Défilé de Mode

Bonjour, guess who hosted a French fashion show today?

Well, I guess it wasn't a legit fashion show; it was for class and the literal translation is a parade of fashion.

But it was in French, and I and a classmate dressed up another classmate to be our model, and we talked about the outfit she was wearing.

In French.

Well, we talked in French. I don't know if the outfit was necessarily a French style thing or not. o_O

But we did have French music in the background. The beat was nothing I'd listen to for fun, but it served its purpose for our assignment and everyone else seemed to like it. I'm just weird that way.

Nous avons parlé à un sac à main et une jupe grise et des gants violet.

Je vais parler en français jusqu'à la fin du post. J'honore mon défilé de mode aujourd'hui. Elle est une bonne chose, n'est pas?

Bon, au revior! Bonne journée et bon week-end! =D

French Play

Okay. So, French play.

I was told by some email that that play would have English subtitles, and by my professor that we would just get English brochures with a summary of the plot.

My professor was right.

Well, thanks to that and actor intonation and expressions, I could keep up with the context of the play pretty well, even if I couldn't understand a lot of the words that were spoken without pause for those of us still learning. I did manage to catch some words, though.

And I caught one of the humor points, too! One guy called a lady who ended up being the other man's crazy mistress, but the first guy thought she was his sister. The lady's last name was Sasseur. That name sounds a lot like "sa soeur," which is French for "his sister." I was so happy when I realized I caught how that mistake was made. x3

One thing I wondered about, though: that same guy messed up each and every call (until that last one) he ever made, yet the man who owned the place they were at kept letting the first guy make more calls. Why was that? I guess the reason must have been something I couldn't translate?

Anyways, there's my cultural experience for the morning. Have a great day!

French Interviews and Snacks

If I had the time, I'd try to figure out a way to write this entire blog post in French, in honor of the thing I have today. I have to meet with my French teacher and talk to her for five minutes straight in French only. And I am super nervous.

This week is so, soo busy; but all yesterday that I wasn't in class or eating, I spent studying my French flash cards. And yet I'm scared they won't be enough. I worry that although I know so many individual words, I won't be able to put them together well enough to make a good grade in this "oral interview."

But I suppose that's enough worrying for one blog post. What shall I talk about next?

Oh, I'm running out of snacks in my room. xD

I asked for more when I was home for Thanksgiving, and I was told to write what I needed on the grocery list. But then I came back here Sunday, forgetting even to ask if those items had been bought yet.

So now I have no granola bars to snack on, but I have something similarish yet more filling. And I have peanut butter, but nothing to spread it on. I tried eating just plain peanut butter the other day, but it didn't really work out. I'm not like some of you people out there that can just get a spoonful of peanut butter and eat it plain, unfortunately.

Anyways, I won't starve. A lack of snacks isn't going to kill me. And if it nearly does, I have friends with food that have begged me to liberate some food from them anytime I want.

So. Odd post, going off on two different topics, but there it is. I'm off to study French again!

French

Bonjour, mes copains! J'ai un interrogation a mon classe de francais au'jourdhui... Amusant... =/

To repeat in English, hello, my friends! I have a quiz at my French class today... Fun... =/

Yep, I'm learning more and more and more! I can't promise that I used correct grammar here, but hopefully close enough for anyone who speaks it to catch my drift. Oh, and please note: the sarcastic 'fun' was for the quiz, not the language. I'm still enjoying the language itself, even if I'm not enjoying some other aspects of the class.

It's great to get to know some of these words. Within the past year or so, I've read a couple of books that have integrated French into them, and I've heard of a couple of others. If I can find the time to go back and read them now, maybe I'll be able to understand bits of it better. Yay!

Oh, and have any of you ever read/seen the book/movie Ella Enchanted? The prince is called Char throughout a majority of either one, but his full name is Charmont. I recently found out that the author probably based that on the French word for charming: charmant!

I love it. I really do. But I think I'll end this post here so I can review for the quiz this morning, and then the test I'mma have this afternoon. o_O A demain! Until tomorrow!

Spanish and French

Spanish and French are so alike but so different simultaneously. I learned bits of Spanish throughout my childhood, then I took two years of it in high school. Now in college, I'm switching over to French.

Personally, I think that Spanish is easier, if only because of word pronunciation. "Catorce," which is fourteen in Spanish, is pronounced just like it's spelled: ca-tor-say. The French word is just similar enough to confuse me in both memorization and pronunciation: "quatorze." Because I'm switched from "English" mode to "foreign language" mode when trying to read this, I immediately rebound onto Spanish rules and try to say qua-tor-zay. But no, French doesn't work that way; it's ca-torz.

Hrm, listen to me complaining. Shame on me. French really is awesome, and I'm excited to be able to speak some sentences with it. I've recently been assigned more verbs to learn, so soon I'll be able to do a lot more.

Besides, switching from Spanish to French was a choice, not something mandatory. At my church, anyone who speaks a foreign language speaks French; and I'm pretty sure that most if not all of them learned French first, English second. I switched so that I could communicate with them in their native tongue, and I don't regret my choice at all. (And it doesn't hurt that I get to practice on them, either.)

Well, that's about it for today, I guess. Bottom line: French is awesome.

A demain! (See you tomorrow!)