French Lit

Parlons de literature au'jourd'hui, d'accord?  I wish I liked French poetry more.  Perhaps I just haven't been introduced to the right author.  Yes, Baudelaire can be good, and Rimbaud and his side-kick, Verlaine (actually I like V. better), but I've just never found specific poets that I admire enough to learn to read well in French.  I have plenty of favorite Spanish and Italian poets, but French poetry sometimes leaves me cold.  That's in no way saying that I'm denying its importance or it popularity with other people.  I just haven't found a poet who keeps me coming back.

I do a little better with prose fiction.  I've enjoyed reading Flaubert and Zola in their original tongue and have almost navigated the whole of Proust's gargantuan series of novels.  There is certainly a wider selection of novels and short stories available in French, the list of famous novelists is striking:  Balzac, Stendhal, Hugo, Camus, Gide....  To be truthful, though I do like Gide quite a bit, I find that it is the fluffier stuff that I return to, e.g., Jules Verne. 

Just as when I'm practicing reading Spanish or Italian fiction, in French I often find myself reading French translations of English novels--most because the stories are already familiar and the French seems a bit easier and less idiomatic.  Naturally, this is really just cheating.  One eventually needs to read French unfiltered and get used to the unique 'flavor' of the prose.

One nice thing about having an i-Pad or Kindle, or some other type of hand-held, is that there are a lot of absolutely free public domain works in every major language.  There are many sites that offer not only ebooks, but also audio-book renditions of many classic French novels and stories and poems.  Just Google 'free ebooks' or 'free audiobooks.'  Happy reading.

A la prochaine...

Le rêve impossible

 I've decided to add a second post today, because I've come to some tentative conclusions about my language learning and wanted to roll it around in my mind for awhile.  The best way to do that, I find, is to write about it.

   

The last several months of juggling French and Italian have forced me to make certain assumptions about learning either of these languages with at least a moderate fluency.

French, Italian, or none of the above?

I've concluded that it is impossible (and I'm not exaggerating) to learn to comprehend spoken French without living in France or at least living with a native speaker for many years.  Speaking French is not the issue here.  My pronunciation is passable, if not good, and I can form most of the basic structures one needs to carry on a simple conversation. It's understanding a native Frenchperson speaking it that is so discouraging.

When I watch an Italian TV show, even if it's original Italian and not dubbed English, I find that even though my Italian vocabulary is much more limited than my French one, I can understand so many more of the words and sentences I'm hearing than I can when watching a similar show in French.   Conversational French, when spoken at a typical pace, is just almost a whole different language than written or very formal French.  For example, when I hear 'Qu'est-ce que se passe?' it sounds like 'Skuh-spahce?'  Of course, English speakers do exactly the same thing:  'Wasappnin? for What's happening?'.  But I don't think I'd ever get the hang of it, without being exposed to it every day and having someone around to do a little patient translating and explaining.  The other day I heard it's common in France to call a week-end le wee.

In some ways, I guess this may be a good thing, because I can continue to improve my French reading and speaking skills, but zero in on Italian vocabulary and comprehension.  Not to offend any French readers out there--I do appreciate French, but Italian has always been more attractive to me.  I think I'd be able to get to a level where I can understand spoken Italian even without too much face-to-face interaction.

But experience has shown that I may feel exactly the opposite tomorrow or the next day.  I guess I'm easily distracted.  :)

Pourquoi? Pourquoi? Pourquoi?

I found the 'My 7 Top...' picture on Google Images and decided I'd try to build today's post around it.  I approach this endeavor cautiously, because I'm not sure I can come up with 7; on the other hand, who knows, once I get warmed up maybe 7 won't be enough.

I suppose I have what has been traditionally described as a love/hate relationship to French.  There are some things I like about it, many of which I'll mention in my list, but other things which I'm either tepid toward or just plain don't care for.  A lot of those puckered up 'pew' sounds sort of grate on my ears at times, as do so many guttural or throaty sounds that sound like one is clearing her throat or has something lodged under his adam's apple and is trying to eject it.  But this is supposed to be about the things I like about it and why I choose to try to learn, if not master, French.  So, here goes:

