Blog

May 1, 2011 | French

Learning Challenges

Ow. When your back hurts, it is harder to study.

After my transcendent run about 10 days ago, things went to hell with my back, and it became quite painful to type, and indeed to do most things. Heading to French Class Monday Night Although I have kept up religiously with…

April 23, 2011 | French

French Gigolos

French movie night, plus more French grammar.

Last night Brandt and I stayed home and watched the movie French Gigolo (2008) with Nathalie Baye. It was available through Time Warner, on the Free Movies on Demand channel, which is channel 1006 here on the Upper West Side. For Movies…

April 22, 2011 | French

Rocket French

I try out a new product, and verbs fly thick and fast.

Yesterday I sampled something called Rocket French, from the company Rocket Languages. With offices in Santa Monica, Calif., and Christchurch, New Zealand, Rocket offers products for 11 languages, from French and Spanish to Arabic and American Sign Language. MegaVerbs! …

April 20, 2011 | French

The Present and Future of Accent Marks

Although I continue to misplace accent marks, I start an advanced grammar book.

In Chelsea today, I saw this poster at a bus stop. The guy shown in the photos is an actor from Paris who deploys innovative job-search techniques. An Actor From Paris, Seeking Work, Not Timidly I find myself leaving accents…

April 19, 2011 | French

French Class at the French Institute Alliance Française

I go to conversation class and converse.

I’m now getting better with idioms and subjunctive, but my overall pace of learning has slowed. I Just Noticed Our Hand Soap Is Bilingual At the beginning, French from college was pouring back into my brain, but now that…

April 15, 2011 | French

Grappling with French Grammar

French keeps surprising me.

Grammar books often give the funniest sentences as examples. Yesterday I came across the translation for this in one of the books I am using: “As soon as he had left, she would open the windows.” Spring Has Arrived at…

April 14, 2011 | French

Does French Matter?

At a Columbia University event, people from different walks of life conclude that yes, it does.

This morning at Café Margot, there were to my delight two tables full of French-speaking women, unfortunately separated from me by one table, at which there was another foreign language being spoken: Hebrew. If I had been studying Hebrew, I…

April 13, 2011 | French

A Goldfish Dies in Harlem

Some New York City kindergarteners cope with early loss, in French.

Yesterday I visited the first public French-American charter school in New York City, called—appropriately—the New York French-American Charter School. 116th Street Subway Station Art Heading East on 118th Street Headed by Katrine Watkins, it is located on 120th…

April 10, 2011 | French

German, Step Off!

My French efforts are foiled by another European language.

This morning while drinking coffee at a local café, I thought I heard French. Looking up, I spied what I thought was a French couple in line waiting to order. The woman half of the couple came over to the…

April 8, 2011 | French

From Le Petit Sénégal to the Upper East Side

I speak French in two very different New York neighborhoods.

Yesterday morning I went to Harlem, exiting the subway at 110th and Lenox and walking north to 116th. I had a particular destination in mind, one that I thought would produce some opportunities to talk about and speak French as…