January Wrap Up: Reading and Languages

As the title suggest, this January has been a mix of two things, and two things only. I have read much, and I have done a lot of language study... which most of the time has meant reading more and watching a cookery video or a quiz show every now and again. Who says learning languages isn't fun?

The two books that I reviewed are the only two that I finished this month: Sommarboken by Tove Jansson and Mio, min Mio by Astrid Lindgren. They were fantastic books, and I am pretty sure that they are widely translated, so I really recommend them.

Otherwise I have been slowly reading my way through Bone Jack by Sarah Crowe and The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem in English. These are both very great, very different books. Bone Jack feels like it straddles the border of middle grade and young adult fiction, a very dark coming of age story. I've been wanting to read it for a very long time, and it is not disappointing me thus far. The only problem is that I feel as though I have to draw it out. It would be so easy to gobble it up all in one sitting, but then I'd be finished and I don't think I'd be doing the book justice. The Cyberiad is wonderful - very silly, and very entertaining. A goodreads reviewer said that they wished they spoke Polish to enjoy all that word play in the original and I thought: 'Well, Polish has been on my hitlist for a while, now...'   But don't worry. I'm holding myself back.*

My foreign language 'currently reading' includes Pride and Prejudice, which I am racing through in Swedish translation, Tintenherz, which I am reading with the German Bookclub on A Language Learners Forum and Die unendliche Geschichte, which I am supposedly tandem reading with a friend. We are not so good at keeping on schedule. I am also intensively rereading through Kaninhjärta on ReadLang. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to read it on ReadLang before, but it has now, at the very least.

I guess that here is as good a place as any to put reading goals for February, so...

I hope that, by the end of February, I have finished reading both Bone Jack and The Cyberiad. I am still not sure what should be my next book. If I work through my bookshelf, the next thing should be Darkmans, which remains unfinished despite all of my good intentions. Otherwise, there are thousands** of books clamouring for my attention.

For the foreign language reads, I have no particularly ambitious goals, beyond finishing Stolthet och fördom, which will probably happen this week, and catching up with myself in my read-through of Kaninhjärta. I would also like to get back up to speed with Die unendliche Geschichte, and keep up to speed with Tintenherz. As I am going to both Sweden and Germany this month, I would like to buy at least one new book in both languages. But more on that later.

Happy Reading!
Little Newman

*For now.
**Exaggeration.

Recension: Mio, min Mio | Review: Mio, my Mio

Mio, min Mio av Astrid Lindgren är en fantastiskt vacker bok. Det är den första bok jag har läst av Astrid Lindgren som inte handlar om Pippi Långstrump, så var jag ganska förvånad. Den var mycket mer lyrisk och ledsen, det som var mycket oväntad. Historien handlar om Bo Vilhelm Olsson, en 9-årige föräldralöst pojke. Han hittar sin far, konungen av Landet i Fjärran, och fick namnet Mio från honom. Som konungens barn måste Mio kampa emot den riddar Kato, en ond varelse som har rövat bort många av Landet i Fjärrans barn.

Mio, my Mio by Astrid Lindgren is an amazingly beautiful book. It is the first non-Pippi Longstocking book I have read by her, and I was quite surprised. This book is much more lyrical and sadder than the Pippi books, which I didn't expect. It's about Bo Vilhelm Olsson, a 9 year old Orphan who becomes Mio when he finds his father, the King of The Faraway Land*. As the child of the King, Mio must fight against the knight Kato, an evil being that has abducted many of the children of The Faraway Land.

Jag hade en känsla av sorg och vemod hela tiden när jag läste denna bok. Till och med när Mio lekte i Landet i Fjärran och berättade om hur trevligt han hade det där kände jag hans sorg. Skrivningen var väldigt enkelt och lätt att förstå, men det bara gjorde sorgen ännu mer klar. Astrid Lindgren var inte alls rädd för att visa mörkret i den här boken, trots att den är en barnbok. Det är ingen förvåning att så många vuxna kunna njuta av den har boken och jag ser verkligen fram emot att läsa Astrid Lindgrens andra böcker, om de är såhär.

