Someone rude in France!

Yes, I finally found a rude person! She works at Shakespeare's bookstore in Paris (a famous English-language bookstore) and I and Leslie both found her to be snide and unfriendly and minimally helpful. She is, of course, not French - but from some English-speaking country. Perhaps Britain, perhaps Australia. But, not France. So, there it is - there is a rude person in Paris. Voilà! But, all the actual French people continue to be très, très gentil....

Des vidéos très amusante

To return to the French language.... I wanted to give links to my favorite videos for French language-learners via youtube. The first few both have the theme of the problem of actually communicating in French after only a little study.

First, there is the youtube French take-off of the “One Semester of Spanish Love-Song”. The original has been viewed (as of July 28, 2008) 3,138,155 times. It is here:

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw&feature=related

I think the French take-off is even better, though with a smaller following....

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=s8a2jlx6OG0&feature=Responses&parent_video=ngRq82c8Baw&index=12

I don’t believe that it is anything but a coincidence that my next recommended learning-French video also has a transvestite theme. But, hey, it is Eddy Izzard and that is just who the guy is…His discussion of using français simple est très amusant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1sQkEfAdfY

And, then, the last is a poignant and sad but also very funny and sweet short film. It is the final segment from the movie Paris, Je T’aime:

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/paris-je-taime-14th-arrondissement-p1.php

May I say that it is clear that two semesters of French are all you need to navigate Paris. I have bought train tickets, stamps, food, maps, newspapers, bread, meals in a restaurant, drinks in a café and asked important questions such as the always useful “Où sont les toilettes, s’il vous plait?” with no problems. And, I am proud to say, not one of those times have these folks tried to switch to English with me. All transactions have occurred completely - and successfully - in French and, as always, everyone was quite nice. To this, I want to say a very emphatic VOILÀ!

But, I sure can’t converse in French if subtlety, nuance, depth or wit are required. Oh, by the way, I am pretty sure that if you look you will find that le chat est sur la chaise et le singe est sur la branche. Adiós!

Where are the window screens?

I have discovered the singular worst thing about France. They don't have window screens! Maybe somewhere - but not in this neighborhood. But, they do have mosquitos. Thus, every night is a damn battle with the mosquitos buzzing around our heads. We are all getting bit at an alarming rate but it is too warm to not open the windows. So, if you are planning to visit, you might want to pack your mosquito netting...

Political gossip - Edwards fall?

While I often obsess here about the French language and my very poor attempts to speak it, I can’t really get up the energy to write about it. Perhaps because it has been a huge struggle for me. It isn’t that fun to talk about my semi-failures. Perhaps later in the trip I will gain some energy to tackle it.

But, today I am obsessed by something else. I have decided to throw my hat in the ring, as it were, as a political/news journalism blogger. I have been tracking, of course, Obama’s and McCain’s campaigns – both reading French sources such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Liberation – and reading American sources such as NY Times, Dailykos, Slate, New Republic and Huffington Post. (As an aside, I might not be able to speak French – but I have no problem reading their newspapers now.)

But, in doing this reading I ran into the existing Internet storm - which I firmly believe will soon be a mainstream media storm - on John Edward’s alleged on-going affair and paternity of an infant with a woman named Rielle Hunter. (As on the internet, I will call the mainstream media MSM) Now, I found out via the Internet that the rumors about this affair have existed since September of 2007. What got the ball rolling was, I believe, this article in the Huffington Post by Sam Stein: He wasn’t looking for an affair, a cover-up or anything of the sort – but he seemed to stumble onto something, nonetheless.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/26/edwards-mystery-innocuou_n_66070.html

The National Enquirer, then, decided to follow the thread to see if there was some hanky-panky behind the story. They have published various accusations - with lots of smoke but no gun - about this alleged affair and his paternity but no MSM source picked it up – most likely because another married man, Andrew Young (a good friend of Edwards) has claimed paternity. But, the Enquirer kept on the case and certainly strengthened their case this week. The MSM – albeit just Fox – added confirmation. The comically sad story is here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,391426,00.html

Right wing Internet sources have, of course, jumped on the story. Beyond the Huffington Post, the left-wing sources have stayed pretty quiet. To the degree that it has been discussed within the left, there are eight basic reactions (with my take following in blue):

