I’m alive and well. Long day at work yesterday. I did get to practice some French on my drive to and from work, however. My drive is 62 miles one way, so I have 2 hours and 10 minutes a day to listen to spoken French. I have the French Berlitz beginner and intermediate CDs which are great because I get to ECOUTEZ ET REPETEZ! I listen to the dialogues and repeat them at the sound of the tone. It is easier to understand because the speed of the dialogue is much slower than natural speak.
When I got home today I went straight for grammar for about an hour – studied three chapters. It’s a good refresher for me to go back and try to get the basics so that I can build on it. Sometimes I do get so frustrated when I see things I know but just can’t remember what it means and then have to grab the dictionary, but I will continue to press on. I finally finished “Je T’amerai Toujours” – I read the rhyme over and over again hoping I’m pronouncing it correctly!
Je t’aimerai toujours (I will love you forever)
La nuit comme le jour, (night as day)
Et tant que je vivrai, (and as long as I’m living)
Tu seras mon bebe (my baby you’ll be)
Ok, maybe too childish, but I learned some vocabulary:
tendrement (tenderly), doucement (gently), agenouiller (to kneel) demenager (to move)
I forgot to mention in my previous posts that I am reading Julia Child’s book, “My Life In France”. It’s delicious and delightful, and a true homage to la belle France. In this memoir, Julia recounts her love affair with tout le chose francais (everything French). As I read I can feel the reverence, admiration and respect she develops for a culture that was completely unknown to her. Why can’t more Americans be like that! There’s a whole world out there people!
“I tried to hold on to my impressions,” she writes, “but it was hopeless, as if I were trying to hold on to a dream. No matter. France was my spiritual homeland: it had become part of me, and I a part of it..”
Just call me Julia…a demain!