I felt a strain of sadness and melanchol throughout this book. I could feel Mio's sadness even when he played in the Faraway Land and recounted what fun he had there. The writing was very simple and easy to understand, but that only made the sadness clearer. Astrid Lindgren wasn't at all afraid of showing darkness in this book, even though it is a children's book. It's no surprise that so many aduts can enjoy this book, and I am really looking forward to reading her other books, if they are like this one.

*My own translation.

Hej, allihoppa!

Hello, hello all! Look who's back, just like she promised...!

I feel like I have done a lot of language related things in the past week, and it is almost entirely due to these things that you see me here now.

This, right here, will be a multilingual lit post!*

I have started five new books in the past seven days, some of which I absolutely adore. I'll start with the German book, as my German is no way near good enough to write in.

The book is Splitterherz by Bettina Bellitz. To be honest, I am little more than a page in, and this is not due to my almost non-existent grasp of the language. No, the reason my reading of this book lags is because I already don't think that I like it. The Prologue was actually doing a good job of holding my respect until I got to the bit about the weeping moon. Which is... somewhat melodramatic. In hindsight, with my 'objectivity' glasses on, it is a good prologue, and I wish I could have taken it more seriously. Intrigued by the prologue of weeping moons and innocent yet wild souls** - or rather horrified by my choice - I went back to the blurb to find out which book it was I was actually reading. It turned out to be the one with the arrogant yet fascinating boy who has a deep secret that turns out to be tied to the protagonists own family history...
Yeah, so, not my thing. Recently, I have been finding myself being turned off by the mention of arrogant yet fascinating boys. Their fascination seems always to lie in the fact that are cryptic and act in an awful way but because of Reasons. Well, for my own Reasons, I don't like the romanticisation of this type, but I am still willing to continue on with the book as it is the only one of the German books that I earmarked that is available as a kindle sample.

And now for something completely different...

J’ai commencé trois livres français cette semaine. Le premier était Je suis un dragon de Martin Page. C’est un livre dont le concept m’intéressé depuis sa parution au début de l’année. J’ai à peine lu deux ou trois pages (je ne suis pas sûre, je l’ai lu sur mon iPhone), mais je l’aime déjà. Le personnage principal est une fille doué des pouvoirs surhumains. Je ne sais pas trop quels pouvoirs, mais elle semble être impossible à tuer – ce qui aurait me déranger, je peux vous dire. Cette puissance semble de la dérange elle aussi, parce qu’au début du roman elle est soumis à une expérience tellement violent pour démonter ses pouvoirs, une expérience qui finit par une perte de vie…

Fin, je ne veux pas trop dire et en tout cas je ne peux pas trop dire mais ça y est. Je suis impatiente de lire la suite, et je vais l’acheter dès que possible.

I started three French books this week. The first is I am a dragon by Martin Page. The concept of this book has interested me since its publication at the start of the year. I've hardly read two or three page (I'm not sure, because I was reading on my iPhone), but I like it already. The main character is a girl gifted with superhuman powers. I don't really know what powers, but she seems to be impossible to kill - which would bug me, I can tell you. This power seems to bug her, too, because at the start of the book we see her as the subject of an extremely violent experiment to demonstrate her powers, an experiment which finishes with the loss of a life...

Okay, so I don't really want to say too much, and I can really say that much, but there it is. I'm impatient to carry on reading, and I'm going to buy a paper copy of the book as soon as possible.

Le deuxième roman que j'ai commencé à lire cette semaine ne m’était pas aussi impressionnante. En fait, mes sentiments face au ce livre sont à peu près le même que ceux j’ai exprimé sur Splitterherz. Le roman est intitulé Les Cendres d’oubli par Carina Rozenfeld et la description m’a vraiment intéressé. Mais, dès le prologue, qui était encore une fois pleine de mélodrame, je n'ai plus beaucoup d'espoir pour ce livre.. En ce cas, c’était un mélodrame amoureux qui m’a exaspéré beaucoup plus que tous ces beaux mots des lunes pleurantes et âmes armées aux griffes… Oui, parce que ça, ça se trouve aussi ! Cependant, le concept de ce livre reste captivant. L’histoire est celle du Phoenix ou plutôt des Phoenix parce que, effectivement, il y’en a toujours deux qui doivent existe au monde en même temps. Donc, évidemment, il y aura de l’amour, de drame amoureux, des malentendus et moments précaires. Mais ce n’est pas impossible que je l’aimerai, malgré tout ça !

