Going to Hawaii

Fist short apology for having break in posting new blogs. I did not know my French lessons would be so demanding. But I made it. We had lots of fun and at the end an important exam. I am more than happy about my result.

70 out of 100 YES!!!

I did not expect that. I am very happy. Now I need to talk a lot to get used to it. I mean talk French, not talking a lot.

As you could see from my very brief post on Friday I will change location soon.

Hawaii

On the last minute I decided to visit my friend A. in Hawaii. She lives on the Maui Island. The plan is to discover a little the island that is, I was told since my childhood, the island of doing nothing.  As doing nothing is part of many current spiritual teaching I want to find out whether this is truth or not. I am very curious. And who would resist to going on Hawaii.

I am leaving next Monday from Montreal (currently -17^oC) to Hawaii (currently +21^oC).

Todays French word:

Doing nothing - Faire rien.

I Speak French! Do I Want To?

After two weeks of learning French, I remembered many bad experiences I made with French language in the past. I create my own theory about the world languages.

First of all I want to thank Canadians for being very patient with my French. They try much more than French in France. I have read many times French complaints about world not willing to speak French. There is even special Toubon law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubon_Law) in France that shall support and protect French language. No wonder. French is not an easy language, I have heard many times. I was afraid. So many hurdles.

My grammar is not strong in any of languages I speak. I am much more relaxed after two weeks of studying French. In many aspects is French grammar same or similar to Czech. I do understand the misery of ‘English is my mother language’ people. Understanding the concept of everything being HE or SHE must be very stressful. As a Czech person I miss IT. And I have to admit I have also an issue with two different WE. But I hope I will get it soon.

Next hurdle is the vocabulary. From learning previous languages I know it will come with the time.

French favourite hurdle - PRONUNCIATION! Here starts the fun. Whatever you say, French will not understand you. Do they do not want to? Do we all speak so bad? The answer is practice. I hope it helps.

After two weeks of French I do also understand much better why French was, and still is, main language of diplomats. Nobody understands precisely what you are talking about and if they do, they can pretend they do not. Is this a reason why we had so many wars in the past? Most probably not, but doubts remain. In contrast to complicated French is English winning the global language contest with its ‘easy to speak‘ approach. Shall we all in future only learn one language? NO!!!

I come from a small nation - Czech. There are only ca. twelve million people speaking Czech. We were always forced to learn other languages. I enjoy it a lot. I love many things about speaking other languages. You can simply enjoy talk with locals, but some expressions are, in particular language, more precise, funnier or just fit better to the situation. Here is summary of what I like about languages I speak:

German - I like its precise, structured and very technical format. I love the word GENIEßEN. In my ears the word says all about savour and/or enjoy.  

English - I love its ease. Google said English is the language with most words. Possible. I do not know. Maybe the scientists just multiplied all words with number if its users. My favourite word is BELIEVE. It is big and at the same time so close to life.

Russian - soft language, excellently suitable for discussions. Russian are experts in discussing anything. My beloved very emotional word in НЕПЕРЕЖИВАЙ.

Slovak - brother language. We know it best. Favourite word? I love all words used in songs of the Slovak group ELÁN and MAŠKRTNÝ.

... and the best Czech - mother language. What can I say? This quotation pop up in my mind when I was thinking about my favourite word.

Jan Werich, Czech actor and philosopher:

‘... take the word ass = PRDEL. It is in Czech swearing temple. We place where everything we could. We send uncomfortable people there. We even call it in desperation for help ...‘

Todays French word:

Yes, I love speaking French 

Oui, j'adore parler français.

Fragments of Students Life

Every day I experience many small stories ...

Sweet Student’s Life

We adults tend to the opinion students are having great life. Yes, I agree. Part of my experience is very sweet. I am done with the school right after noon. This means the bigger part of the day is still in front of me and I can do whatever I want.. I met couple of interesting people. We have lot’s of fun learning the funny French language.

I have lots of questions.

I ... I ... I cannot name any other advantage of students life.

After being for one week and two days back in the proper school (everyday 9.00 to 12.45) I can name disadvantages easily: home work - our professor is not the nice one, we get everyday some exercises, long list of vocabulary and sometimes also nice verb to learn the conjugation. It takes me usually two to three hours every day to handle everything. I hope my effort will have the right result.

Break? YES!!!

Do you think you have bad job?

Among other is Montreal also port on the confluence of two rivers Rivière des Outaouais and Fleuve Saint-Laurent. In the winter the rivers freezes and become paradise for ice skaters.

Frozen river

Sunday walk in the port was wonderful, than I saw something incredible. First only huge ships trapped in the ice crust and a man standing on the ice.

At that moment I was just wondering what it the man doing there.

When I came closer, I realised there is somebody in the water. Not in only in the water. He was under water repairing / welding the rudder. I have been waiting more than ten minutes to take a picture - him getting out of the water. I hope he did after I left.

Red, orange and yellow is the guy. Do you want to change with him?

Squirrel or Chipmunk

Despite the cold squirrels and chipmunks (for me difficult to distinguish) are everywhere and very active. 

I do not need to sleep. I am fet!

Do they never sleep? I thought all animals in Canada in sleep in winter like bears.

Todays French word:

a remarkable experience - une expérience remarquable

Fourth Day In The Class

Main purpose of my visit, next to spend some time with my friend GI, is learning French. I was eager to write about the experience right on first day. I have to admit I was not able to do it on Monday. I had very mixed feelings after day one. It was not better on Tuesday. Wednesday made me feel ‘what am I doing here?’. And today? I am ready to withstand till the end.

It is interesting that my willingness to finish the course rises with sunny day and is quite low on cloudy days. It is almost as cold as in Moscow. This morning -18^oC and SUNNY!!! 

Our teacher Thomas is French.

Thomas

This makes the learning bit difficult. I am starting to understand why people do not like to speak/learn French. I speak five languages but French (will be the sixth one if everything goes well) taught by a French man is disaster. All other teachers, and I experienced a lot of various systems, were strict with grammar and vocabulary and had understanding for accent. British and Americans are especially generous in that field. French? No way! I agree pronunciation is very important part of every language, but nobody shall exaggerate.

Being Czech native speaker, I am sure Czech language would be very successful in the contest ‘complexity of Czech pronunciation’. Here is best of Czech pronunciation introduced by an Englishman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLfWPmhA-FU.

And this is example of French students speaking Czech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AojMIgZbFMc. 

So Mr. Teacher, what would you say now?

Todays French word

(for context this time with Czech translation):

strč prst skrz krk

Place your finger through the neck

placez votre doigt à travers le cou