1. Enquirer and Fox. Totally unreliable sources. Maybe, maybe not. This will become clear over the next few days. But, if you look at all the evidence out there, it really has the ring of truth. At this point, I would be willing to put $100 down that the basic story is true – that he was visiting her in LA at that hotel. But, could there be an innocent explanation? Sure. Maybe they are just really good friends....
2. He is no longer a candidate, so whether it is true or not is irrelevant and he should be left alone. Come on, he is on the list of VP candidates and is certainly also in line for a potential cabinet post – so that response is lame.
3. Who cares if it true or not. There are really important things out there. Stop with this sex- stuff already. Let’s be more like the French and let our politicians have mistresses if they want! On the one hand, I couldn’t agree more. And, indeed if we were like the French, I would be shrugging along with everyone else. But, we are not.
4. If it is true, he isn’t going to get the VP nod or a post in the administration. Yep, that is true. And, at this point – I certainly don’t want Obama to appoint him to anything unless, of course, the story is shown to be crap or an innocent explanation is really there.
5. If true, it is so sad for Elizabeth. Yep. It sucks to be in the public eye sometimes.
6. If it is true, it does, in fact, raise some big and legitimate character questions about Edwards and it is a legitimate story, not just gossip. This is strongly my point of view.
7. If it is true, how stupid can you get? Could he not learn from Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer – to name just a few? Apparently, no.
8. Karl Rove is behind this. Oh, come on. He isn't that all-powerful. And, he would have certainly waited until Edwards was actually appointed to something to spring it.

The right-wingers all claim that the story isn’t being followed because of some left bias of the MSM. But, to me that is nonsense. When the press was hounding Clinton over Gennifer Flowers, they refused to really investigate the story of “the other Jennifer” – the alleged lover of Bush the 1st, Jennifer Fitzgerald.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Fitzgerald

And, the press absolutely gave Bush the 2nd a free pass on cocaine:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seery/the-bush-cocaine-chronicl_b_37786.html

In those cases - as this one - I think the principal reason is a convulted combination of cowardice with conviction. But now, thanks to the Internet – it isn’t so easy to sweep things under the rug, for good or ill. And, I must admit that I prefer it this way.

This particular story is at the tipping point. Once the Enquirer publishes their photos (and if they don’t have photos – then the story is surely not true), I believe the MSM will be forced to jump on the story or it will really accelerate the MSM death spiral. And, yes – I feel sorry for John a bit. And Elizabeth a lot. But, in this case, I would rather know the truth. So, I say thank you Sam Stein, National Enquirer and Fox. I am not sure that the truth will set us free – but it might have helped Obama avoid a big fall….

Update Sunday: To the list of leftist reactions may I add that this one has gained some traction: Hillary is behind it (because a supporter of hers owns a big chuck of the Enquirer). To this, I can only say - oh, give me a break!

More french kissing now!

At the beginning of this blog, I gave some history of my earlier trips in France and my impression. As I have a bit of a binary mind, I wrote lists of things “good” or “bad” that I found in France. However, one thing I just noted without judgment, which I requote now:

“And, neither a pro or a con but something I noticed: people make out here a lot.”

Ok, the observation holds. People do make out here a lot more than in America. And, when it happens, it isn’t only restricted to the young. For instance, one day I was walking along following a couple around my age, who were holding hands. All of a sudden, they stopped walking and started a deep, slow kiss in the middle of the sidewalk. Now, I have just never seen this in America. But, I would like to say that I have formed a judgment, which is: It’s great! Americans – particularly past their 20s – have a distaste for the PDA (public display of affection). Mais, pourquoi? It is so sweet and passionate and life-affirming. Thus, I say, more French kissing in America now!

The French reputation is just wrong

Every time I come to France, I am always struck by the huge gulf between the reputation of the French and my reception here. As I said in an earlier blog, French people are nice – really nice. Not rude, not snobby, not reluctant to help – but, in fact, the very opposite. Very polite, very down to earth and very, very willing to help you if you have a problem. The first person we met (outside of airport or train personnel who were – yes – nice) was a very gallant man of around 80. We just arrived from the airport and were in the lobby of our apartment building looking confused. He immediately offered assistance and advice and, then, asked us to come back to tea soon. Wasn’t that swell? (Tea is planned for today at 5:00 pm.) And so it has continued. I am sure there are rude French folks somewhere out their lurking but I just wanted to say, again, and for the record – I love France and the French, Paris and Parisiens.

Mes amies

Voilà - Leslie, Judith and Laura at a ubiquitous sidewalk cafe.

Why Leslie's IQ is 14 points higher than mine

I now believe that one will become smarter if one learns more than one language, particularly when young. That became very clear to me after I started to learn French. It aroused something in me that is rare pour moi: curiosity. Now, Leslie is a very, very curious person. She always wants to know everything. And, she is smarter than me – by 14 IQ points as a matter of fact. I, on the other hand, am rarely curious, but learn things easily when I must. Par exemple, before I became a maintenance person I had no interest whatsoever in how a toilet worked, or a refrigerator, or how a window was put together, or anything of that nature. I could not have cared less. But, I had to learn these things to do my job well and, as I taught myself how to fix things, it was always interesting. But, still, my curiosity, en général, n’existait pas.