The second [French] novel I started this week wasn't quite as impressive. In fact, I feel about the same way about it as I felt about Splitterherz. It is called The Ashes of the forgotten*** by Carina Rozenfeld, and the description was really interesting. But from the prologue, which was once again full of melodrama, I don't have much hope for this book. In this case, the melodrama was of the romantic type, and it exasperated me a lot more than all that talk of weeping moons and souls armed with hooks... because, yes, those came up, too! However, the concept of the book is still interesting. It is the story of the phoenix, or rather, of the Phoenixes, because actually there are always two who have to be alive at the same time. So, of course, there is going to be love, romangst, misunderstandings and moments where everything looks to go tits-up. But I might just like it, even with all of that!

Et puis enfin le troisième roman [français] de la semaine ! Ceci est Nagasaki d’Éric Faye, et c’est un livre duquel je ne veux pas trop dire. La raison pour cette réticence peu typique est qu’un critique irréfléchi a spoilé le livre pour moi. Mais ça a l'air d'être quelque chose qui aurai pu été écrit par Julio Cortazar lui-même, si Julio Cortazar a écrit les livres en Francais, fondés sur les évènements réelles, qui déroulent au Japon... Le petit extrait m’a révélé un coup de cœur. Je l’ai vraiment adoré. En fait, je ne peux pas me restreindre, je crois que je l’achèterai aujourd'hui!

And finally the third [French] novel of the week! This one is Nagasaki by Éric Faye, and I don't want to say too much about it. The reason for such uncharacteristic reticence is because an unfortunate review spoiled the book a bit for me. But it seems to be something that could have issued forth from the pen of Julio Cortazar himself, if Julio Cortazar wrote books in French, based on true stories, set in Japan... I think that, from the extract I read, I'm going to love it. In fact, I don't think I can restrain myself, I'm probably going to buy it today!

Och jag ska sluta med den svenska boken. Jag ber om er ursäkt innan jag börjar, för jag är lite osäker på att tala och skriva i svenska. Kaninhjärta av Christin Ljungqvist verkar vara en blandning av en spökhistoria, en psykologisk thriller och en deckare. Hittills har jag läst utomkring tre sidor av boken, kanske flera. Och det är mycket intressant. Författarens stil är något nytt för mig och meningarna rinna om som en flod. Historian handlar om två flickor, tvillingssystrar Anne och Mary. Den ena, Anne, kan se spökar som tar kontroll av hennes systers kropp. De beskrevs som en person med ett tänker, då är de ett medium. Jag ska inte tala mer om boken tills att jag har läst ännu vidare, men jag tycker om den och jag har redan köpt e-boken.

And I will finish with the Swedish book. I ask for your forgiveness in advance (oh, mighty Swedish speakers!) because I'm kind of unsure about speaking and writing Swedish. Rabbit Heart by Christin Ljungqvist seems to be a mixture of a horror story, a psychological thriller and a murder mystery. So far I've read about three pages, maybe more. And it's very interesting. The authors style is something new (at least, for my Swedish self), and the sentences flow  along and carry me with them. The story is about two girls, twin sisters Anne and Mary. One, Anne, can see the spirits which posses her sisters body. They are described as one person with one mind, so it follows that they make up one medium. I won't say any more about the book until I have read even more, but I like it and I have already bought the e-book.

So, this post has been a long one, and it took me a while to write. I'm actually pretty proud of myself, to tell the truth. I wasn't expecting to be able to write so much at all, especially not for Swedish. As far as I can tell, only Nagasaki has been translated into English, published by Gallic books. If you speak any of the other languages, though, or if, like me, you are willing to stumble blindly through, I really reccommend Kaninhjärta and Je suis un dragon.

Happy reading :)

And happier blogging,

Little Newman

*Not a lit corner, I feel compelled to add, because I haven't actually finished any of these books yet. So, we stick with post.
**Okay, I thought that bit was silly, too.
***Extremely liberal translation there from me...!

Am I being a little top-heavy with the language posts? Probably. Oh well. I'm currently reading Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost, Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta and Let the old dreams die by John Ajvide Lindqvist so perhaps you'll get a lit corner or two sooner or later :D

Until then...