********************************************************************************

1. For the most part, in spite of the negatives about its distinct audio peculiarities mentioned above, it's a pretty tongue.  French differs from most of the other Romance languages in its paucity of words ending with vowels.  This is somewhat deceptive, though, in the fact that so many final letters are not pronounced that often words end with vowel-like sounds, especially those nasal and guttural sounds.  There are also some very pleasant sounding words--papillon (butterfly) comes to mind.
2. In spite of its habitual use of the subjunctive mood and its unpredictable use of prepositions, I think French is a fairly easy language for English speakers to pick up.  Since modern English owes a great deal of its development to Normal French, there are thousands of English words that either look exactly like French words or a bear an easily recognized resemblance.  Practically all of the words ending in 'tion,' for example, derive from French.  Also the sentence structure, though bearing some significant differences, follows English pretty closely. 
3. French was the first foreign language I was introduced to.  I grew up in a small, rural Mississippi town and it happened to be the only language class offered.  Had I had a choice, I might just as easily have chosen Spanish (at that time not as proliferate in the U.S. as it is now), German, or Italian.  Because the idea of being able to speak in a second language always seemed glamorous and special for me, I transported my enthusiasm to college and majored in French, even getting a B.A. in it.  Thus, I have the advantage of experience (I've studied French off and on informally for decades since then) and trying to master something other than French at this point would be starting back at square one.  In other words, I guess my third reason for learning French is convenience.
4. Wow, I've already made it to four.  Definitely on a roll (en français: dans une bonne passe).  Though not as practical (at least in America) as learning Spanish, French is still widely spoken in various parts of the world.  Quebec is to our north; Haiti's not that far away; and there's French Guyana in South America.  And a dialect 'Cajun' French is spoken in a city I've loved and lived in for several years, New Orleans (Nouvelle-Orléans) and other parts of the state of Louisiana.  I'd find it much easier to locate a French speaker without going to Europe (expensive) than I would be able to conjure up an Italian speaker.
5. Because of its universal popularity as a second language, there is a bounty of learning materials for French.  When I was dabbling in Italian, one problem was that in the U. S. the pickings are slim for books, CDs, online sites, etc., for that language.  And novels and other fiction in Italian?  For get about it; most of them have to be directly imported from Italy, so the shipping costs are astronomical. 
6. French makes you popular.  I'm not completely sure why, but most English speakers swoon over someone of the opposite sex (and sometimes the same sex) chatting away in French.  I suppose it has something to do with English being so akin to French, from the Norman invasion and all.  And it does have some very beautiful rhythms and tones.
7. And finally, there's literature and culture.  French literature has a long and distinguished history.  Some of what are considered the greatest novelists of all time, Proust comes to mind, are French.  And there's philosophy, music, and those zany impressionists painters :).  

Voilà.  Now that wasn't so hard after all.  I'm reasonably confident that I could come up with more, but that will do for now.  French is thriving with no signs of letting up.  What are your reasons for learning French?

A la prochaine...

Fast-Talking Dudes from Provence

Bien.  Today I feel much more French than yesterday, when Italian was rolling around in my head.

I sometimes worry about dialects.  When I read about how, for example, people in Provence speak French so fast and with so many non-standard variations that it's practically indecipherable for someone trained to speak textbook French, I get nervous.  I find that a bit discouraging.  I think one of the best things a language learner can do is avoid such thinking.  I'm not on my way to Provence (and could very well never be), so why fret over something that may never happen?

Lavender Field of Provence, France

I wonder if it works the other way around; if  Provençals understand people who are using standard French.  As for the fast talking, that seems to be a problem no matter what language you're learning.  One must always learn the phrases 'Répétez, s'il vous plaît' and 'Parlez plus lentement' right off the bat.  

One thing that, I think, helps is to practice speaking faster.  That seems to get you used to conditions in which you have to think quickly and to get the main gist of the conversation without concentrating on individual words.  Also, it goes the other way.  Though it's comforting to listen to French spoken at a pace slower than normal conversation, it's not going to help much when you run into a Frenchwoman speaking a mile-a-minute.  

A prochaine...

OK. Remind Me Again, What Language Do I Speak?

 

Eh bien, it's Wednesday, so I must be French today.  Je suis un homme français aujourd'hui.  I know because I rushed to update this blog first as opposed to my Italian one, http://dailyitalian123.blogspot.com/.  As all my thousands of followers (dream-on, Guillaume :)) know, I have a severe case of multiple language personalities and I could wake up on any give day a vieux chevalier, vaquero, o un cavaliere disinvolto.  Pour maintenant, j'suis un gentilhomme français.  No, I'm not a lunatic; I'm only exaggerating (a little).

I think I'm vulnerable to this disorder (dis-ORDER)  

1. because I'm not a very orderly person, and
2. because I'm eager to get to the point where I can carry on a reasonably complex conversation and understand responses in that conversation in at least one language besides English.  

For some reason, it's hard to pinpoint, I'm finding Italian slow-going and that getting even a tiny bit fluent in it would take much, much longer than French or Spanish.  Besides, I'm way ahead of the game in French, because I had four years of formal in-class training in it and have at least partially maintained my skills with it over the years.  As for Spanish, its pronunciation and its compact grammar just seem to make it easier for English speakers to absorb.  When I carry on made-up conversations with myself (Watch it, now!  Je ne suis pas un lunatique) in French, I don't have to struggle to get something out, even if it's not perfect.  When I attempt to do that in Italian, it seems much harder.  Some of that has to do with Italian's quirky rhythm and tones, the very thing that makes it so beautiful.  Syllables in specific Italian words can be stressed just about anywhere, and if you learn the incorrect stress, then it's hard to undo that habit.  French, for the most part has very consistent stress on every syllabe equally, though with a slight emphasis on the last syllable.  I could, I suppose, just learn to read Italian and set French as my 'working' language.  

But I know that though I feel this way today, tomorrow is Thursday and I may wake up Italian, or Spanish, or maybe even German.  Guten Tag!

