FIA Challenge Week 1

The first week of the challenge was pretty rocky. Perhaps I should have taken another week's break after the end of the semester before starting. The first four days went fine but the last two did not go as planned. I ended up watching part 15 and 16 just once on Saturday. Too many Kdramas to watch. Sigh. However, these are my notes for the week.

Part 14

Grammar/Sentence Structure

Imperfect Tense- Remove ons from nous form and add ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient.   NB For ger and cer verbs, the e and ç changes that normally occur in the nous form, occur preceding the endings beginning with 'a'. e.g Je mangeais

Usage:

To give background information (like in Korean)

To talk about things you used to do often

To talk about an action that was interrupted (in my opinion like past continuous was -ing)
Mainly used when using avoir, être, devoir, vouloir, savoir and pouvoir in the past.

Phrases worth noting
C'est le combien?- It is the what?  (When asking the date)
Bons baisers- xoxo at the end of a letter
Je me sauve.- I'm leaving
Elle s'en va.- She leaves.
Ça suffit comme ça. - That's enough.
Qu'est-ce qui se passe?- What is happening?
De quoi sagit-il?- What is it about?
Il sont assis en face l'un de l'autre.- They are seated opposite one another.


Part 15

Grammar/Sentence Structure
Compter faire quelque chose- Plan to do something
Ne..pas que - Not only


Phrases worth noting
Qu'est-ce qu'il a?- What is wrong with him?
Il n'y a pas que ca a Paris.- That's not all there is in Paris.

Part 16 

Grammar/Sentence Structure
Profiter de + noun - Make use of noun
Avoir envie de + verb- Want to do verb
Qu'est-ce que/Que + adjective /Quel(le) + noun - Used in exclamations e.g. Que c'est jolie (How pretty!) Quelle merveilleuse matinee de printemps (What a wonderful spring morning!)

Phrases worth noting
Je ne vois vraiment pas le rapport entre A et B.- I don't see what A has to do with B.
Il n'y a aucun rapport.- That has nothing to do with it.

Tenir- To have (on you/in hand)

Summer 2016 Plans - French In Action Challenge

If you take a look at the archives of this blog you will see that there are posts from 2013 and only from 2013. When I first started this blog I have no idea what the real purpose was. I guess that is why my motivation to post things fizzled so quickly.

This summer, however, I plan to give 'Bajan Language Lover' a fresh new start. I created a cheesy new banner and put down my plans for the blog on paper. Well not really on paper - in the About section. People say that when you write down your plans and let other people know about them, you are a lot more likely to stick to them and so that is what I did. We will see how well this works out. I aim to put up a blog post at least once every two weeks. I won't make any unrealistic plans.

Also, I plan to give my French studying a new start as well. Over the semester I was not able to study any languages so this summer I plan to get my fill. I was contemplating for a long time which language I should study. I knew I wasn't going to study Korean because I give most of my time to Korean. Even if I am not deliberately studying it, there is no doubt about it that I will watch some sort of Korean TV show. It was therefore a toss up then between Chinese and French. I felt that I neglected French for too long and so French it is.

I plan to take on what I call the "French In Action Challenge"(FIA). French in Action is a 52 part series created by Pierre Capretz which is mainly used at Yale University. Initially it was an audio program but it was also turned into a video series which can be found online. I started the series before but only made it to part 13 or so. I always had it in mind to finish the series, so I plan to use it to study this summer. I had to think for a while about what the challenge should entail because I didn't want to simply watch the videos. This is what I came up with.

The FIA Challenge Details

Since each part is around 30 minutes long,  each week I will cover three parts. My week will go like this :

Monday- Part 1
Tuesday-  Part 2
Wednesday-  Part 3
Thursday-  Part 1
Friday-  Part 2
Saturday - Part 3

Simple right? Each day I will watch the video twice in the morning , listening only, and twice again at night, this time trying to repeat what the actors say. In addition to watching the videos, during the day I plan to do related grammar exercises from this textbook that I own. From the looks of it, I would spend around 3 hours a day. Each week I also will (try to) post a short update on what I learned in the previous week.