(Of course, many think the IQ test to be suspect. Be that as it may, it is clear to me that for my economic class, my race and my country, – it is a fairly accurate representation of ability with regard to pattern recognition. When I took the test when I was young I got the exact same score I get now. It has never budged one damn point!)

To me it is now a chicken and egg question: Is Leslie smarter because she learned languages young and, thus, became curious (which led to better pattern recognition)? Or, did she love languages because she had a natural ability for pattern recognition, and learning languages is particularly rewarding for someone who likes that sort of thing? Je ne sais pas. But, I swear, I am getting smarter!

Ok, par exemple, the phrase faux pas. I grew up with the expression and certainly knew at some point that it came from the French and what it meant in English (and assumed it meant the same thing in French) – a blunder, generally social. Of course, I had picked up a few French phrases like the one in the last paragraph: Je ne sais pas. I understood that to mean: “I don’t know”. Pas seemed to mean “not” – though I had no idea what the "ne" was and, as usual, didn’t care. If you had asked me what I thought faux pas meant literally in French I would have thought it meant something like “must not”. But, in America, we also use faux (i.e. faux fur), and I did understand that to be “false”. So, a literal interpretation in English, had I ever thought about it which I certainly did not, would have been “false not”. That doesn’t make a lot of sense but, perhaps it meant “one must not be false socially”. But, recently, I had a new clue without paying much attention to it. I started attending the ballet where they had this thing called pas de deux. Now, any curious person would have realized that the phrase made no sense if pas meant only “not” as I then assumed. Perhaps a curious person would have looked in a dictionary or asked someone or read the program. Though, I admit I did wonder why there were two dancers when the movement name seemed clearly to announce “not of two”. But I was not curious enough to check. Plus, my combination of decent pattern recognition along with lack of curiosity pointed me to the obvious answer: the point must be that they were lovers, joined as one! All the pas de deux I had seen were lovers, after all. Yes, that must be it……

Not.

Turns out pas also means step. Who knew? (Any French speaking, curious or cultured person, of course!) Thus, faux pas literally means false step. And, of course, romantic as my conception of what pas de deux meant, it obviously really meant “step of two”. Merde! Je suis stupide.

And, it further turns out that faux pas doesn’t have the same connotation in France. It is, more of less, a literal phrase there. So, how did this literal phrase in France turn into this figurative phrase in English? I was very curious! (OK, this essay has now come full circle; please reread the first paragraph if you forget where I was heading.) It was the English who turned it into the meaning of “social blunder” and – now that I have more curiosity due to my study of the French language - I also have a non-confirmed theory of how this came to be.

Through dressage competition. (For those who are not horsey at all dressage is, to quote one on-line dictionary definition, “the guiding of a horse through a series of complex maneuvers by slight movements of the rider's hands, legs, and weight.”) I have little idea the full history of dressage but I do know the words that describe the movements in the sport are French. And, after watching a dressage competition in which there were beaucoup de faux pas, I spun out this theory.

In a nutshell, I think that English folks who made a faux pas in dressage competition began to associate the phrase with a blunder in general and then started using it for a social blunder. As the phrase moved to the general masses who didn’t speak French, – the literal meaning was lost and only the blunder portion remained. Perhaps my theory is as fanciful as my romantic conception of pas de deux but it makes sense to me. Now, Leslie thinks it may have equally come out of ballet. Perhaps – though ballet dancers make far less faux pas than riders with their horses. But, then, as everyone reading this knows, Leslie is smarter than me so she is probably right.

Anyway, the point of this whole thing is actually that I became – and remain – curious about this. And, so it goes with hundreds of other French words and phrases. All of a sudden, as I learn French, I can feel my brain making connections at this torrential pace. I am thinking I might, finally, gain a point or two the next time I take an IQ test. Oh, and if you happen to know how faux pas really gained it’s English meaning, please tell me. I am very curious.

Statistics in French: as good as a massage

I must say for the record that the best experience listening to French thus far was when Judith explained medical statistics to me. At my request and in great detail, she went through her statistics outline for the day. Since the words were in front of me as she went through the outline, I was able to listen to her and read the French at the same time. This vastly improved my comprehension. The fact that I had taken statistics in college and understand the field fairly well was also helpful. I found it very relaxing – almost like a massage - and was “in the flow” of français for that period of time. Perhaps surprisingly, it has been my favorite experience in France. Merci, Judith. Je veux le faire plus.

For Yami, a photo

My friend, Yamindira, upon being given the link to this blog wrote: pictures are more interesting than a blog.... So, here is a damn picture.