A la prochaine...

May I Have a Word with You, Please?

I'm in search of a good vocabulary-learning book.  Both for French and Italian.  I have purchased a few, but it seems to me that nobody has quite got the knack of how to teach vocabulary.  Yes, there's the old-fashion method of memorizing long lists.  And there are software programs, such as Anki, that are designed for vocabulary drill and measured repetition of learned words and phrases.  But the only way I truly implant new words in my feeble (and getting feebler by the day) brain is by using them in context.  It's unlikely I'll recall the French word for 'lazy,' paresseux, unless I see it used in a sentence.  M. Stewart est très paresseux.  Also most of these vocabulary books present an overwhelming amount of material.  Yes, they try to break it down into categories, but it still amounts to so many words and expressions that it's impossible to sufficiently drill on them long enough to make them stick.  I'm beginning to think that the best way to acquire new vocabulary is to read, which is the way we beefed up our vocabulary when we were children.  

Still, I'd like to build up a cache of the most commonly used and most helpful, say, 5,000 words in the target language.  If anyone reading this (come out, come out, wherever you are :)) has a favorite vocabulary book or software package or CD, let me know.  

A la prochaine...

Paris Is in France; but Is It France?

Not really up to writing all this in my tentative French today.  We'll have to settle for plain ol' English for awhile.

I suppose that 'French' for most Americans always conjures up Paris, much the way New York City comes to mind when Europeans think of the United States.  But just as NYC is only a small component of les Étas-Unis, Paris is merely the largest and most renown part of La France.  

I think that if I ever get the opportunity to visit France, I'd skip Paris (assuming it's the only trip I'll ever make to that country) and give other less glamorous towns and cities a prominent place on my itinerary.  And I would make sure that I sample all the many regions of the country; I'm sure Bretagne has an entirely different flavor than Nice or Cannes.  

And having lived in New York for many years, I think Paris might get tiresome.  I've seen plenty of museums, plays, and trendy bars.  I'd like to see the French alps or the lavender fields of Provence.  

If a Frenchwoman visits the U.S. and only sees New York City, she will go away thinking all Americans look and think like New Yorkers.  Believe me, this is the farthest thing from the truth.  New Yorkers (even the transported ones) are a breed of their own.  You'd need to stop by Houston, Miami, San Francisco, and even Chicago to get a sense of what such a large country as USA is all about.  I'd think the same would apply to Paris.   

A la prochaine.  Bonne  journée.

Guillaume tente d'écrire en français

J'ai décidé d'essayer d'écrire ce blog entièrement en français pour cette post.  S'il y a des lecteurs qui lisent français couramment, peut-être qu'ils me excuserez de nombreuses erreurs. C'est seulement quand on commence à exprimer des idées quotidiennes en français parlé ou écrit que le progrès commence. 
Même le simple fait d'écrire ces quelques mots est extrêmement plus difficile que de faire un exercice d'un manuel.  

Néanmoins, je vais continuer d'essayer. Je me concentre davantage sur l'italien ces jours, mais c'est idiot de oublier tout mon français. Je ai travaillé trop dur et je ai passé trop d'argent pour simplement oublier tout cela.

Jusqu'à la prochaine,
Guillaume

Trop Vieux?

 Gary Fico, Il est le meme que moi.  I've posted this before, but it's so cute, I couldn't resist reposting.

We've all heard a lot about how difficult, if not impossible, it is for someone older than their teens to learn a new language.  William Alexander in his charming book Flirting with French discusses this humorously and thoroughly and concludes, for the most part, that he's not convinced.  Neither am I.  Even if it is true that a certain part of our brain loses its capacity to recognize new tones and nuances (how they can claim that's true without scanning everybody's brains is beyond me), I feel that older learners bring things to the table that an acne-plagued 16-year-old may not possess.  By adulthood we've finished college, and if we took French or some other second language, we've got most of the grammar and basic vocabulary already snug under our ever-expanding belts.  Also if we take up or resume language study as a late adult, we're probably doing it with conviction (or at least as a serious hobby).  I know when I was studying French in college, I was constantly playing hooky from language lab sessions and did not apply myself nearly as much as I would if I enrolled today.  In addition, more and more self-study materials are being produced all the time these days, and there are programs that will drill us in pronunciation that is closer to a native speaker's.  And so we have an accent.  I know dozens of people who absolutely swoon when they hear someone who is French speaking English with a strong French accent.  And Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau's fake accent in the Pink Panther movies is funny, but endearing.

Seems to me that all those pundits and linguists who publish findings about how we older language learners are doomed to failure would do better to keep that little tidbit to themselves.  It's frightens and discourages perfectly sincere and hard-working people away from the magnificent pursuit of learning a second (or more) language. 

Pimsleur: bon, mauvais ou médiocre?

I've tried to avoid using this site in any way to promote products.  Still, there is one language learning resource that I feel compelled to comment on:  Pimsleur's audio recordings.

