French Lessons

French Lessons continue and we are deep into pronoun territory. It is terribly important to know the correct order of the pronouns in a sentence. Madame D continues to be passionate about the teaching of French grammar and relentless in the correcting of our spoken French. However, we do not get much opportunity to do a lot of speaking as, on average, there are about 34 of us.The three hours usually go reasonably quickly and we do have a 'petite pause' for coffee about half-way.

We tend to sit in the same places now and it is somewhat frowned upon to change! My neighbours are usually Zena from Syria and Jessica from Ecuador. Zena tells me that what we see on tv about Syria is all lies and it is a peaceful country with happy people. She is married to a Syrian guy who is doing his PhD at the University of Liege. Jessica is learning Italian as well as French. She says Italian is easy to learn as her first language is Spanish and it is very similar.

On Wednesdays, Madame D has been playing French songs - we've had two so far - where we listened to the songs and tried to write down the words and then later translated them. It's a welcome change from French grammar exercises. The first song was rather fast  - a chap called Danyel Gerard singing 'D'accord, D'accord'.  I did think I recognised the chipmunks in the background but apparently it was just the backing sound in 1964 when it was first recorded. If you want to check it out you can see a rather cool Danyel avec cigarette singing on this link:http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6q52n_danyel-gerard-d-accord-d-accord_music . This week we had a much slower song called 'Armstrong' as in Louis by Claude Nougaro. I really enjoyed it. It seemed to be a response to Armstrong's 'What a wonderful world':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTVCjQ_zlBM&feature=related.

Incidentally, at my choral group we are learning a much more modern song in French by a Belgian singer STROMAE - it was a big hit in Europe last year 'Alors ...on danse' which may be more your cup of tea - very catchy even if you don't understand all the words! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHoT4N43jK8&ob=av2e

The mood in the class is often lightened  by the presence of one particular student. Marta is large of body and personality. She hails from Angola and tells us she speaks excellent Portuguese. Her spoken French seems reasonable, although, because she speaks often and loudly, Madame D often uses her as an example for correction.  Marta first came to the attention of the class when, on arriving an hour late, she entered the room and found that there were few seats left. Madame D was in the midst of a technical explanation but Marta was intent on sitting down. She found herself a table and chair which she dragged over to one side of the room, making  a racket as she went. She then sat herself down in front of the door. When Madame D pointed out to her that she was sitting in front of the only exit and entry point, Marta then dragged the table across to the other side of the room. Since that occasion, Marta has become attached to the desk (metaphorically speaking)  which is the only one where you can sit by yourself. However, the disadvantage of this desk is that it becomes the serving point for the coffee at 'la petite pause'. Marta is not impressed with the inability of her classmates to pour their coffee and milk directly into their cups. Marta also has a love of her GSM (what they call a cellphone here) although Madame is slowly training her to have her conversations outside the room. Marta is the student who asks the question 5 minutes after Madame D has already answered it! Despite her severity towards Marta at times, I think Madame D has a soft spot for her.  There is something engaging about her. The other day as we left class, I spoke in French to Florence, a woman from Togo. Marta exclaimed in perfect English: 'You're English. Speak English! I love English. I used to be able to speak it when I lived in Angola but I've forgotten how to now."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHoT4N43jK8&ob=av2e