Today's high was 40, so we're getting there. Too bad tomorrow is back to 23 with a 100% chance of snow. Oh, and I have another historical walking tour of Aix for an hour and a half. Good. :|
Today in class we had a CHARMING experience with how a slight change in pronunciation can lead to some dramatically different word meanings.
We were once again in the literature class with phonetics built in when a girl in my class came across the word 'baissant', which means to lower, as in lower one's head. However, she made the incredibly unfortunate mistake of pronouncing the /ss/ as [z] instead of [s]. This subtle difference completely changes the word's meaning. She said it and no one noticed until the teacher started his clucking and yelling as he does when one of us makes a big or stupid mistake.
He goes, "Do you know what you said?!"
And we all just looked at him with our big confused eyes and shook our heads. He went over to the board and wrote 'f_ _ _ _ _ g'. I got it after a beat and the whole class started laughing uproariously (that sounds so dumb, but it's true).
Whenever those little language moments happen I always think to myself how stupid it feels because clearly 'f***ing' and 'lowering' don't sound anything alike. Then I feel extra stupid, because the French obviously don't think of it in terms of what the english word is. Duh.
It'd be like someone who learned english as a second language confusing 'fool' and 'full' because there's really only a slightly vowel difference. Then I feel better about the mistakes I make.
In other news, I'm still trying not to get sick.
And I got an email today that I've apparently been placed in an internship. But... I don't actually want it now (don't act surprised mom, you knew that). I'm having a nice time being lazy and hanging around and that requires speaking more french, being more confused, and navigating more cultural things. As well as getting there somehow, doing work, and existing in the cold. :( Boooo.
Yesterday, I had chestnuts in my stir fry. It was so weird and when I asked what it was he told me it was a chestnut, as in obviously it's a chestnut. String beans, lima bean things, mushrooms, spices, and... chestnuts? Okay. It was good, just very weird. And I had to try and explain to them that we don't just chuck chestnuts around in the US like they do here. Roasted ones hanging out on streets, ones in my stir fry, cream of chestnuts as a yogurt, buttery nonsense of chestnuts as a jelly... It's so very weird.
That's all, sorry I'm not very interesting today. Classes were average, I sat in the school cave and did nothing because I've been so freaking productive that I finished all my homework for tomorrow yesterday. And still went to bed at 11PM. So. Hope you're all doing well, my dear readers of which there are about five. And send me some peanut butter. (Because while Nutella on my daily rice cakes is good-- it's no peanut butter.)
Today in class we had a CHARMING experience with how a slight change in pronunciation can lead to some dramatically different word meanings.
We were once again in the literature class with phonetics built in when a girl in my class came across the word 'baissant', which means to lower, as in lower one's head. However, she made the incredibly unfortunate mistake of pronouncing the /ss/ as [z] instead of [s]. This subtle difference completely changes the word's meaning. She said it and no one noticed until the teacher started his clucking and yelling as he does when one of us makes a big or stupid mistake.
He goes, "Do you know what you said?!"
And we all just looked at him with our big confused eyes and shook our heads. He went over to the board and wrote 'f_ _ _ _ _ g'. I got it after a beat and the whole class started laughing uproariously (that sounds so dumb, but it's true).
Whenever those little language moments happen I always think to myself how stupid it feels because clearly 'f***ing' and 'lowering' don't sound anything alike. Then I feel extra stupid, because the French obviously don't think of it in terms of what the english word is. Duh.
It'd be like someone who learned english as a second language confusing 'fool' and 'full' because there's really only a slightly vowel difference. Then I feel better about the mistakes I make.
In other news, I'm still trying not to get sick.
And I got an email today that I've apparently been placed in an internship. But... I don't actually want it now (don't act surprised mom, you knew that). I'm having a nice time being lazy and hanging around and that requires speaking more french, being more confused, and navigating more cultural things. As well as getting there somehow, doing work, and existing in the cold. :( Boooo.
Yesterday, I had chestnuts in my stir fry. It was so weird and when I asked what it was he told me it was a chestnut, as in obviously it's a chestnut. String beans, lima bean things, mushrooms, spices, and... chestnuts? Okay. It was good, just very weird. And I had to try and explain to them that we don't just chuck chestnuts around in the US like they do here. Roasted ones hanging out on streets, ones in my stir fry, cream of chestnuts as a yogurt, buttery nonsense of chestnuts as a jelly... It's so very weird.
That's all, sorry I'm not very interesting today. Classes were average, I sat in the school cave and did nothing because I've been so freaking productive that I finished all my homework for tomorrow yesterday. And still went to bed at 11PM. So. Hope you're all doing well, my dear readers of which there are about five. And send me some peanut butter. (Because while Nutella on my daily rice cakes is good-- it's no peanut butter.)
child of mine, get with the (french) program!!! what kind of stage?
ReplyDeleteNooooo, do not want. I don't know yet, I have to send in my free hours and then go meet with people and hmnmhmnmnh.
Delete