I haven't tried Rosetta Stone or Rocket French or any of the other online French instruction programs out there (with the exception of Duolingo, which is free and not bad at all), mostly because I can't afford their steep prices.  Luckily, my local library carries the Pimsleur series of CDs for learning French, so I check those out multiple times.

What I like most about Pimsleur's instruction method is that it introduces very  small chunks of material at a time.  Then the user is allowed to echo and drill on a word, phrase or sentence several times.  And even better, the same material is re-introduced frequently as the lessons proceed.  I find this system very efficacious and I've been pleased with my progress.  For me newly learned material just does not stick in my brain until I've heard it and mimicked it several times.  I also like the content of the programs.  Most of the phrases and sentences are items that one would normally use on a day-to-day basis.  So many French materials are geared toward young high school or college kids and use the familiar 'tu' too much.  Pimsleur seems a little more geared to adults and autodidacts.

I find myself at one point feeling much more comfortable reproducing the sentences and dialogues with confident pronunciation and intonation.  I also really like the fact that the narrator forces the listener to interact and become involved in the material.  He/She will ask questions and leave a pause for the listener to respond to questions that might come up in a typical French conversation on the street.

And finally, another big plus for me is that it's all audio.  This means that I can put the CD into my portable CD player and listen while I'm doing my daily exercise--walking--thus killing two birds with one stone,  though I don't recommend ever killing birds, even one :) 

In Remembrance of Things Past

Marcel Proust (Image from Google Images, Public Domain)

I'm embarrassed to admit that I still have a little trouble determining when to use passé composé or imparfait.  Especially since I have an MA in English, so grammar should come easier in any language.  Most of the time I get it right, but I have to apply a sort of artificial logic.  In English it just seems intuitive.  What helps is the typical textbook recommendation to use 'was' or 'were' as signposts for imparfait and 'has' or 'had' for passé composé.  Every now and then, though, I get it wrong.  I still haven't developed that intuitive assurance in French yet--which is discouraging considering how many years I've put into mastering it. 

I think part of the problem is that in English, both tenses are often expressed by the same word.  'Everyday I played in the park, and I played in the park yesterday.'  The first 'played' is imperfect and means that 'I used to play in the park all the time (ongoing); the second use of the verb implies that I played in the past, but stopped playing when yesterday was finished.  I know this is a very clumsy example, but it's all I can think of for the moment.  The point is that in this case the simple past and the imperfect are the same word.  It's not necessary to say 'Everyday I used to play (or was playing) in the park, and yesterday I have played in the park.'  The tenses are just implied by the 'time words.'  
  
I'm confident that eventually, if I keep my nose to the grind, I will become more confident and spontaneous about distinguishing between the two very essential tenses.  This is probably why trying to learn a language strictly from a textbook and grammar rules is not a good idea.  You just have to learn the distinct rhythm and feel of a language; then often the grammar will just fall into place.  I've mentioned before that when French speakers ask me to explain a component of English grammar, I often find it very difficult to do so, because the structure or phrase has just become so natural after so many years of speaking English.  I often have to pull out old English grammar books in order to find an explanation that will make sense to them.  

But then this is what makes learning French fun.  It's an ongoing process and you learn something new every time you use it.  

 À la prochaine

Comment Dites-On...

One reason I'm so reticent about speaking French, even when a less intimidating opportunity arises, is that I know that you  usually can't just produce a word-by-word rendition of how you'd say it in English.  When I watch French movies or TV programs, or read a French novel, I'm always struck dumb (pardon the pun) by how different certain thoughts and concepts are expressed in French.  First, there's always the preposition problem (Do I use à or de, or some other word?).  Then there are constructions that are completely unlike any in English.  The perfect is example is the verb manquer--roughly meaning 'to miss' or 'to lack something,' but often employed in a completely different way in French.  Fortunately, in some cases the verb behaves in the same way as its English counterpart, e.g., J'ai manqué l'autobus.  (I missed the bus.)  So you're moving right along, plenty satisfied, if not smug, with the way things are going parfaitement and all of a sudden you run into something like this: Véronique me manque. (I miss Veronica).  My first interpretation of this sentence would that Veronica is missing me.  Nice to know someone is :).  But this is not the case.  I am missing Veronica.  Veronica, where are you?!  For me, the only way to get a handle on this is to make it a sort of passive structure:  Veronica is being missed by me.   

I have several native-speaking French pen-pals and all of them say: Your French is pretty good, but that's just not quite the way we'd say that.   These correspondents are also seeking my help with their English, so luckily, for a little while I'm not the one who feels incompetent.  The most frequent mistakes they make when writing me in English are very subtle ones that involve things like word order or prepositions--the very same thing that plagues us learners of French.  Time after time they've written something that it alright grammatically, but would just sound peculiar to a native English speaker.  And boy are these things hard to explain, since I've grown up using these constructions and they just come naturally.  