As I have mentioned before (quite a few times, I believe,) I am studying abroad in France. My home uni requires that at least fifty percent of my French credits are from literature classes, as I also do comparative literature at home. This means that I have to study French literature at around the same level as French students.

What does this have to do with language learning outside of a university setting? Well, I'll tell you.

I was wondering to myself, while idly trawling the How To Learn Any Language [HTLAL] forums and procrastinating on the essay that I should be writing right now, how writing commentaries would aid in the study of a language.

Writing commentaries, for those who don't know, is a very academic exercise. It involves studying a short extract of a text in great detail - the analysis is meant to be almost scientific. When writing a commentary for English, you are meant to deconstruct word choices, lexical fields, punctuation - all of that - in order to see what they impart on the reader: how do they change the understanding of and the feeling induced by the text? What do they say about the narrator, and what does the narration style tell us about the situation? So on, so forth. It's pretty difficult to do even in English, and in French it's a new beast entirely.

A French commentary wants you to not only analyse all of these things, but also look at the grammar of the text. How can the usage of the passé composé as opposed to the imparfait or the passé simple inform our understanding of such and such moment? So on, so forth.

As you may or may not know, I struggle with grammar. Having never learnt these concepts in English, I find them almost impossible to internalise in other languages as I simply have no point of reference and no familiarity. Forcing myself to pay attention to grammatical structures and grammar in the way that writing a French commentary requires might actually be of some use to me.

Of course, this is all conjecture. I have a book of poésie en prose that I have been struggling to read, but which I quite enjoy, so maybe I'll turn my efforts towards that. At least, I hope to as soon as I finish this essay that I have to write!

Happy essaying!

And happier blogging :D

Little Newman

P.S. - Unrelated. Almost every other weekend, the person who lives above me has a guest (or guests, who knows) whose company xe enjoys rather too much for my personal liking. I feel like going upstairs and complaining XD but I guess they're pretty good when I want to party loudly with all my friends and their mothers, so I haven't much of a right...

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Pratar du svenska?

In my last post I mentioned that I am focusing my active language learning efforts on Swedish and German. First of all, maybe I should explain what it is I mean by 'active'. After all, didn't I say I was going to start actively engaging in French?

Yes, even I'm a little unsure how to sort this tangled mess out.

What I mean is that, by and large, I know French. I can sit in, understand, and pass university level classes. I can get myself around in French. Yes, I find it hard to understand any francophone under the age of twenty five (enunciation, people, it's a Thing!) but the problem isn't so much my vocabulary or understanding of basic grammatical structures as it is my lack of exposure.

In short, (bref, as they say,) I don't feel the need to actively go out and follow courses. My book learning is coming to an end and I what I need now is actual usage.

I cannot say the same with Swedish and German. Yes, I can just about string together a jag heter Lily or a ich will deutsches Bücher auf Deutsch lesen. I can understand quite a lot of written Swedish (and, by extension, Norwegian and Danish), an amount that is most definitely not proportionate to the work I put in. My passive exposure to Swedish means I could probably pick up a few more things with minimal effort. But that's not what I want.

I want to be able to pick up a book in Swedish and know that I won't be looking up every second or third word. I want to understand conversations that happen around me (even if I don't feel comfortable taking part.)

And in German? To be honest, my ambitions are much, much higher. I would like to spend a year in Germany, au pairing. Of course, most host families are more than willing to pay for a language course for their au pairs (and I'm pretty sure that taking such a course is a requirement for German au pairs.) But I would like to reach a B1 level of German before that. And, if it is where life leads me, I wouldn't mind doing my masters in Germany, either. But that, of course, is very dependent on a lot of other things.

I have liked German for a very long time. At first, I liked the entertainment value of German composite words which, admittedly, is not a good reason or motivation to learn any language. But as I grew older, the desire to learn German grew stronger. And then I met actual Germans. I love Germans. I have yet to meet and talk toa German that I truly dislike. There are a lot of stereotypes about Germans and German, especially in the English speaking world that just don't match up to real life (although, that being said, there are also a lot that do!)

