I've Officially Started...
...learning French. I am scared shitless. I have two academic weaknesses, and one is worse than the other. My two hardest subjects have always been foreign languages and math. Well, and I can't even really say that math is TOO bad anymore because the last math I finished up with, Calculus, turned out to be damn easy for me as all I learned just came together in a rush. I had minimal problems learning Latin and Old English because they are not spoken languages, and it's the speaking and making a fool of myself that makes me the most nervous. I have complained to folks repeatedly that I have problems 'hearing' certain sounds in French, and yes, this issue still exists. BUT...I'm going to try. I've started as of last night. Last night, I learned basic colors. Today, I'm working on food words. My good friend Shelly sent me an amazon.com gift certificate to purchase tools to facilitate with my language learning...god it's great to have wonderful friends like that! She knows how broke I am, and she really wants me to learn French (she's a good friend of Alex's too). So, with her gift certificate, I bought one piece of software and two books. We're off!
Why am I doing this torture when I know that, especially at my age, what I've decided to do is near impossible? We must all keep in mind that by learning French, whenever I go to France what will happen is that they will correct my French: pronunciation, grammar, word usage. The French have a slavish devotion to their language, and they feel it to be no insult to correct people when they speak it. How many times do you correct a person who speaks English incorrectly? I don't unless the person has asked me to do so, or if it's a student who makes the same mistake over and over again and I point out that speech error so that it doesn't show up on their writings. It's just not an American thing to do. But it's a French thing. And it's just the sort of thing to make me feel stupid...sigh...but I have to do this action. I MUST learn this language to some degree, and keep trying.
You see, Alex is giving up his country for me. HIS COUNTRY. Do you have any idea what that means? Imagine how attached you are to your friends and family, no matter how sprawled out they might be....and then imagine leaving them ALL for the sake of your love. It is a huge sacrifice, and I don't want him to lose his culture. He may have to abandon his country and live here if he wants to be with me, but he shouldn't have to lose his identity. And the only way around that is to teach Ari and Jared French, speak French around whatever baby we may one day have, and then continue a few French customs in our house. How can we speak French around the house if I can't speak French??? My French will always have an accent, and largely I will always translate in my head. That's what happens when you are exposed to a language for the first time after 12 years of age. But, the French seem to like Alex's mum and she learned in her 20's how to speak French, and she has a clear Brit accent in her speech. In fact, some of the guys think it's "cute." Maybe my American accent can be "cute" too....hmmm....
Culturally, I'm already fairly French in some regards. I appreciate good food and good wine, and I'm an excellent cook. I can argue anytime, anywhere, and I have a lot of education so I can come off as an intellectual. Alex explained to me that there are no such things as "geeks" in France, since there is a bit of a negative stereotype there...there are only intellectuals, and those are highly regarded. I can DO that part! I'm a little dominant for a French woman (haha! no, really, I am...ask Alex's mom!), but otherwise, I fit in well with the French on other issues. That's why I managed to get along with Alex's friends so nicely. I can mimic those aspects, fix French foods, and teach my children about French history and politics. I've been reading up a lot on those two areas these days. My next stop: French literature. I don't know much about French literature beyond the medievalists of Chretien de Troy and Christine de Pisan.
So, here we go. I love Alex like I've never loved any man in my life. He fits in with me PERFECTLY. He is making a huge sacrifice for me...so I must make one in return. I will struggle with my lessons, and I know I will have to work twice as hard as most people in order to learn another language, but I'll have to do it. In fact, the more I think about it, maybe THIS is why I have a summer free.
Ok, so here is what I've learned so far that I think is interesting enough to pass on:
In French, a grape is called un raisin. Confusing!
In French, an apple is une pomme. A potato is une pomme de terre, so that makes it an apple of the earth? Different!
In French, it is near impossible to find the word for "scallop." The French think of scallops only being useful in their famous dish, Coquilles St. Jacques. Therefore, a lot of times a French person refers to a scallop as a coquille st. jacques! Not even Alex knew the "real" word for a scallop (note: coquille is a shell, the scallop shell if you will, but NOT the actual muscle). It took a while but we finally found out the "other" name: petoncle.
For colors, their word for orange is orange. Easy enough...it's just pronounced differently. They use this technique for purple too. Purple is violet, but in pronunciation it in no way resembles English "violet."