I guess the lesson to be learned from this is that it takes years (decades, lifetimes?) of daily practice to become truly fluent.  It's impossible to learn every oddity from a textbook or tutor, so you end up just learning a lot of these things by regularly hearing French spoken conversationally and correctly.  Though I've had years of formal training and quite a bit of self-study, when I watch La quatrième dimension on YouTube, I realize how far I have to go.  Which brings me to another road-block:  Why is it that so many English and American movies and TV shows' titles completely change when dubbed or subtitled into French?  Again, that's just not quite the way they'd say it.  

À la prochaine.

On a Slow Boat to Paris

Joyeux mardi.  The general consensus has always been that in order to learn a foreign language, it is necessary to live for an extended period of time somewhere that the language is spoken every day.  Just having a Francophone partner, so say the nay-sayers, is not enough, because the learner will simply not be thrown into enough realistic situations.  Going into a patisserie in Lyon is a different experience from chatting with your partner about what she did today.  Who am I to argue with the language big-shots?

Well, I'm Guillaume, that's who, and I question everything.  Oh, alright, I know I'm getting my feathers ruffled again and need to have another cup of coffee, but I take take issue with a learning philosophy that is not available to Francophiles who don't have the financial resources to to travel to France, Quebec, or Africa-- either when they were students or now.  I most definitely fall into that category.  Yes, I won't argue that immersing oneself in French culture, society, and politics, as well as everyday spontaneous conversation with French-speakers is surely one of the fastest and most efficacious ways to learn French, but the question is still:  Are there valid alternatives?

Before the arrival of the Internet, I'd probably would have said no--or at least not likely.  Before the World Wide Web made its triumphant entry into our lives, the only way to expose oneself to regular foreign language conversation was by listening to recorded dialogue.  Though this method did help you learn correct pronunciation and through daily listening and repetition eventually assisted in acquiring a working vocabulary and confidence in speaking the language, there was very little opportunity to interact.  Now, you can get on the 'Net and find French dialogues with audio and video capabilities that give the feel of actually being engaged in a conversation.  Some have speech recognition through which you can check your pronunciation.  There are also interactive DVDs that also provide many of these features.  We've come a long way since language lab tapes.

And there are other venues also:  French 'chat rooms,' pen-pals, private tutors, etc.  The latter is a choice that again requires beaucoup d'argent, but I'm saving my monnaie to hire one down the line.  [by the way, if anyone finds mistakes in the French I use on this blog, don't be shy about correcting me (but, on the other hand, don't be méchant. I'm sensitive.  :)]

Looking back (ah, if I only had a euro for every time I've said that), it's clear that when I was a young French major at the University of Mississippi, I should have been more resourceful and dedicated.  I should have spent more time in the language lab than with my head in books, and I should have sought a private tutor--there were French exchange students who would have probably offered this service either for free or for practically nothing.  Yet, there are always second chances, or third ones.  My new motto is 'Paris or bust.'  À la prochaine. 

Grammatically Speaking...

Bonjour, mes chers lecteurs. Comment ça va aujourd'hui?

Yesterday I was shocked and appalled!  You'll say: Guillaume, cut the melodrama and get on with the post.  Vous avez raison. Je suis désolé.  Still, yesterday's experience was quite an eye-opener.

What I did was drag out some of my old beginner/intermediate French grammar books.  Thinking it would be a breeze, I began to work through some of the exercises, quickly discovering that my French grammar sucks.  No, I'm not saying that I don't have a reasonably good grasp of basic French grammar; I do.  But I did struggle practicing the use of direct and indirect pronouns and made a lot of mistakes with irregular verbs.  

My recent forays into Italian and Spanish have exacerbated this problem.  Now with my hesitant attempts to speak French, I sometimes struggle to find the right word, because it's the Italian or Spanish that comes to mind, a situation made even worse by the fact that the words in all three languages are sometimes quite similar.  That's one reason why I've changed the focus of this blog to French only.  I may go back to the other languages after I feel more confident that I've have a workable grasp of French.

One of the best grammar texts I've found is from the Schaum's Outline series.  For some reason, when you browse for French books on Amazon, these books are way, way down the list of results.  Yet, the user ratings are always nearly perfect.  What I like about the series is that it presents grammar in very small chunks followed by dozens and dozens of exercises.  For me exercises help me solidify my learning.  Schuam's also has a volume for French vocabulary.  I'm not as satisfied with the vocabulary book as I am with the grammar volume, though.  I've yet to find a good book for learning foreign language vocabulary.  Almost all of them just provide huge lists of words on several topics that quickly become overwhelming and impossible to absorb.  A better approach would be to have lists that are divided into most-used words.  The first list would be, say, the top 1000 most frequently used words; the second list the next most-used 1000, etc.  If anyone knows of a book that uses such an system, please comment. 

Fast-Talking Guy

Where does one word end and another begin?  How do you train the brain to process words, phrases, and sentences that are not only unfamiliar but seem to fly by like a flock of oiseaux?  Such is one of the primary complaints of language learners.  Parlez plus lentement, s'il vous plaît becomes one of the most essential sentences--right after Répétez, s'il vous plaît.  