Turns out, I'm boring....

I am a bit en retard in actually writing this blog in France. Je suis desolée. The problem is that I was waiting for some insights on the issue of speaking a newly studied language in the place where it is the native tongue. But, no insights were coming. But, finally – they have arrived. Here is my first key insight: if you try to speak a simple version of the language – as I am - one is very, very boring for your companions. Of course, this is quite logical and – from my practice at home – I knew this already to be the case. But, my original plan was to “speak French all the time”. I could do it but if I did, two things would follow: I would have little fun and my companions would have less fun.

I have trois amies on this trip. First, there is my partner (of the domestic variety), Leslie. She speaks French well but certainly is not yet a master of the language. Next is Laura – Leslie’s sister and mon professeur de français for two quarters – who is, of course, fluent. And, last, there is Judith, a 19-year-old native French speaker. What a perfect traveling trio for a new “language learner”, n’est-ce pas? All three of them have their own particular vested interest in my acquisition of the language and cheer on my attempts but there is a singular word to describe their reaction to my attempts: indulgent. They all seemed so relieved when I abandoned my attempt to “speak French all the time” that I got the message pretty clearly: You are a bore in French and we have our own (damn) agenda here, thank you very much. Most certainly, I exaggerate here. In particular, I can hear Judith’s protests to this declaration ringing in my ears though she is currently asleep. And Laura, mon professeur, has been nothing but patient and kind at all times. But, she is en vacances now and certainly has no interest in being a full-time tutor. And, pauvre Leslie has already put up with my learning angst far more than anyone and has been indulging me non-stop since September when I began this quest.

And the fact is, I too find myself boring when I am speaking French. I will begin a sentence that seemed important when I started but by the time I turn the corner of the sentence with the que, I have lost all interest. The point wasn’t very interesting. Then it dawned on me that the point wouldn’t have been particularly interesting in English either. But, I would have said it quickly, at least. Nonetheless, the truth was out there: I often say boring things in English, too.

So, I came to France to better learn the language and instead I found out that I am boring. Purée!

Bonne chance!

A great pre-start to the trip!! Fantastic luck.

But first, a little necessary background information. We are trading houses with two families in France. One family has a house in Paris, the other in the city of Nancy in the Lorraine region. After we return from our six-week trip to France, we then turn around three weeks later for four months in Hawaii. When we are in Hawaii, we are renting our house to another family. Therefore, I had been working like a madwoman for about three months getting our home ready for all these strangers who will be living at our home, winterizing it in the summer. The fence was falling down, the deck was falling in, the water heater and washing machine were leaking, and the oven wasn’t working at all and on and on. I had planned on fixing all these things right after retirement in early 07 but, as most my friends know, I worked on Obama’s campaign instead. Thus, I had to cram in a year of planned house work in three months. But, I was determined to leave our home trouble-free for the families who would be living there.

On our final day, as we were powering through our final lists with only a few hours to go, a wonderful thing happened: a pipe got badly clogged! I have never been so happy for such a thing in my life. If it happened 24 hours later, the poor, jet-lagged French family would have to deal with it alone. They would have called Ian (who agreed to be the “maintenance guy” while I was gone), but it wouldn’t have be fun for him. And, yes, we would have to pay money to fix it. Instead, I happily snaked the drain! Voilà – problem solved and minor tragedy averted.

Then came even more luck! I went to put some chlorine in our spa. Our deck is surrounded by a raised deck – with a portion that is moveable in order to access the spa controls. I stepped on that portion and it – and I – immediately fell to the ground! I wasn’t hurt in the least. Basically, I had not put the piece on correctly the last time I moved it (for putting on deck finish). My first thought was, of course, “this is my lucky day.” If I had decided to change the chlorine from the other side, I wouldn’t have “found” the problem and one of the French people (the 8 year old perhaps) would have. And, the results could have been bad or, even, tragic. What relief!

And, they say that things come in threes (and exactly who are these mysterious folks, they?). I think they are probably wrong about that statement and I am sure some smart mathematician has proven it. But, they do say it and, in this case, maybe it is true. The very delightful French family arrived. We showed them around and, knowing how tired they must be and how much they must want us to disappear, we left to go to my parents house to drop off our dog. Our flight was in the early morning. We were approaching the Highway 17 summit when Leslie said: “Damn it, I forgot my contact lenses!” She is nearly blind without them. I said, let’s just go back and get them. And, so, we did. We felt bad that we had to disturb the French folks. So, where is the luck? That we actually had the time to do it! Normally, when we leave for a trip – we are going to the airport or, perhaps, to Doug and Laura’s to drop the dog. While, we like to leave ample time, not the kind of time required for a summit round-trip. But, today – everything was going our way!