I like that, when I talk to Germans, I feel that I am actually, truly being listened too - although that terrifies me also. I don't really have that much to say, certainly not much of importance! And I also love listening to Germans speak! Whether they are speaking English, German or French, I love their accents. Quite different from the harsh and guttural sounds most anglophones produces when imitating or speaking German, I find German speech patterns to be quite soft.

Including that notorious German 'ch'! Maybe one of the reasons it's so often misrepresented by anglophones is because it's so hard for us to get right. N'importe, disais-je, I want to try!

In fact, the only thing I can say I don't love about German right now is the Grammar. But I don't love grammar in any language, so I'm certainly not going to let that put me off!

Despite this entire post so far being something of a love letter to German and Germans, most of my effort actually goes into my Swedish.

I think I mentioned before that I am passively exposed to Swedish quite often, but I actively engage in Swedish more often, too. Sometime last year, I bought myself a copy of John Ajvide Lindqvist's Låt den rätte komma in and I am making (so slow as to almost be negligable) progress through it. I am making fairly heavy use of Lingq's Swedish resources and try to understand Swedish whenever I come across is. I recently watched the Swedish film version of Låt den rätte komma in and I can assure you I was quite ecstatic whenever I caught a word or phrase I understood!

I haven't set myself any concrete goals with regards to Swedish, but as a vague goal I would quite like to be able to understand this clip from Johan Glans 'World Tour of Skåne'. I think that I'm probably, somehow, almost a quarter way there!

(Baby steps, friends, baby steps.)

And for both, I am trying to write things. Just a little bit, just what I can, but I'm trying. I find it much easier to hash out (and hash up) a short few sentences in Swedish or German simply because I am not terrified of awful grammar faux pas as I am in French. After all, it doesn't matter if I'm contravening major grammar rules because I didn't know they existed! Whereas in French I feel like the earth should swallow me up and spit me out in some seventh circle of Daily Mail hell for making the slightest mistake because for goodness sake Lilian, you've been at this language for ten years, shouldn't you know this by now?

As I've said in this and at least one previous post, I am using Lingq* and italki for learning (both Swedish and German), and also Lang8 for writing practice. Feel free to find me there!

Happy learning and
Happier blogging,
Little Newman

*also, for those morally against Lingq's practice of awarding people points for linking to their site, have no fear! That link should be safe! While I'm not against it, I'm not particularly for it either. Any points I'm awarded, I'd rather get through actual work that I do. And also, no puns were intended there, they just sort of happened.

Language marriage counselling

As with all my other interests, my efforts to learn new languages wax and wane.

I have managed to narrow down a pretty impressive 'to learn' list down to two languages: German and Swedish. I have also decided to actively fall back in love with French.

To be honest, I'm not sure when I fell out of love with French. Perhaps the process started long ago, when I failed in finding an interesting piece of original language French young adult literature - not just English books in translation. No matter when the process started, it really became apparent to me this year. I've barely made any efforts to speak French in my everyday life, meaning that my conversational skills are more than below par. Write a detailed analyses on what Casanova's changes of verb tenses reveal about his personality and mood in Histoire de ma vie? No problem! Explain, in detail, why I think that I can't really say that I know anything about the current political status of Libya due to the biases and underlying motives of English news and media? I could practically do that in my sleep. But hold a conversation with a couple of teenage girls who I like and whose company I enjoy? Slow down, good sir, you go too far!

Part of the problem is a lack of vocabulary. It's all very well and good to try and look up the vocabulary of casual conversation, but this is an area where I am to be found lacking even in English. I analyse most of my conversation and realise I rarely say anything of substance. It's a fact that most of what passes between my friends and I as conversations are silly in-jokes based on meaningless phrases and past interactions with others and... faces. I make a lot of very stupid faces. Somehow I feel that this won't go far to developing my ability to make either friends or conversation in French.

The problem persists. No matter how many times my roommate and I say we will talk in French, we never succeed. Over the course of the past academic year, we have only had two conversations in French, and they were both short. And she ticks all the boxes: she's French, we get along and have similar interests, and I like her so much that she accompanied me on my last trip back home, which resulted in my family demanding that she come back to visit them in the summer.

So what can I do? Apart from attending ever more language exchanges, where there is the occasional chance of my finding a francophone with whom I can easily and freely speak French?