Though French learners often complain that native speakers simply speak at too fast a clip for good comprehension by students of the language, Spanish probably gets the worst rap.  And indeed there is something about Spanish that makes it sound as if the speakers are hurrying through the words just to get them out as fast as possible.  Experts claim that this is just an illusion and that Spanish speakers deliver their speech no faster than any other language is spoken.  Still, when I listen to Spanish, it does seem to whiz by like a flock of pájaros.  I'd say that it's because, though there is less grammatical elision in Spanish than in French, a colloquial speaker will invariably merge vowels on the ending of a word with vowels at the beginning of the word that follows.  And because Spanish is rife with vowels, the results are sentences that contain words that are crunched together.  Presumably a learner will naturally adjust to this, but it rough going at first.

With French (and this is just my experience, so you may not agree) there is a lot of elision of words, but you're also confronted with the tendency of French to leave off entire endings of words, sometimes 3 or 4 characters at a time.  And (forgive me, you native speakers out there) sometimes it just seems that speakers mumble over words or slur them in a way that distorts their sounds.  Believe me, I'm not criticizing, just stating what I've found to be true.  Now, I'm well aware that English speakers also do this very thing, so that 'What are you doing? becomes 'Watchadoin.'  My struggle with understanding the French in movies and TV shows has made me much more sympathetic to what English learners have to go through.  I'm amazed that they can pick it up at all.

Also, a whole lot of the problem seems to stem from the difficulty we have hearing unfamiliar tones.  Again, research has shown that after a certain age we begin to lose the ability to discern new sounds.  See this article. Odd, isn't it?  It's almost as if we've evolved to learn one language as children and stick to it.  I wonder if that was some kind of survival technique:  I know you're not my enemy because you speak my language.  If I can't understand a word you are saying, then I'd better either fight or flee.  Who knows?

I agree with this idea, though, because even people who have studied English for years (but did not learn it as children) speak with an 'accent.'  There are certain sounds, often vowels, that are very close to correct, but not quite.  I'm sure that native French persons hear the same peculiarities in novice French speakers.

I guess the moral of this story is that learning French is not just about memorizing conjugations and vocabulary words.  One must listen carefully and constantly practice reproducing correct sounds.  Then after much time and patience, perhaps those oiseaux and pájaros will come into focus. 

If I Were a Carpenter and You Were a Picchio

As I write this post, I'm hearing the sound of a woodpecker drilling away at some wall outside.  It doesn't seem to be making much progress penetrating the hard wood of the wall.  Here are the words for woodpecker in French, Italian, and Spanish.

French: pic (how compact and appropriate!)
Italian: picchio (the French and Italian word clearly came from the same root)
Spanish: pájaro carpintero (Cool. a carpenter bird.  Again very appropriate)

Though language instruction books make a valiant effort to provide comprehensive and practical vocabulary lists for learning, inevitably the time will come when you need a word not usually presented in beginners' textbooks (or even advanced ones for that matter).  With mobile phone apps with foreign language dictionaries, you no longer have to lug around a dictionary, but still, if you're in the middle of a fascinating conversation with your new Italian friend, there's seldom time to punch in a word.  

This is where useful phrases such as ¿Cómo se dice "woodpecker" en español? come in handy.  How do you say 'woodpecker' in Spanish.  There are similar expressions in French and Italian.  You may get lucky and your partner knows the English word you are trying to define.  If not, if you know the word for 'peck' and for 'bird,' you might get by with 'How do you say the word for a bird who pecks?'  Feel free to use hand gestures (using your fingers to 'peck' at your hand, perhaps).

In essence, it's impossible to learn every word in another language, just as most of us don't know every English word.  The key is to get creative.  Hmmm, that pic has finally stopped pic'ing.  What a relief!

Accent! What Accent?

Having grown up in the U. S. Deep South, I was at first intimidated by the reaction of the Michiganders I lived among in the mid '70s to my 'Southern Accent'.  Later I was more amused than anything else.  It seems that every region thinks outsiders are saying it all wrong.

What is referred to as an accent, often is much more complicated than that.  Different regions use different idioms, vocabulary, and sentence structure.  And yes, there is often a distinct way that syllables in words are stressed.  This was pointed out to me when a Northern friend commented on the difference between the way I pronounced the word 'Thanksgiving' and the way Bostonians did.  We say 'ThanksGIVing,' she said.  You say 'THANKSgiving.'  And I had to admit that she was on to something.  There really is a difference in the way southerners accent some words.

It's only natural to wonder how this came about.  My guess is that during the long evolution of English, with German and French intervention, certain areas of Britain produced words slightly differently.  Thus, when the language was transported to North America, certain settlers retained certain accents.

In general, I've found my Southern accent something that I can control, and also often a big asset.  When I lived in New York, most New Yorkers found a slight Southern accent charming.  They did not, on the other hand, like heavy accents--finding them too countrified.  When they did tease me about my Southern roots, I quickly brought to attention their own peculiar New York or, especially, Brooklynese.  Then they quietened down and became very self-conscious.   

