yet another faux-pas.

omg. that reminds me of something I found hilarious. and embarrassing. at the same exact moment!

In my Friday French lesson, I had to write (in French, of course) a summary of a bad internet shopping experience I've had. This is a typical example of the kind of work we do .... something real life .... and then, during the lesson we discuss all of my *les erreurs* as well as the topic at hand.

anyway, so I was relating a bad eBay experience with a female vendor and in my story I referred to her as la Madame. Because I had previously learned that instead of saying l'homme for when you want to say 'the man' ... did this or that, it is better to say le monsieur.

so Laurence tells me, with a chuckle, that it is not la madame. unless you are referring to someone who was of royalty. or worked in a brothel!!!

well, if I had a euro for every time I've said la madame instead of la dame, I could buy myself and a hot le monsieur a nice dinner somewhere. lord knows how many women I've referred to as being house-of-ill-repute employees!

why oh why didn't one of my French friends correct me by now????!!!

why? because I'm the entertainment, folks.

sigh.

a few more tidbits for the parlez-vous'ing

ça vaut la peine (it's worth it)
à peu prés (approximately)
s'a me touche (it touched me)
se sentir bien/mal (I'm feeling good, bad)
combien de temps (how long, referring to time)
combien de fois (how many times)
J'ai besoin de ton aide (I need your help)
Je me suis bien amusé (I had a good time)
appeler = téléphoner (to phone)
ça t'a plu? (did you like it?)
oui, ça m'a plu or non, ça ne m'a pas plu
faire la grasse màtinée ('sleep in' morning)
Mes amis m'ont dit que (my friends told me that)
il m'a dit/elle m'a dit (he/she told me)
un roman (novel)
perdre les clés (lose the keys)
à l'étranger (abroad)
un étranger (a stranger)
sauf (except)
je n'ai pas bien dormi (I didn't sleep well)
une autre fois (another time)
enlever (take off)
Merci pour ton aide (thanks for your help)
se tromper (mistake)
prendre un verre (take a drink)
Tu aimerais déjeuner avec moi? (Would you like to have lunch with me?) chez moi? (at my house)
faire les devoirs (doing the homework)



Oh, the poppy image is one that will be incorporated into a mural on the ceiling of the 'cage escalier' (staircase) ... do you like it?

returning to our irregular programming.

between Dennis Kucinich and Cheech & Chong, I may have confused my audience. So back to the scheduled French report live from ... you guessed it ... France!

I may have mentioned that I have begun French lessons. I started with a one-week, intensive, group program with 5 participants, including me. There were four women and one man, including an English couple and two women - one American, one English (and then me). why does this bring to mind those word problems from 6th grade math ...

The school was recommended to me by my friend Marjo. Its located in Thiviers, about 25km from me. La Petite Maison des Langues is owned by Laurence Saunders and offers classes in French and English. She is a very kind and effective teacher. I was interviewed by phone to determine my speaking ability and placed in the Nouveaux Intermediate group. I think this is basically the next step after beginner; there are 2 levels of intermediate and then on to advanced. I'm shocked I made it there given my lack of professiona

Everyone in the group had been taking lessons for some period of time. I have not attended lessons since high school ... so my trepidations began during introductions. I quickly discovered there was a broad range of ability in the group. Some with better vocabulary and grammar ... but so-so on the pronunciation and spontaneity. The other American in the class, god bless her cotton socks ... has a very strong accent and apparently no one has told her yet about the importance of being able to reproduce French sounds. The uuu-ing and ahn-ing that go on. (See RG, I told ya). And then there is me, stuck in the verb present and mixing conjugations right and left. But with a good accent. And the willingness to just go for it. Laurence says she is impressed that I always find a way to express myself even with a lesser vocabulary/grammar. yay me!

Speaking French 3 hours a day (in the MORNING-ack) was draining and exhilirating at the same time. But I'm so glad I did it, it kick-started my zeal for improving my French. And now, I have 2 things in my favor ... Jean-Yves is back (daily free language practice) and I am taking 1:1 classes 2x a week for 2 hours each lesson. This will go on for 4 weeks and then a new group forms in the fall.

The downside of all of this is I've discovered just how much I've been getting wrong with regards to grammar and vocabulary. How embarrassing! Apparently I might as well just have a big Touriste stamped on my forehead with all of my "c'est possibles" and "je voudrais's". harumph.

So RG, you and me kiddo. Let's be French class pen-pals and buddies. Remember homework buddies?

(image from procorbis.com)