I'm going to interact much more with French culture, that's what. 'But Lilian, you have spent a year in immersion!' Yes, random observer, yes I have. And during that single year I have made more friends than I have in the rest of my life, all of whom speak English to a native level (if not natively), and with whom I am, at most, only going to speak very bad franglais.

So I will watch more in French. I will try to read more in French (because at my level, reading French should not be as much of a chore as it is). I am going to actively try to find people to speak French with. To that end, I have joined italki, a website that allows language learners to find either conversation exchange partners or teachers willing to help them learn their chosen language. I am trying to become an active member on the How to Learn Any Language forums for the moral support and encouragement of other language-learners (although becoming an active member of any forum is something I find difficult.) I have also found a French series that, so far, I enjoy. It is called Les Revenants, or The Returned, and it has been popular enough to be remade for English television. It's about a small town where the dead are coming back to life, and other supernatural phenomena is building up, also. It's quite difficult in places, with emotionally charged scenes - I'm sure you can imagine the kind of turmoil a family would be going through on their young daughter, dead for four years, returning home without realising that a thing has changed. Harrowing, indeed. But very good.

Finally, I will try writing some more. I am sad to say that creative writing in French is still far out of my reach, but I reckon I could manage a blog post here and there. Then again, I can barely do that in English!

As for my other two languages, Swedish and German? I'll guess I'll have to save that until next time.

Happy language learning and
Happy Blogging!
Little Newman


P.S., for any French language learners looking to improve their listening skills with interesting and amusing native content, try either Cyprien on YouTube or WorkinGirls. Both of them are quite challenging, WorkinGirls far more so than Cyprien, but the entertainment factor is high and makes it all the more worth the effort!

Earlier this year (quite a lot earlier this year), I blogged about wanting to travel. Soon after, I blogged about actually travelling, but suffice it to say that a weeks holiday to Jamaica for my sister's wedding was not exactly what I had in mind.

I'm here to say that I'm closer to where I want to be: as part of my uni course I am spending this academic year studying in France. I'm in the tiny town of Tours, which is in the Centre region of France and so far... well, it's been okay. It's had its ups, but it has also certainly had its downs. My roommate is a lovely girl from one of the French départements, and we speak no French at all and get along just fine. There are also a lot of people from my home university there, which is nice, as it means I have a go-to net of people who I know or who have had similar experiences to me.

But this is also terrible. It means I only speak French when absolutely necessary, and I don't have any French friends because I'm shy and they are intimidating. I also don't like doing things I'm not good at, and I'm not good at speaking French.

There are also definite downsides to French culture as well, which I can't pinpoint but which irritate me daily. Although, in fairness I think the problems usually have more to do with the smallness of the town than the Frenchness of its inhabitants. Despite being small, Tours is very beautiful, especially in summer, and as a place to visit it is lovely. As a place to live? Perhaps less so.

Well, that's about all I have to say about Tours for now, and about all I have to say about my life, too. The reading has paused again, but I'm picking back up slowly through rereading Austen and some other old favourites.

Oh! It's also my birthday next week! I'm going to be 21 (only imagine!)

Happy Blogging to you all,
Lots of Love
Little Newman

Je reviens...

C'est combien de temps cette fois? It's seems I start too many of my posts here with the same words, et je sais pas quoi faire. Saying it in French doesn't change the fact that it has been a really long time since I was last here.

And it's not that I don't want to be here! More than ever, I do - I have numerous writing blogs, and food blogs (even a politics blog or two floating out there somewhere), but only one personal blog.* And I need a personal blog, now more than ever. Okay, not more than ever, but I want somewhere where I can talk about anything without wondering first if it's relevant or not, without feeling hemmed in. The problem for me is mainly access. I do everything from my phone, and if I can't do what I want to do easily then chances are I probably won't do it at all. And blogger is not an easy site to use on a phone.

But, here I am, with a laptop, at last.

What have I been doing in the past nine- ten?- months? The usual. Avoiding reading. Writing - never quite enough. Just scraping deadlines. Eating. Spending more than I should. Making friends (- me? Friends? Wow!). That type of thing.

