“You’re Crazy”

…that’s what my friend J told me today when I was getting *slightly* too excited about Czech writers and their ability to write beautifully.

I believe it was said with affection.

So I took it as a compliment.

And in order not to let such a great compliment go to waste, let’s train our language skills.

 

Finnish: olet hullu.

Swedish: du är galen.

Spanish: estás loco/loca.

Slovak: si blázon.

Polish: jesteś szalony/szalona.

Hungarian: te őrült.

Russian: Ты сошел с ума/ Ты сошла с ума

French: tu es fou

The French Challenge

"My plan does not involve moving to France or even speaking with a Frenchman, all I want to do is read some French writers without the need of a dictionary. In order to get this thing going, I have decided to set myself a goal: read three books in French over the summer."




Ok, let's do this. Three books in French over the summer 2012. Who's with me? You can read books in other foreign languages, too.

Bonjour Rudolph!

Today my nose is competing with Rudolph's red nose. It feels like the pollen is killing me, honestly. Last night I couldn't sleep because of having difficulties to breathe. Argh. Drama queen? Noo...
What's new under the sun? Not much. Except that there is a sun and it's shining oh so brightly these days. Tomorrow I'm planning on getting my bikini out and just sip on cold cava on the balcony. Weekend treat! 
Good news! I found a French course starting in the autumn. It's offered by the Open University and it's at level 3, which might be more or less suitable for me. This whole thing with French is turning into a huge problem. I want to speak it, I want to know it, I want to read it. But I don't know if I want to study it. Geez, the closest I've been to needing French was when I wanted to buy a red bull at Zürich Airport.
(There's a label in this blog called "The French Challenge" - wonder what that is? Must be something highly traumatic since I've forgotten all about it. Need to check that out) .
 

French.

Je pense que je vais commencer à apprendre le français. Sérieusement.

So now, I said it. How I will have the time, I do not know. How long my energy will last, I do not know. French has been mentioned on this blog before. I studied it for six years, took the A-level exam (and passed with a good grade) and then promptly forgot all about it. Because French is hard, it doesn't like me. But I think I might need it. French, politics, international cooperation go hand in hand, ya know. Even though English has gained a more prominent role, knowing French might not be a bad thing.   


Is there anyone else wanting to learn French out there?

Languages

While listening to some random Russians chatting in their native tongue at a table nearby, I was struck with a sudden feeling of…. love, maybe? Being in love with languages might sound like a very silly thing, but I cannot think of a better word to explain this feeling. Languages just make me emotional.
I quickly updated my facebook status with the following summary:

(Irish) English is sexy, (the Savonian version of) Finnish is hot. Spanish can make chocolate melt. Catalan and Dutch are the funny ones, French is the language of philosophy. Swedish is compulsory and German is kinda cool. Polish makes me happy and Hungarian feels like home. But the most beautiful of them all is Russian.

How do languages make you feel?
(I know, I know… I’ve written about this before!!)

En français

Once in a while, quite often actually, I feel like learning random sentences in French. Maybe French is the language of thoughts so advanced that no other language is good enough? The things I want to say in French are not normal or even useful – no, usually they are combinations of words that I’d like to use for book titles.

Ce jour-là le monde entier se mit à rire.

One step. Two step. Three step.

"The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult."  ~Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du Deffand, letter to Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, 7 July 1763

In the past few days I have taken three tiny steps towards my humble goal of conquering the European languages.

Translating a couple of poems written by Endre Ady into Swedish has been fun but tiring. Hungarian isn’t exactly an easy language but it has the same sort of playfulness as Finnish, and to a lesser extent, the Slavic languages. It’s like creating a puzzle from all the grammatical pieces that are lying spread out on the floor. Why Swedish then? That’s a good question since I have also done some translation work from French into Finnish. If I’m translating for fun, which sometimes is the case, I usually pick my source language randomly. Hungarian and Swedish somehow belong together since I’m studying Hungarian at a Swedish university where most of the teaching is (evidently) in Swedish. It’s funny that: once you are used to combining two languages, it feels strange to use them with any other languages. The same thing happens in Russian; I could never imagine translating Russian into any other language than English, since that’s what I spent 4 years of my life doing.

I have also tried to brainwash myself into thinking in Polish, but it’s not going too well, I’m appalled with my own level at the moment. The verbs are messing it up, together with the instrumental case. The basic rule is that the instrumental case is used with the verb to be = by´c, but I keep using the nominative instead.

And there is actually a fourth step, but it’s even smaller than the others, it can hardly be called a step at all: tonight my bedtime story will consist of beginner’s Czech.

přílis mnoho věcí* [no, this is not French]

*the Czechs and their language are turning me on. Languagewise that is. Yes, it is absolutely possible to be turned on by a language. You should try.

That sentence simply means: too much stuff. (if anyone needs an interpreter to bring with them to Prague, Brno or any other nice place then TAKE ME TAKE ME TAKE ME- I almost know Czech).

Point is. This girl owns too much stuff that she is carrying around with her without any particular purpose. Too much means that most of that stuff is never used, it just exists. Just in case of an emergency. So today I have been throwing away make up I’m no longer using, deciding which books to give away and soon my clothes will go through the same process.

Before: 4 make up bags FULL of stuff

After

Yes. This is all absolutely necessary, especially for a person who uses make up like once a week. Ano, jsem líná. And the same in French: Oui, je suis paresseuse.

je suis incroyablement fatiguée, mais je prends des vitamins*

*nevermind the French. It’s just to get some practice. It’s like a "learn-one-sentence-a-day" kind of thing. The truth is that I am incredibly tired: maybe it’s my lacking organizational skills and failing time management that are taking their toll (kids, doing everything at the last minute is NOT an intelligent thing to do). Or maybe I’m just being too social (=running around like a headless chicken). Falling asleep at 5 a.m. might have something to do with it as well. Whichever the reason, I’m longing for my bed right now.

Speaking of vitamines: this is a magic potion that I can recommend to all of you: homemade blueberryjuice with frozen cranberries. Both of these berries can be considered being superfoods as they contain a lot of vitamines and dietary fibre, and they both have various health benefits and anti-disease effects that might make you live a little bit longer.

And say hello to my new babies: they are smart, pretty and very, very comfortable. And not only that, they are also a far more versatile option than the only pair of flats I have in this country, which look like this:

Yup, leo is fun and cute, but it really doesn’t suit all occasions.

Français ou pas du tout?

If you've read this blog for a while, you will know that the one question that always gives a me a sore head is: French or no French? We have a strange relationship, I and the French language. Sometimes we are in love, sometimes we are bitter enemies. Now (at the moment), I'm tempted to take it up again. I'm seriously considering it. It's not like I have the time, but it could be fun... and I have some kind of a base (err... those 6 years I spent learning it were not a total waste of time, were they?).

So, now I need your help. You will decide for me. I will put a questionnare in this blog: if you say yes, I will learn French, if you say no, I will forget it forever. Deal?