Anyway, on to tonight. My mom and I were out for drinks for her last night here. We've just paid the bill, and my mom ran to the bathroom while they were processing the card and all that jazz. While she's gone, I discover that the table of 7 people that had recently been seated near us are all speaking French. I'm guessing they're from Quebec since Massachusetts is rather close. So, I'm listening, not catching much because I've forgotten a lot PLUS I've had two martinis. That's not a TON of alcohol to me, but I was swaying a bit on the walk back to the train station. I'm still having an interesting time typing right now. I have to focus very hard to catch the typos. I'm sure you can tell I'm a little unfocused since I seem to be going off on tangents instead of staying on topic. Anywho. My mom comes back and I whisper to her that they're speaking French and I want to say that I think it's funny since I keep encountering people doing that now that I've started relearning. She says I should. Being somewhere between tipsy and drunk, I do it. But in French. Here's roughly what I said. (Translations as necessary.)
"Un moment...un moment. (One moment...one moment.) C'est interessant, parce que j'ai oublie un peu de mon français, mais je desire... (It's interesting, because I've forgotten a little of my French but I want...) to remember..." (at which point one of the women reminded me what it is, I believe she said souvenir, which is the verb for to remember)...
And then I finished in English by saying "and I keep ending up near people speaking French ever since I started working on it again." My mom added some things in English about how we've ended up near people 3 or 4 times in the past week. And then I said:
"Je desire visiter à Paris en......deux mille...dix. (I want to visit Paris in......two thousand...ten).
One of the men then responded in French to tell me the dollar will be higher at that point (referring to the exchange rate, American dollar will be a little better, basically...). Then I said goodbye and we left.
So, anyway. It wasn't anything brilliant. But I certainly feel that I'll be ready for my Paris trip when summer of 2010 rolls around. They didn't want to kill me. They didn't cringe at my accent (actually, I've known that won't be a problem ever since my 3rd year high school French teacher said I have a perfect accent). They were accommodating when I got stuck and had to switch to English (granted, they were visiting my country so it's a little more acceptable to speak in my own language at that point). They'll probably talk about it for the rest of the evening, but they were pleasant and happy to speak to me and that's what counts at this point.
And now, I feel the need to present you all with the lyrics to a song I wrote when I was still a music major back in my Sophomore year of college...before I switched to Sociology. There's a long story you may never hear...
Dans mon jardin avec mes fleurs, (In my garden with my flowers)
J'attends, j'attends. (I wait, I wait.)
J'attends pour toi (I wait for you)
Mais tu ne viens jamais. (But you never come.)
Et tu mon ange? (Are you my angel?)
Ou un mirage? (Or a mirage?)
Les fleurs sont mort (The flowers died)
Mais j'attends tojours. (But I always wait.)
Et tu ne viens jamais. (And you never come.)
Dans mon jardin avec mes fleurs (In my garden with my flowers)
J'attends pour mon amour, (I wait for my love)
Et il ne viens....
Jamais... (And he never comes...)
Pardon the translation there at the end, gramattically the "ne....jamais" around a verb means never. Ne...pas just negates the verb, like, "je ne condius pas" means I don't drive. And ne...plus means not anymore. There, I just taught you something. Something rather advanced if you can't even conjugate the verbs in the first place, but there you have it. =)
Alright, well, I know my mom and I were out for drinks which provides a bit of an excuse for being up late, but I should head off to bed now. Goodnight all, and I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with laughter and love. =)
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4 comments:
I forgot a couple accents in a few places, it's hard to type them on a computer expecting me to type in English...
LOL, I won't try to buy pants in London. I like your lyrics. I've been trying to catch up on your blogging in reverse (most recent back to the beginning.
Fantastic! I love learning new things especially when it comes to foreign to me languages. I was a Spanish gal in school but I could never get it back then. I think after living in an area where it was commonly spoken (western MA) I might do better now. You are inspiring me to give it a try sometime next year! Only 18 months until your trip huh? How exciting...that also means only 18 months until you graduate...woo hoo!
lovely, just lovely...forgive me if i butcher the language, but i have to mention it because i think it's funny and you just reminded me. i took a grand total of 3 weeks of french in highschool. we moved and my new school didn't offer it so i had to switch to spanish, but one thing i did learn was the ne...pas to negate verbs. whenever i was in the mall and the survey people would try to stop me i would just say, "je ne parle pas englais." (i dont speak english)
as a teenager, i was quite pleased with myself.
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