Des Langues Romanes

I've been doing this French reading class for a week now. It's more work than I anticipated; we only have 50 min of class each day but we have to translate several pages for each class. This takes me quite a while because I have to look up every second word in the dictionary. (My ability to order a cup of coffee or an ice-cream really isn't doing me much good!) It doesn't help that the texts we have to traslate are really pretty boring.

As I mentioned before, I've found that my understanding of French goes through some convoluted route inside my brain via Italian. This became particularly apparent in Montreal when I was speaking and, when I ran out of French words, I would finish my sentences in Italian. (Actually, I did get away with it occasionally. I was able to guess French words by saying Italian words with a French emphasis. It worked more than half the time, I had my teachers convinced that I knew tons of French words.) Anyway, it occurred to me that if I got too good at French (not such a big worry at the moment) that it might displace all that Italian I spent years studying but had neglected over the last little while.

Then I discovered that tons of people all around the world use Skype to improve their language skills. (That speech bubble thinga-magigga in the side-bar shows my current Skype status, in case you were wondering.) It's really easy, either you can post your details on a language exchange website or, easier still, search for people in Skype Me mode and start talking to them straight away. I've already found a few people to practise Italian with; it's going ok, I manage to make myself understood with a little help from online dictionaries. (We just type. I tried the mic once and it stressed me out too much being on the spot like that.) The plan is that after a few more weeks, if my French is good enough, I'll look for a Frenchie to practise with. But maybe I'll have to find one who wants to learn English so they can write to me in French while I reply in English; that might just work.

Back in Bloomington

My three week study-vacation in Montreal is now over; I'm back in Bloomington, Indiana.

I'm a little sad to have left so soon. I was just getting to know the other students at the school and could have spend many more days exploring Montreal's museums, galleries and bars!

Summer Semester II starts Friday and I am enrolled in the second part of French for Reading. I just hope I've learnt enough grammar to keep up with the students who did the first part during Summer I. I'm sure the sorts of words I know are very different from what they've been learning -- I can tell you the names of all the rooms in a house and various foods (mmm, crême glacée!) but I doubt that will be much use to me for reading philosophy!

Parc Jean Drapeau

Today after school I went for a walk in Jean Drapeau Park. It's on a little island between Montréal and the mainland but there's a Metro station there so it was very easy for me to get there.

Apart from the usual park things there's also a giant buckyball. I saw this from the bus on the way to Quebec city, apparently it was built for the 1967 World Expo but now it's home to a special water purification facility. There's a Museum of Water even! (I thought of Baden when I saw that but that still wasn't enough to make me pay money to hear about water purification. But, come to think of it, the tap water here in Montreal tastes much better than the terrible stuff we get in Bloomington.)

It's a surprisingly good park considering it's so close to the city but still not as nice as Sydney's Botanic Gardens. One thing they have that we don't get so much in Sydney, though, is groundhogs (aka woodchucks). Today was the first time I'd seen one so I took a photo. They're a bit timid and run into their burrows when you try to take their photo but this one poked his head back out.