The Woman Is in Paris--Or Is She on, at, or to Paris? Prepositions: Gotta Love 'em

I don't know a lot about the use of prepositions in non-Latin-based languages, except for English, of course, but I'd say learning the correct usage of those tiny, but powerful words is among the biggest challenges for learning to speak grammatically.

Are we in the restaurant or at the restaurant?  In a sense, we're both, no?  In English we'd be more apt to say we're at the restaurant:  Where are you now?  I'm at the restaurant.  But if I were to say I'm in the restaurant, everyone would understand me--it would just sound a tiny bit odd.  There are situations, though, in which 'in' would work better:  The restaurant was crowded, but I eventually got in.

It just seems that such subtlety makes it almost impossible to be right every time.  If choosing the correct preposition even in ones native language is tricky, then that's doubled or tripled when trying to use them in a language you are trying to learn.

Most language instructors say to lighten up.  Don't let the prospect of misusing a preposition stop you from attempting to speak regularly for practice.  Over time, they'll just come naturally.  I know in English, I hear perfectly educated people using prepositions incorrectly.  I'm sure I do it myself all the time.  This is why it's usually advisable to simply sentence structures as much as possible when you're first learning to speak a language.  If your house is on fire, you may not get the desired reaction if you say:  'My house is at fire.'  Why not just point to yourself and to the house and say:  Fire! if you're not sure what pronoun to use?

I've struggled with preps in French, Italian, and Spanish for years.  There are a few hard and fast rules, but sometimes it's just a matter of memorizing the correct form.  I live on Fifth Avenue, but I live in New York.  Other languages might say 'I live at New York.  Amazing how such little words can be such a big pain in the neck. 

You're Taking Russian at Ole Miss? What, Are You Crazy?

Why do some people love studying foreign languages, and others would rather have a root canal or clean the kitchen?  I remember fellow college students who groaned in agony when they were confronted with the dreaded language requirement component of their education.  Whereas, I cheerfully signed up for Russian 101--believe-you-me, not a popular class at the University of Mississippi at the time.  It felt more like a graduate seminar, with around five or six intrepid students sitting around a conference table, all there for various reasons.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Fun.

Having been brainwashed that college courses needed to be 'relevant,' I tried to convince myself that I'd use my Russian when I became an interpreter at the United Nations offices in New York (or in the event that I should ever marry a Bolshevik).  Well, I did end up living in New York awhile, but I never set foot in the UN.  Such are the dreams of a naive young undergrad.  I also managed to convince myself that such obscure courses as 'Peoples of Africa' and 'Native American Studies' were also somehow 'relevant' to my career plans.  Such an imagination I had back then!  Fun.

Still, I never really lost my enjoyment of learning languages.  There's just something thrilling about using different words to express oneself.  Of being able (at least every now and then) to understand what someone from a far-away culture has to say, and sometimes knowing that they understand what you are saying in their language.  There is something powerful and exhilarating about the ability to carry on a conversation with thousands of people who would have otherwise been unavailable to you.  In a word, I guess it makes me feel smart.  Perhaps computer programmers feel this, in a way, since coding is basically a language. Speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a different language requires you to think in a different way.  That's why languages borrow phrases and concepts from one another.  It's that old  je ne sais quoi.

Speaking in a second or third language requires catching on to entirely different cadences, vocabularies, and sounds.  When I speak in Italian, or French, or Spanish (I've long ago forgotten the piddly Russian I knew) I feel for a moment like an Italian, Frenchman or Spaniard.  It transports me to a different world.

I don't know if I will ever become truly fluent in a foreign language; I'd like to think that.  But if not, the process itself keeps me inspired.  So, back to my Spanish audio CDs.  There's trabajo to be done. 

Here's a brisk Spanish song called Las Moscas (The Flies) by the great Joan Manuel Serrat:

 

Grow Up! You May Be Cute, but You're Not a Bambino Anymore

Today's word is STUBBORN. 

In italiano:  testardo
En español: terco
En  français: têtu

Once again, I think the Italian wins hands down, though têtu does have a spunky ring to it.

The trendy thing in language acquisition now is to lose the textbooks and grammar and immerse oneself in an exclusively audio program.  The argument is that that is how children learn their native language, going for several years mostly just listening.  I mean, why say anything when you can get what you want by crying vociferously and throwing a speechless tantrum?  Now, I would not argue that part of a good language program is daily listening and speaking--that's a given.  But the problem with completely eliminating reading and writing from your daily practice is that it is possible, very likely I'd say, that you simply can't believe your ears.  There are certain subtle tones in the languages that I'm concentrating on that I would either not hear or would mis-hear (Alright, I know there's no such word, but hey, it's my blog).  Research in language acquisition has shown that over time the portion of our brains that govern our ability to recognize new and different sounds begins to decline rapidly as we become adults.  Thus, if I were to try to learn a language that has a preponderance of sounds that are never uttered in English, such as, say, Swedish, I'm almost sure that I would pick up some very bad habits if I relied solely on listening.  Even with the Latin-based languages there are many sounds that take a lot of getting used to (and a lot of mimicking practice).  The worst thing about this is that, at least for me, once I've started mispronouncing a word or phrase, it's hard for me to relearn the correct pronunciation.  Especially if I constantly re-enforce the error by steady repetition.  

