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Team "Deuxième". French team thread.

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Suzie
Diglot
Senior Member
Belgium
Joined 3989 days ago

155 posts - 226 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Dutch

 
 Message 121 of 232
16 February 2014 at 11:43am | IP Logged 
My current word of the week is a regional one....maybe of more academic interest than of real use for anyone than me in this group (especially for our Canadian teammates). But I have fallen in love with it, and am happy to present it:

I happened to see a colleague working on something that is not part of her current job description. When I asked her, she told me that she is doing a favour to another colleague, who hadn't wanted to start an official workflow on that and just asked her to do this quickly for a joint project. Smiling, she added "Je le fais en stoemelings..."

I like that expression, because it is a mix of Dutch and French and reflects my ideal of a multilingual society - that finally, wonderful mixes, even whole dialects are created when languages meet.
3 persons have voted this message useful



rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3711 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 122 of 232
17 February 2014 at 2:18am | IP Logged 
Hello Team Deuxième. Can I still join up with the team? I'm open to challenges or other team activities, especially related to quantity of study time, or reading/watching native content.

I'm studying French with and have a log here (sorry not sure how to hyper link it) --> http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=37977&PN=1


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songlines
Pro Member
Canada
flickr.com/photos/cp
Joined 4969 days ago

729 posts - 1056 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 123 of 232
17 February 2014 at 3:19am | IP Logged 
rlnv wrote:
Hello Team Deuxième. Can I still join up with the team? I'm open to challenges or other team
activities, especially related to quantity of study time, or reading/watching native content.

I'm studying French with and have a log here (sorry not sure how to hyper link it) --> http://how-to-learn-any-
language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=37977&PN=1



Yes, of course; we still have room. Welcome to the team!

Here's the link to your log:
French: Ron's Learning Log.

I'm guessing your ability to create links is being delayed till you've posted / been on the forums a while longer
(it's an automatic anti-spam measure). Normally, when you post a reply in the forums, there should be an icon
above your text box with an image of a globe and a link in a chain. You may need to shorten the URL so the
link doesn't "break": Delete the text which appears between the "=" sign and the second occurence of the
word "forum", so your URL begins with "URL=forum_posts.asp" etc. Keep the square brackets, of course.

As you'll see from the team thread, our team activity for February is to post a Word of the Week.
See post
103. Might there be a word you'd like to share,
perhaps from your Buffy transcripts, Assimil, Fluenz or elsewhere?

I've also now added you to the list of members on the first page of this thread. To "follow" the logs of your
fellow Deuxièmistes, click on the link to their logs; at the bottom of your screen, there'll be an option for
"watch this topic for replies". If you post a reply on any thread, it'll also be added to your "watch" list.




Edited by songlines on 17 February 2014 at 3:36am

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rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3711 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 124 of 232
17 February 2014 at 3:46am | IP Logged 
Thanks songlines. It looks like the option is not yet available.

For my word, I'd like share "la chat de gouttière", an alley cat or common cat. My daughter gave me a cat adoption for Christmas, and while I was researching a name I found it. I ended up calling her Violet, which is an awesome sounding name in French, but I kind of like the ring of la chat de gouttière.
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BonneVivante
Pro Member
Canada
Joined 4618 days ago

33 posts - 59 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
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 Message 125 of 232
17 February 2014 at 3:50am | IP Logged 
Welcome Ron! I really like the idea of your Buffy project. Learning is already fun in its own way, but I am a fan of anything that makes it feel like pure entertainment.

My expression for this week is one I love so much that I might start using it in English. I was reading an editorial regarding a court case I've been following, and the journalist shared her opinion that the defence lawyer "a les dents longues"; that is, he is very ambitious. What an image! Sinister and evocative.

I looked it up to be sure that I had the meaning right, and I was intrigued to discover that the expression used to mean that someone was hungry (I assume the lack of food has caused their teeth to grow long, because of not being worn down by chewing on anything?), but over time it has come to refer to the metaphorical hunger of ambition. Here's the link.

Suzie, thanks for that lovely example of what can happen in a language casserole society! I love the expressions that are created when linguistic groups mix together like that.

Edited to fix link.


Edited by BonneVivante on 17 February 2014 at 3:53am

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rlnv
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3711 days ago

126 posts - 233 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 126 of 232
17 February 2014 at 4:33am | IP Logged 
Hi BonneVivante. I found the idea of following Buffy from emk's excellent log. He and several others on the forum have great logs for inspiration. And now I'm going to start reading all the logs listed for members of this team!

Your expression is timely for me, a les dents longues. I'd like to think that it applies to me, with my ambition of reaching a good solid level in French this year! Thanks for sharing it.
1 person has voted this message useful



BonneVivante
Pro Member
Canada
Joined 4618 days ago

33 posts - 59 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
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 Message 127 of 232
17 February 2014 at 5:06am | IP Logged 
rlnv wrote:

Your expression is timely for me, a les dents longues. I'd like to think that it applies to me, with my ambition of reaching a good solid level in French this year! Thanks for sharing it.


Just to be clear, that's the form of the expression conjugated for 3rd person singular in the present tense. The infinitive of the expression is 'avoir les dents longues' and conjugated accordingly.

I'm not clear on the nuance of the expression, and maybe some native speakers or more advanced learners can help us here, but I think it has a somewhat negative connotation, that it conveys ambition in an aggressive sense, indifferent to the impacts on others. Or perhaps I am just being influenced by the context in which I first heard it. You just want to be sure it's not a negative expression before using it to describe yourself!
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PeterMollenburg
Senior Member
AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5236 days ago

821 posts - 1273 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: FrenchB1

 
 Message 128 of 232
17 February 2014 at 5:47am | IP Logged 
From various FR/EN dictionaries:


From Larousse:

avoir les dents longues = to fix one's sights high.


From oxford hachette & Berlitz:

= to be ambitious


From Collins:

= to be very ambitious

Edited by PeterMollenburg on 17 February 2014 at 5:51am



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