (!) abridged versions of classics, sans any of the literary integrity of the originals.



Edited by songlines on 17 January 2013 at 5:48am

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Quique
Diglot
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 Message 52 of 70
18 January 2013 at 1:55pm | IP Logged 
Assimil: I did lessons 45 and 46, and took dictation from 15 and 16.

Some new words:

On sert du rôti de veau aux pommes frites
      Roast veal with fried potatoes is served.

D'habitude, Paul ne boit guère en mangeant
      As a rule, Paul hardly ever drinks with his meals

[...]et, ma foi, cela ne lui a pas semblé désagréable.
      [...]and, indeed, he did not find it unpleasant.

Paul rougit du compliment
      Paul blushes at the compliment

Oui, ce n'était pas mal, quoique je n'aime pas l'avion
      Yes, it wasn't bad, although I don't like planes.

Voilà le chasseur
      Here is the page-boy.

Reading: I finished the Maigret book. I have to admit that the vocabulary is not very rich: I find more unknown words in any Tintin album than in this book. This shows the usefulness of native materials, even if they are comic books.

About des phrases d'une telle briéveté... I don't know. I guess they are simpler than those in a native book, but not as noticeable so as in the Strogoff book, where they clearly were artificially simple. I think reading it can be useful to assimilate all those verb tenses.

Astérix: I read Asterix Le Gaulois, reviewed yesterday by emk.








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emk
Diglot
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 Message 53 of 70
18 January 2013 at 2:05pm | IP Logged 
Quique wrote:
Astérix: I read Asterix Le Gaulois, reviewed yesterday by emk.


I first read this book in English, as a child, and I thought that the scene with the strawberries was just the funniest thing in the world. :-)

Thank you for inspiring my recent series of BD posts. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to find and reread some pretty good books that I had forgotten just in time for my next trip to the bookstore. :-)
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Quique
Diglot
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 Message 54 of 70
18 January 2013 at 2:16pm | IP Logged 
emk wrote:
I first read this book in English, as a child, and I thought that the scene with the strawberries was just the funniest thing in the world. :-)

As a child I read (in Spanish) all the Asterix and Tintin books that were published at the time. In the next few weeks I'll probably read (in French) those published later.

Yes, I loved that one as well. I didn't post those panels because I don't want to spoil too much.


emk wrote:
Thank you for inspiring my recent series of BD posts. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to find and reread some pretty good books that I had forgotten just in time for my next trip to the bookstore. :-)

No, thank you: you gave us some very nice recommendations :-)
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Quique
Diglot
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Speaks: Spanish*, English
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 Message 55 of 70
19 January 2013 at 11:45am | IP Logged 
Assimil: I did lesson 47 and took dictation from #17.

I'm about to arrive to the active wave (lesson 50, I guess): Luke says today that New French with Ease has 113 lessons, but El nuevo francés sin esfuerzo has only 99 lessons. I don't know if this is because they are different editions (different years) or because, being Spanish a romance language, 99 lessons were presumed enough.

Some new words:

Vous parlez couramment
    You speak fluently

Je commence à me tirer d'affaire
    I am beginning to get on

Il bouscule quelques personnes
    He jostles a few people

Une énorme main le saisit par le col de sa veste
    An enormous hand seizes him by the collar of his jacket

Dites donc le resquilleur!
    Hey, queue-jumper!

Le costaud n'a pas besoin de terminer sa phrase
    The hefty man doesn't need to finish his sentence

Reading: I began the book we used in primary school, the well known Le petit Nicolas.



The book is rather battered (nowadays I'm much more careful with my books), and the first half is full of annotations I made back then. It's made up of 19 short stories, each about 8 pages long, including pictures.

I read the first three stories. They are funny and charming, and every page has a couple of new, useful words.
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Quique
Diglot
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Joined 4633 days ago

183 posts - 313 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 56 of 70
20 January 2013 at 4:52pm | IP Logged 
Assimil: I did lesson 48 and took dictation from #18.

Some new words:

Qu'est-ce que c'est que ce machin?
    What on earth is that thing?

Passe-moi un coup de fil si tu as le temps.
    Give me a ring if you have time.

And for your information: Il vaut mieux être riche et en bonne santé que d'être pauvre et malade!


Le petit Nicolas: I read the 4th and 5th stories (Le football & On a eu l'inspecteur).

Some new words:

Comme il porte des lunettes on ne peut pas lui taper dessus, ce qui, pour un arbitre, est une bonne combine.
[...]ça en faisait un de trop pour le partage.
Il me donnait des coups de pied, dans les chevilles.
Il fallait remuer tous les bancs.
Il avait de gros sourcils.
L'inspecteur a fait un gros soupir et il a essuyé ses doigts avec un mouchoir.
C'est dommage que la maîtresse nous ait défendu de rire sans sa permission, parce qu'on a eu un mal fou à se retenir.



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