I work in a government office complex, and for the most part, our offices tend to look like they were designed and approved by accountants. Actuarial accountants. And auditors. We don’t have 50 shades of gray, we tend to have three. Light gray, dark gray, and something in between that is probably “light gray that got dirty and will never get cleaned”.… Read the rest
Tag Archives: public service
French update: Standard conjugation, the hypothese, and pronoun replacement (#2017-009)
Mostly a summary of rules to remember around the various conjugations in present, hypothesis forms, some useful vocabulary to remember for nuances, and replacement pronouns.
| GENERAL FRENCH REVIEW | |
| B. Standard conjugations | Avoir J’ai Tu as Il/elle/on a Nous avons Vous avez Ils/elles ont être Je suis Tu es Il / elle / on est Nous sommes Vous êtes Ils / elles sont Parler Je parle Tu parles Il/elle/on parle Nous parlons Vous parlez Ils/elles parlent |
| C. |
French update: Using DuoLingo (#2017-007)
Just over two years ago, perhaps closer to three, I started using DuoLingo as a way just to keep my mind occupied with French. I have no grand illusions that an app like this will make me “fluent”, and I feel the same way about even the more intensive programs like Rosetta Stone.… Read the rest
French update: Screwing up the conditional (#2017-006)
Back in the day, when I started my french training, I struggled with the five main verb tenses as many new students do. While the present tense is always considered the easiest, I confess that I always found it a bit abrupt. For example, “je mange” which translates simply as “I eat”.… Read the rest
French update: Understanding the two exams (#2017-005)
Okay, so I know WHAT the tests look like and what I have to practice. I spent a lot of time tonight that seemed almost wasted, although mostly it was identifying certain phrases that I need to simply memorize the structure of, and to recognize them when they show up in the test.… Read the rest
French update: Training for my exams (#2017-003)
I was finally able to get the one-on-one french training started last week (some long delays due to administrative inertia followed by a few weeks of figuring it out with the new approach to delivery followed by a mixup that delayed me two more weeks), and the first week went about as I expected.… Read the rest
French update: Structure for my written review (#2017-002)
I’ve been working on my structure for my review of French to support my next written test. Lots to review, but since a lot of it will be all over the place, with multiple tools, I need a structure to figure out what exactly I’m “reviewing”. It will also be the basis for future oral review too, so I’m trying keep some of those things in mind too.… Read the rest
French update: The new plan (#2017-001)
For my last update, I finished with “I’m going to blog my way through my re-certification process, from low-level beginner back to moderately fluent. Wish me luck…”. Fast-forward 8 months, and not much changed. I pushed for training, and ran into massive administrative inertia as to what I was supposed to do for training.… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 6 – Slow descent into uselessness
When I left off my last update, I fast-forwarded through seven years of non-use of my french at work. Non-use is a bit of an exaggeration, I use it occasionally, but I certainly don’t “work” in French. More like active listening in meetings. It’s even worse over the last 10 years as I’m working in planning.… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 5 – Use it or lose it
After all that hard work, all the stress, I didn’t use my french much at work. I really felt uncomfortable displaying my crappy language ability with my professional colleagues, and over time, I got more and more rusty. I was fine for reading, I was fine for listening somewhat in meetings (I can understand enough in context, as long as multiple people aren’t speaking at the same time and I can actually hear what is being said and it isn’t rapid fire speed!).… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 4 – My B level test
I met my tutor for breakfast, we had a quick conversation in french to get me ready, and off I went.
This was my third attempt. When we all did the first attempt, we went in cocky. We had heard there was an examiner named Jacques, “Jacques le Couteau” was his nickname, and we all wanted Jacques.… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 3 – Return to Asticou
I had been back at Asticou about five weeks when I realized that the passive receiver of language learning was not working for me, and I spent a weekend thinking about some of the challenges I had gone through in the previous year. I kept coming back to the tutor’s analysis — I wasn’t letting go.… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 2 – My first tutor
Even though all of us said that we weren’t ready (My experiences learning French – Part 1), the school sent us for the oral test.
And all of us except one failed. The one who passed? The weakest one among us. Partly as her “stories” for telling what she did for a living were pretty simple in comparisons — she was a clerk who did very basic admin work.… Read the rest
My experiences learning French: Part 1 – Intro to Asticou
I am a not a linguist by anyone’s definition. I’m not very eloquent in speaking English, let alone any other language. I can write pretty well in English, and I edit even better, but other languages were never my strength. I grew up in Peterborough, which was not exactly the hub of linguistic diversity.… Read the rest