And don't forget, folks, if a frenchman tells you he has raped carrots in his salad, don't go eeewwww! hahaha! That just means shredded! Alex did that to me once. Amanda saw the email. He was telling me what was in his salad at lunch that he liked so much, and one of the ingredients was "raped carrots." I had no idea what he meant, but boy did that get a laugh for months! He explained later on what he meant, and we figured out he meant shredded...similar words, different meaning!
Wish me luck. I need it. I HATE being incompetent in anything I do, and in languages I am incompetent. But I will stick with it because I love Alex...and I owe him at least this much.
Why am I doing this torture when I know that, especially at my age, what I've decided to do is near impossible? We must all keep in mind that by learning French, whenever I go to France what will happen is that they will correct my French: pronunciation, grammar, word usage. The French have a slavish devotion to their language, and they feel it to be no insult to correct people when they speak it. How many times do you correct a person who speaks English incorrectly? I don't unless the person has asked me to do so, or if it's a student who makes the same mistake over and over again and I point out that speech error so that it doesn't show up on their writings. It's just not an American thing to do. But it's a French thing. And it's just the sort of thing to make me feel stupid...sigh...but I have to do this action. I MUST learn this language to some degree, and keep trying.
You see, Alex is giving up his country for me. HIS COUNTRY. Do you have any idea what that means? Imagine how attached you are to your friends and family, no matter how sprawled out they might be....and then imagine leaving them ALL for the sake of your love. It is a huge sacrifice, and I don't want him to lose his culture. He may have to abandon his country and live here if he wants to be with me, but he shouldn't have to lose his identity. And the only way around that is to teach Ari and Jared French, speak French around whatever baby we may one day have, and then continue a few French customs in our house. How can we speak French around the house if I can't speak French??? My French will always have an accent, and largely I will always translate in my head. That's what happens when you are exposed to a language for the first time after 12 years of age. But, the French seem to like Alex's mum and she learned in her 20's how to speak French, and she has a clear Brit accent in her speech. In fact, some of the guys think it's "cute." Maybe my American accent can be "cute" too....hmmm....
Culturally, I'm already fairly French in some regards. I appreciate good food and good wine, and I'm an excellent cook. I can argue anytime, anywhere, and I have a lot of education so I can come off as an intellectual. Alex explained to me that there are no such things as "geeks" in France, since there is a bit of a negative stereotype there...there are only intellectuals, and those are highly regarded. I can DO that part! I'm a little dominant for a French woman (haha! no, really, I am...ask Alex's mom!), but otherwise, I fit in well with the French on other issues. That's why I managed to get along with Alex's friends so nicely. I can mimic those aspects, fix French foods, and teach my children about French history and politics. I've been reading up a lot on those two areas these days. My next stop: French literature. I don't know much about French literature beyond the medievalists of Chretien de Troy and Christine de Pisan.
So, here we go. I love Alex like I've never loved any man in my life. He fits in with me PERFECTLY. He is making a huge sacrifice for me...so I must make one in return. I will struggle with my lessons, and I know I will have to work twice as hard as most people in order to learn another language, but I'll have to do it. In fact, the more I think about it, maybe THIS is why I have a summer free.
Ok, so here is what I've learned so far that I think is interesting enough to pass on:
In French, a grape is called un raisin. Confusing!
In French, an apple is une pomme. A potato is une pomme de terre, so that makes it an apple of the earth? Different!
In French, it is near impossible to find the word for "scallop." The French think of scallops only being useful in their famous dish, Coquilles St. Jacques. Therefore, a lot of times a French person refers to a scallop as a coquille st. jacques! Not even Alex knew the "real" word for a scallop (note: coquille is a shell, the scallop shell if you will, but NOT the actual muscle). It took a while but we finally found out the "other" name: petoncle.
For colors, their word for orange is orange. Easy enough...it's just pronounced differently. They use this technique for purple too. Purple is violet, but in pronunciation it in no way resembles English "violet."
And don't forget, folks, if a frenchman tells you he has raped carrots in his salad, don't go eeewwww! hahaha! That just means shredded! Alex did that to me once. Amanda saw the email. He was telling me what was in his salad at lunch that he liked so much, and one of the ingredients was "raped carrots." I had no idea what he meant, but boy did that get a laugh for months! He explained later on what he meant, and we figured out he meant shredded...similar words, different meaning!