Still, I think the language experts are on to something when they condemn the old-style way of learning new languages by focusing exclusively on reading, writing, and grammar.  I know for certain that all those years I spent in college learning French through grammar drills left me unable to carry on even the most basic conversation or to comprehend more than a word or two when listening to a native speak the language.  What works for me is to read a text first, paying special attention to how the word looks on paper as opposed to how it should be pronounced, and then to listen to the same text in an audio version.  As your learning progresses and you gain confidence in recognizing and mimicking difficult sounds, you can begin to de-emphasize  grammar and do some more straight listening.  Now, now.  Don't be têtu.  That's childish.

The Tortilla Pleases Me (and I'm Hard to Please)

Have you been practicing your target language every day?  Do you remember the Spanish or Italian or French word for lazy?  For today's assignment, look up the word 'unmotivated' in the language you're learning.  In Spanish it's desmotivado.  Uh-oh.  Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed.  The word for 'to whine' in Italian is piagnucolare--purty, ain't it?

For me one of the most annoying grammar points in both Italian and Spanish involves the way those languages express the idea of liking something.  It definitely makes me piagnucolare and at times causes me to be desmotivado.  It's only recently that I've begun to get the hang of it.  Let's start with an example.

In English we say:  'I like the tortillla.'  (If you don't like tortillas, then substitute huevos rancheros or your favorite dish).  I can see you're going to be trouble today.  In Spanish, this would be expressed as 'The tortilla pleases me,' Me gusta la tortilla.  I know some smart-assed smart students would immediately catch on to this, but at first I had a rough time with it, because it is such a different construction than in English.  Not only is the familiar 'I' missing (yo) but it has been replaced with what is normally a direct object pronoun, me.  And if it's first person singular, why isn't the verb in the third person singular gusto?  Well, as I'm sure you've already surmised (boy do I have some bright readers out there) that the pronoun is treated as a direct object and the verb is correctly presented as third person singular.  It gets even trickier when we use the plural:  'I like tortillas.'  Me gustan las tortillas.  The tortillas are now the subject and I am the object, so I need gustan, not gusto.  Those tortillas are in the process of pleasing me.  Thanks, tortillas!  And what if you want to say They like the tortillas? Easy enough.  Simply begin the sentence with the third person plural pronoun:  Les gustan las tortillas.  Or, A loro piace i spaghetti.  Here's a very good explanation of this construction:  http://www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/spanish-grammar/how_to_say_I_like.shtml.

Italian has an almost identical structure.  I like spaghetti becomes Mi piace i spaghetti.   Spaghetti pleases me--as indeed it does.  It takes a little practice, but after awhile this loses its strangeness.

Jeez, now I'm hungry.  All that talk about spaghetti and tortillas has really worked me up.  How 'bout ordering up a pizza for us.  Or would you rather Mexican? Tú pagas?  Bueno, bueno.  Eres muy generoso!

Every Country Has Its Histoire, Storia, Historia

Ah, those of you who dropped by for the daily posting yesterday were treated to another cogent, thoroughly researched article on the Google/Bing Translator controversy.   Thoughtfully composed by our intrepid West Coast correspondent Thalia's ghost writer, this piece carefully dissects the pros and cons of both translation tools and concludes that though both come up short, they do provide a point of reference.  Thank you, Ms. T. for once again providing us with useful, up-to-date, and meticulously tested information. My own experience with Bing and Google Translation tools has been mixed.  It's far from perfect, but like a spouse, it's nice to have around.

Today, let's discuss history.  Over time in my language studies, I've concluded that it is beneficial to add non-language-related components to my study routine.  Though reading a history or travel book about the country where your target language is spoken does not directly assist you in learning how to speak, write or read (unless you read the book in the target language), it does help you to get your bearings and to get a feel of the geography and culture of the region where the language is used.  I think I'd enjoy a trip to Mexico even better if I knew about its background and its people.

I mention Mexico, because Spanish is the language I'm presently working on.  Those who know me will tell you that I'm all over the globe when it comes to learning languages and you never know whether I'll be immersed in Italian or fumbling with my French.  Today, though, I feel Spanish--¡Olé!.  So, I checked out two books from the library yesterday; one a history, The Life and Times of Mexico by Earl Shorris, and a novel, James Michener's Mexico.   I thought the novel would be a little more fun, and Michener, as I recall, inundates all of his books with background history.  I've just started reading, so I'll have to defer a thorough review until later.

What about you.  Do you think it's worthwhile to read background material for the language you're learning?  Or is it time that would be better spent learning the nuts and bolts of linguistics and grammar?  Seems to me that when in Rome you can't do as the Romans do, unless you know what they did.  If I ever go to Mexico again (I've been to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Guadalajara (loved Guada!), I think I'd enjoy it even more if I knew how it came to be Mexico (or Meh hee koh, as they pronounce it). 

¡Hasta luego, lectores!