speaking of books...

[ktron]

the other day, it struck me that the one i'm dragging around with me, roman jakobson's essais de linguistique générale, is especially pointless to be reading in french: it's by a russian guy who emigrated to the US and primarily wrote in english. but all the linguistics i've ever taken was taught in french, so it's actually prob'ly a little easier for me to read this way. plus, convenient: i had the book for one of those courses in france, but i was (and still am) a little slow at reading french and a bit fond of hanging around bars, so i never got through all my texts. oh well, the translation it is...

and i really hate the trend towards the bigger-sized trade paperbacks instead of pocket-sized ones... really, my recent spate of reading in french on my lunch break is less about the will to retain language skills, more about the fact that those are the editions that fit in my purse.

Comments

sucking

[ivankara.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'd have to second the vote on you sucking. I can't even read a freakin' menu yet. Linuguistics? Hah.

Last night the phrase for me to screw up was "if you do that it won't even work." During class I said that three times and each time I'd say, "si vous faites ça, il ne va pas même marcher... pas même pas... ne va même pas marcher... umm, yeah..."

As always, I can either think about teaching or think about French, so I'd never catch it 'til it made it out of my mouth.

Re: sucking

[ktron.livejournal.com]

did i mention you suck too?!? for being able to teach in french and have any hope of getting people to understand what you're saying? man, the once or twice i had to get up in front of a class of francophones and try to explain something in french... i went into absolute terror, read word for word what i had written in front of me in my fattest american accent, and stared like a deer in headlights when the professor asked a question. yeah. i'm pretty damn decent on the intake side of french now, but speaking and writing are still incredibly difficult.

re: sucking

[ivankara.livejournal.com]

The process is easier here because French isn't the first language of anyone in the room. Everyone mangles it a bit, granted not as bad as me, but some. When I'm talking to real French people with real accents and whatnot, it is incredibly intimidating.

I hope I get to the point where I really suck before I leave here. I'd like to try and pass the DELF 1 (http://www.ciep.fr/delfdalf/) before leaving. I figure I'll never be more ready, for what that's worth, and it would look good on a cv. Have you taken it or the DALF?

Re: sucking

[ktron.livejournal.com]

i haven't, but i was in classes at the cla (http://cla.univ-fcomte.fr/) with people preparing for them. those were some awesome classes -- they felt incredibly easy, but did so much work on linguistic skills. actually, i prob'ly should've taken the test in case i ever want to go work in france...