Wish me luck. I need it. I HATE being incompetent in anything I do, and in languages I am incompetent. But I will stick with it because I love Alex...and I owe him at least this much.
posted by Kira | 4:18 PM
6 Comments:
You can do this. Several different things come to my mind to encourage you.
First of all, I believe very strongly in the notion of self-efficacy, especially after studying it more fully this semester. It occurs to me that the reason I was able to do all of those things years ago, when literally everyone I knew was telling me I was a big failure because I was a teen mom, was a combination of academic and maternal efficacy. I KNEW that I could do it, and so I got the degree and was a good mom at the same time. Period. It's all about KNOWING you can do it (which is more than just believing you can do it).
Secondly, having studied language development and all that AND having taught a foreign language, I have come to the conclusion that we do not yet know all we need to know about the brain's capacity to learn a language. It is very true that someone who spoke more than one language as a child can more easily pick up another language than someone who only learned one language. And it is very true that young children can learn much, much more easily than adults or teens. It is also true that our brain literally prunes away the parts that it is not using, in order to make the parts that it does use more potent. BUT I do not believe that it prunes away all of that which we use to learn a language. I believe there is part of it still there; it's just asleep. What happens is that you need to wake it up. IF it really wakes up, then it can start to grown again.
Now, this is exceedingly difficult. But there's a trick. Language is like MUSIC. It's more about hearing it than seeing it or reading it. Logical, analytical adults find this monumentally difficult. They want to make it systematic. But it isn't really. Think of it like music - something you can feel and sing. Something that makes your tongue dance. If you can FEEL it that way, then that's when that little part of your brain is waking up, I think. Word for word translations are mostly no good. It's shocking how much of language is idiomatic, but it just is. For example, we take naps in English. But do they "take" them in French? Some things won't translate (like scallops, lol!), and let go of the logical need for it to. It's okay. Let it be poetry and music. Spend as much time as possible LISTENING... I think that may even be more important than reading. Listen til you catch the flow. Be more than an actress. When you speak French, you should stand differently, move differently - it isn't just the words; it's the entire state of mind.
I will help you as best I can dearest :)
I will speak French to you as much as possible since that seems to be what Angie recommends lol! Now if that has secondary effects, it wouldn’t be my fault would it?
Anyway, you are way smarter than my mother so you will do great. And the French like accents so you will be hit on a lot too ;)
If you want something to do, I was asked to do some volunteer work for the Call Me Mister program. And Winston asked if I could find 2 others who might want to help. They are bringing in the new recruits for a summer internship. For one month, they will be going out and doing work with local kids, but Winston wants them to get help with their writing while here. Basically, if you want to do it, you'd get 2 or 3 Misters in your little group. You'd meet 3 or 4 times (I believe - this is my understanding) with them and help them with their writing. Let me know if you're interested.
Good for you, Kira. I know what it's like for your man to give up everything for you and leave their country, their home, their family. And I think what you're doing will mean so much to him. Good onya.
Thanks for the pep talk, Angie. If there is one thing I think I picked up for certain from your encouragement, it's that I have to convince myself I CAN do it or I'll fail. If I think I can, I've got a chance. Ok, I will read The Little Engine That Could now in preparation :)
Now, I have kids this summer, so can I help out a Mister and work around the kids? I had a Mister in my Eng 101 class last semester and he was SO hardworking that I bent over backwards to help him at every chance. I'd be happy to help if I can work around having the kids with me constantly now (no daycare for Jared or Ari since I'm out of school anyway, you know?)
If I know French and you know Italian, imagine the hot European men we can pick up, Amanda! Although I'd just be picking up the French men for you (otherwise, Alex kills me...haha!)
Alex love, you KNOW what happens when you speak French to me. Are you telling me that Angie said that you can help me by speaking French, or are you telling me she's suggesting you get laid repeatedly? :)
Jez, I knew you'd understand! Except I guess you lucked out in that your love is from England, so it's the same language. Still, do you guys make annual trips out there or somesuch so he can keep in touch with family? Or do they visit you in Australia? I figure we'll be a regular destination stop the second Alex moves over here...he has family and a ton of friends who want to visit!
I am always in favor of sex.
You might be able to bring the kids along or something. I think it would involve an hour a week, so it might depend on having someone to keep them for that hour. Just let me know... =o)
Post a Comment
<< Home