By the end of the summer I should complete at least 33 of the parts.

I think that this is enough of a challenge. I think that it is going to be more of a determination and motivation challenge than an actual learning challenge.

Was that a joke??

I was talking to my friend from Guadeloupe on Skype using the voice call feature. Most times we just speak English so she can improve  and also because when we first "met" I was not studying French.
The last two times though she encouraged me to try my French. She was telling me a story about her experience with some delicious Chinese food. The story's ending was to be a joke. Instead of the story having a climatic ending, it just fell flat. Why? I did not understand. I felt so bad. It takes alot of effort to tell a joke and at the end of she did not get the response she was looking for. She was laughing and when she realised I wasn't laughing she asked " Tu as compris?" Unfortunately I had to say "Non". The second attempt though was a successful one. I understood.
Moral of the post- It is risky telling a language learner a joke.

Irregular Verbs in French

When I was learning French at school I don't really remember there being so many types of verbs. I decided to start from the beginning when it comes to verbs since i took a two-year break from learning French. It is really alot to remember.*sigh*
                    
                     The Types
Regular -er, -ir and -re verbs
The -cer and -ger verbs where there is a change in the nous form e.g
commençons / mangeons
The verbs where you have to use a grave accent with the silent endings e.g acheter ------> j'achète
The verbs where you double the last consonant in the stem for the silent endings
e.g appeler-----> je m'appelle
The -vaincre verbs which must use   -qu for the plural endings
e.g convaincre -----> convainquent
The -ir verbs which are conjugated like -er verbs
e.g ouvrir-----> j'ouvre
The -ir verbs conjugated like -re verbs
e.g partir-----> je pars
The -oindre, -eindre and -aindre verbs
The -uire verbs
There is still more. I seriously need to find a way to remember these. Practising them using sentences is probably the best way. This is going to take a while but Aja Aja Fighting!!

Pauline's Bajan Adventures

A few months ago my friend got the opportunity to meet a Japanese woman. I decided to go along with her and meet the woman as well. During our little chat she told us that she had a blog called Bajapanese where she posts all about her experiences in Barbados.
A few days ago that blog came across my mind and so I visited the page. There I saw a post about a woman named Pauline who is from France who published a book about her life in Barbados. Pauline came to Barbados to learn English in the Barbados Community College's ESL program. The book is a compilation of articles written in the Advocate newspaper over a one-year period. I remembered seeing some of the articles and they were quite interesting. There was going to be a book launch at Good Life restaurant and so I decided to go.

I was the first guest to arrive. I was by myself and I felt so weird and I believe I looked just as weird as I felt. After a while people finally started coming. People came and sat at the table I was at. There were people speaking French around me. It was almost as if I was in France. hehehe

The evening officially began and Pauline said a little about herself and read a few stories from her book.It always makes me laugh when I hear foreigners talk about what they find strange about Bajan (Barbadian) culture.

Pauline Rouiller-Luinati sharing her stories

At intermission Pauline signed my book. She asked me my name and I spelled it "C-H-E-R-Y-S-E". She said " Oh. Chereez." Lol! The French and their z.

How cute

There was entertainment after by Thobekile Bridget Mbanda from South Africa. She sang two songs with a mix of Zulu and English. They were quite nice.

South Africa, France, Japan. People from all these places in little Barbados. I always wonder how these people find out about Barbados. The world is such a huge place and they come to this dot on the map. I find it so amazing.
The evening at Good Life was a pleasant one. It was good to get out the house.

The book itself, "Pauline's Bajan Adventures", is quite funny. There are many stories about a whole bunch of things from church to sailing to clubs to ZR vans. The pictures are colourful and it is easy reading.

Want to get a copy? 

You can get it from Book Source in Barbados or from Amazon. As Pauline said, it will surely put a large smile on your face.