Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Too busy enjoying myself

Sorry, mon cheres, that I have not written in a couple of days.
1. I have a lot of homework. Vraiment!
2. When I'm not doing homework and the weather is nice, I get out and about and jump in a bus and let it take me wherever. Chances are, in Paris I will find something pretty and interesting.

The French Language. Yes, it is beautiful and sexy and sounds great. But I have to say, it is not the most practical or common sensical language. Yes, everything is kinda logical, until you get to the exceptions, which are many and seem totally arbitrary. A language that requires 27 vowels to make the sound "ew", doesn't seem very practical to me. Unfortunately, I decided long ago, in a fit of arrogance and quite unnecessarily, I might add, that grammar is not my friend and that its rules suck and that I learn languages by hearing and seeing. This approach helped me to understand the word for fruit vendor in Czech when I was in Prague, but it has not helped me in my pursuit of French. The good news is that between Spanish and English I can more or less wing it. Meaning that half the words and some of the grammatical structures are similar to Spanish, and some words are also familiar from English. The bad news is I still don't talk for shit. although I think I do a little bit more than when I arrived.
Today was the first day of phonetics lab. You sit in front of a contraption with a cassette tape recorder and you listen to yourself speak in French. And that's how they teach you to pronounce correctly. It's pretty cool. I am really enjoying the classes (even though my teacher is a bit ditzy and all over the place) and even the homework, since I usually do it perched on a chair in the benevolent shade of the Luxembourg Gardens, which I repeat, in case you didn't get the memo, are stunningly breathtaking right now. This is the way to do homework, people: in the middle of a gorgeous garden with an almond raspberry croissant (that weighs close to a ton) in hand. Having eaten a sandwich of jambon de pays, gruyere and sun dried tomatoes in a crusty, light baguette. Homework? Bring it ON!
Still, French, ces't pas facile.

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