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Inhaling Belgium | ||
Tags: Belgium | Super Challenge | Living abroad | Dutch | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4010 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 65 of 116 23 January 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's an interesting question, Jeffers! I'll try to find out with my colleagues at work (unless a native speaker happens to read it here and likes to answer....).
Indeed I need French subtitles. Without I wouldn't catch (and wouldn't enjoy) the plot. Just a few days ago, while watching TV, I had a 'Rizzoli and Isles" desaster, not getting anything what was happening on-screen.
That sounds encouraging, thanks, Jeffers! This week was quite discouraging, I had difficulty understanding my colleagues, and when I spoke it felt A1-ish. Only a short small talk this morning went well. I am wondering whether this is linked to the re-awakening of my Dutch and my inability to switch between languages, or if I am just having a bad week.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4010 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 66 of 116 24 January 2014 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I have asked my colleagues - it has indeed both meanings. With the colloquial usage having a very negative connotation. So they told me not to use it. They also warned me of another word that I learned today: "péteux". The closest translation might be "posh" or "snobbish", but "péteux" has a far more negative connotation. They explained to me that the snobs are called "péteux parce qu'ils pètent plus haut." As I hadn't known "péter" either, I did not really understand that explanation at first, but I could guess from the mimics of my colleagues what they meant. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4488 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 67 of 116 24 January 2014 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
J'aurais dit "il", puisque il s'agit d'une personne... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| agantik Triglot Senior Member France Joined 4416 days ago 217 posts - 335 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German, Norwegian | Message 68 of 116 26 January 2014 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In fact "c'est un vrai Belge" sounds more natural. "C'est" can be used both for objects and persons since it
has a monstrative function. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4010 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 69 of 116 26 January 2014 at 10:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Merci, Agantik!
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| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4010 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 70 of 116 01 February 2014 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It's again time for my monthly update, modified a bit this time, for various reasons.
French I did not meet the goals I had set one month ago - neither language-related nor non-language-related. But I did work on my French: I learned 144 new words, my favourite one being 'jardin potager', because it reminds me of childhood summers. I spent several hours in front of the telly, read some Belgian news articles and had various conversations. The latter have been awkward mostly and often ended in me or my counterpart switching to English. Mostly me :-( I have just passed a longer period of frustration....not feeling my French is improving, my goals hitting the stony floor of reality too hard...realizing that over the year I will still have more of these awkward conversations than really good ones. And this is the opportunity to say a huge thanks to the forum, as I read here so much about similar feelings, but that finally progress could be observed. While I am desperate to improve my French, I see that those non-language-related projects that I should give priority not really progress. So just in time with the 6 week challenge (which I intended to use as a French grammar boot camp), I need to focus more on other stuff....After long thoughts I have decided not to withdraw my registration. I hope it will give me some additional motivation to do some textbook exercises, grammar revisions and vocabulary training - hey, any motivation is good enough! I will only log in these activities, not aiming for any specific goal, but I am curious to see how much I will manage..... What I really did master in French this month, was spending an incredible amount of money on DVDs and books. I can say proudly that I benefitted from sales and promotion activities in Belgium, Germany and France, getting a huge number of TV series for only 10 Euros per season. This is less than 50 Cents per episode! The money saved now will have to be spent on a new shelf for all these new DVDs.....My highlight among these purchases is season 2-8 of Bones. Season 1 ended with a nasty cliffhanger. Can't wait to watch! Dutch Had a short conversation with a colleague, watched some Flemish TV channels and started to read "De tweeling" by Tessa de Loo (about one third so far). For me, it is interesting to see the differences between Dutch and French. I would say that my active skills are better in French than in Dutch, but Dutch is so easy to access that I do not need any dictionnary, even though this is the book with the most advanced and richest language I have ever read in Dutch. And also my intentions are different. While I cannot deal well with not unkown vocabulary in French texts, I really don't care if I do not know a word in Dutch. Everything is lighter and less tense; entertainment, really. English Not much to report, except for some nice hours with BBC broadcasts, extending my kitchen vocabulary (and baking skills) a bit (Thanks, Paul Hollywood!) Edited by Suzie on 01 February 2014 at 10:46am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Suzie Diglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4010 days ago 155 posts - 226 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Dutch | Message 71 of 116 02 February 2014 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Did you know?
Just sitting in the garden, enjoying the warmth of the sun (I wonder when winter will finally arrive?), I came across an interesting fact in my grammar book. "gens" is masculin, sure. However, those adjectives used in front of "gens" are used in the feminine form: Les bonnes gens m'ont donné de l'argent. My grammar book rates this as C2 knowledge, so I am somewhat relieved to learn that this is not basic stuff I already should have known. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| agantik Triglot Senior Member France Joined 4416 days ago 217 posts - 335 votes Speaks: French*, English, Italian Studies: German, Norwegian | Message 72 of 116 02 February 2014 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I can reassure you: even native speakers are not all aware of such subtleties, especially the persons with no
academic background. Such information is always good to know but you don't use it on a daily basis, far from it! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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