Anyway talking of Romance languages I got so bored of German ~ which quite frankly is NOT doing it for me ~ I went out and purchased a Collins Robert French dictionary for £6.50 (second hand) and a selection of books. One about a Burmese monk called Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée a guide to rocks and minerals: Roches, cristaux, minéraux by the way I do think it's vulgar when in English people pluralize "bureau" with an S! The proper spelling is BUREAUX. You eat gâteaux in bureaux on plateux of vast mountains! My final French book is a murder mystery by J P Manchette titled Fatale. It's only 139 pages so I'm looking forward to that. Plus someone has helpfully biro'd in notes of their own to save my time at that Collins Robert!I should hopefully have a Linguaphone SPANISH COURSE. 4 books and 8 CDs winging its way to me. I got it on ebay for £35! So I'm very much into romance languages at the moment. Remember, before y'all tut tut on how fickle I am that my goal is to speak French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. I just got temporarily tired of Chinese and German isn't inspiring me these days. French literature is just so stately. Some of the best books in the world were written in French. I'd love to be able to read Victor Hugo and Emile Zola in the original. Not to mention Flaubert's Madame Bovary ~ which I've only ever seen on television. Amazingly well adapted, it has to be said.
I always thought Madame Bovary was a junkie who just happened to live in an era before the proliferation of hard drugs. In today's world a woman with a taste for things beyond her reach would tend to seek solace in chemicals. In her day, even as wife of a country doctor, the only things available to her would have been laudanum and possibly cocaine. Strange to think of Madame Bovary nosing up a line off her posh rosewood dining table, but there you go.Now I must off. I got a box set of Six Feet Under, one of my favourite television programmes of all time. I like the bit with the bipolar brother weeping and wailing in the kitchen and Rachel Griffiths says "if you're looking for the olives, honey, they're right here"....
It takes great intestinal fortitude to write for children or anyone else and trying to get published is a feat in itself. Good luck. I loved six feet under. I think it's the only series I've watched consecutively, mind you I was debilitated after an op at the time but never got bored with it.
ReplyDeleteC'est LA romance, feminine (of course:-) . I used to think it wouldn't matter too much if I got the wrong "gender" of a word when I worked in France, but it obviously did . . So when I wasn't sure (most of the time) I tried to use a word which was kind of a cross between le & la to keep my options open. Or even change the sentence so I could use the plural. Good idea to study though,I wish I had more free time to study -I love languages but I cant imagine tackling chinese or similar. . . .just had to delete about 20 lines of A'S & S's where I fell asleep :-) been a long day, Hope yours has been good.
ReplyDeletetake care, with love
di x
Good for you, Gled, in studying a new language. I would but I'm no linguist.
ReplyDeleteJanice~
come back gledwood!!! is anyone else worried?its been a week....
ReplyDeleteHi . .I've never known you go for a week with no post . .even when you are using the library. I hope this is because you are too busy enjoying life & languages? . . .or maybe engrossed in the book you are writing? Hope all things are good with you- or at least most things. Take good care
ReplyDeletewith love as always
missing you
di x
Buggerlugz I am no good at gender I'm confused enough about my own let alone gerzillions of abstract words har har
ReplyDeleteyes Baino 6 Foot Under (as I would call it) was by far the best soap opera (if you want to call it that) I've ever seen....
Janice: anyone can learn a new language. If you can learn new words in English you can learn new words in Foreign. Especially Spanish ~ don't you have entire TV channels out where you are devoted to las telenovelas? I wish we had that here!!
Anon: I'm alive and surviving. Ukh.
Sorry to worry anyone who was worried I got so wrapped up in 6 foot under and that french novel i did nothing else for days on end.....
Buggerlugz your French is so much better than mine ;-)
ReplyDeleteDid you do an A Level? And if so how come you remember it so well? If you didn't do an A Level, how on earth did you learn French so well?
I only got a grade C. I was one grade lower than predicted in everything and felt a complete failure. That was the start of my downfall. Shit A Level results. It's been downhill ever since.