I didn't start the new year with any resolutions - I never do. But I'm drawing to the end of a Twitter break which has actually produced some semblance of productivity within me. I've written a little bit, after a prolonged inability to write anything much following NaNo. (Speaking of NaNo, I didn't win this time either, but I wrote 38,442 words, more than ever before.) I've also written a bit on a restaurant review blog run by a friend and I. (Young Fine Diners, if you're wondering!) I've been reading - my set texts, and La Légende Arthurienne and working (school work, again: I am jobless.)

Quoi d'autre? I'm renewing my efforts in learning French, and have found out about language exchanges. I'm looking forward to attending one of those!

And I'm going to see Alice in Wonderland at the Royal Opera House this March! I'm looking forward to this a lot, as I wanted to go last year, but tickets went very quickly, and my ROH account was playing up :( this year, I only managed to get tickets right near the back, but that's better than nothing, and they were only £9 each! So I'm looking forward to that, and hopefully I will have something to say about that to you, later.

Also hopefully, I will have read enough to write another Lit Corner - I miss that!

I've spent all day listening to RFI on my phone. Anyone learning French or wanting to improve their listening skills, Radio France International is a great resource - does what it says it does on the tin.

Well, that's all I have to say for just now, I think, but I hope I will be back soon with more.

J'éspere de vous revoir bientot!

How are your 2013s going? Anything interesting happened/happening?

Parlez-vous francais? Or are you learning another language? Let me know ^^

Happy Blogging,

Your ever affectionate (if slightly flaky)

Little Newman

*I don't count my tumblr as a personal blog. I don't really use it, either.

Hai!

My personal vocabulary hs once again, extended after spending the day with my dad's Polish friend and her two year old son :)

He is adorable, and very very friendly. He is also good- obediant, and he shares astoundingly well. Because he is so young, he doesn't differentiate between Polish and English, so when he spoke, it was in a mixture of the two, and I often found myself being casully chatted at in Polish, which was sweet. And so, on to my new words (which I shall have to hazard a guess at spelling). Pacha which means look, and tot which means this, but which I believe can also mean there. I remember these especially because his mother told me their meanings twice, and when we were dropping them back home, we saw a rainbow, and I was told by little Mimi (the little boy) 'opacha tot!' to look as the rainbow :)

I say I add them to my own personal vocabulary, because I like that my daily conversation contains elements of languages other than English (although I was embarassed the other day when I responed with 'hai!' to a friend's question, and she gave me the oddest look!) I often contain elements of French and German in my daily conversation- I keep it simple, no worries! Jut a 'nein' or 'danke-schon'. Sometimes I stretch myself further, to the limits of my French/German vocabulary.

Rechuisity Forceps taught me a very nice Yiddish word the other day- nu. It means 'is it not so' and I think it's very handy, and quicker to say than innit; more elegant as well.

Angie told me the other day she spontaneously replied in Latin to a question rather than in British!
I think that's brilliant! I only wish we spoke another language at home. I'd love to be bilingual.

On anther topic, I yesterday went on a day of Waterstones with Angie.
We went to the Gower Street Waterstones, which is the largest educaion bookshop in Europe (!!!) and then from there, we took a quick bus ride down to the flagship store in Piccadilly. I confess; our main reason for going there was to sit on the fifth floor, where a certain favourite indie-kid actor of ours sometimes spends time.

We were not prepared for the high levels of swank that met us when we got there! I was so nervous, I made us go downstairs while I regained my composure!
It was not the average Costa Coffee I had been expecting. Oh, no. That is the basement level cafe. I was exposed to the 'Fifth View, Bar and Restaurant'. The carpets were so plush I practically sank ankle deep in them, and they had all that reasonable extortionism one expects from a high class dedicated restaurant as opposed to an eatery on top of a bookshop!
But I confess, despite it having used pretty much ALL of my budget, I loved it there, and Angie and I fully plan to go and eat there so often that the waitresses recognise us.
In addition to this, the actual bookshop itself is lovely, very airy, and easy to find different things- Angie and I kept on losing ourselves in the History, Politics and Language sections, and I almost cried when I found the section devoted to linuistics.
So yes, I definitely include that on any London day trip 'to see list'.

Hope your yesterdays and todays were as nice and educational as mine!
Sitting on the floor of my bedroom with the laptop charger digging into my leg
Lots of love and
Happy Blogging!
Little Newman
xxx