French!
My second class of French started today!
There’s a much broader range of French experience in this class compared to the first one. Some students had French immersion in school; others of us took the intro French class and that’s all we’ve had so far.
It’s intimidating! But I’m ready to learn.
Duolingo: 2023 Review
So my efforts in studying French via Duolingo fluctuated a lot this year due to fluctuations in how busy I was, but I tried to stay consistent with at least doing one lesson a day. Here’s my year-end summary:
I think the combination of the French class(es) and Duo is a really good one. Duo is great for vocab and basics; the French class(es) help with the nuances of the language.
Can’t wait to learn more!
500 Days!
Check it, I just hit 500 days on Duo!
Here are some examples of the level of French I can comprehend at this point:
I’m excited for my second French class this coming winter!
Yo Dawg, I Herd U Like French
So I put some French synonyms in your French definitions so you can learn French while you learn French.
Anyway.
This is a new type of Duolingo exercise, and I really like it. You’re getting your current knowledge of French tested at the same time you’re learning new words. I hope there are a lot more exercises like this!
I did two things today!
Well, I did other stuff too, of course, but there were two BIG things.
One: I signed up for FRE 102, the first actual factual French course in the certificate program. I’m nervous about it because we’re actually graded in this course (rather than Complete/Incomplete), so that’ll be interesting.
Two: I also officially applied for the program to get a professional Certificate in French Language and Culture – FSL Foundations. I’ll get an actual parchment if I complete the whole program!
YAYZORZ
MATCH
One of my favorite little exercises/challenges on Duolingo is Match Madness, where you’re presented with a column of words from the language you know, a column of words from the language you’re learning, and you’ve got a time limit to match the words from each column. Like this:
There are nine levels of this where the number of matches you must make within the time limit.
At least, I thought there were only nine levels. That was until I beat the ninth level this afternoon to reveal this:
MATCH MADNESS EXTREME!
Three more levels. I can get to level 12 but I can’t get through it yet, so who knows if there is anything beyond that.
TESTING MY FRENCH!
I’d say that’s pretty good for only having one French class and using Duo for a bit less than a year.
Let’s keep improving!
Mes livres de français sont arrivés !
Yay!
One is (obviously) a French-English dictionary; the other is a book on conjugating French verbs.
Apprendre le français est agréable !
Trois Cents!
(LOL, “trois cents” rhymes with “croissants”)
I’ve hit 300 days on Duolingo learning French!
That’s pretty cool. I didn’t think I’d stick with it that long, but I’m glad I have! Now I just want to learn even more French, haha.
French!
I bought my textbook for FRE 100, the French class I’ll be (hopefully) taking next semester!
I’m excited. I’ve never taken a language class before so we’ll see how bad I am at it.
Frenchie
So I’m REALLY enjoying learning French, and I’ve just discovered that you can take some French classes through the U of C’s Continuing Education program. I’m seriously considering taking this one, specifically.
And then I can work on this certificate.
Wouldn’t that be super cool?
I also think that I get like one free class a year as a faculty member, so might as well take advantage of that.
FRANCH
How’s my French going? Here are a few examples of the level I’m currently at:
Not too bad for two months’ worth I guess? It’s really fun. I try to make up my own sentences when I’m running and I’ve sometimes had some French in my dreams.
WOO!
D-D-D-Duo!
So I saw some bro sharing a 300-day Duolingo streak on Twitter this afternoon, and that for whatever reason sparked me to download Duolingo and get started on a language.
Turns out I’d made a Duolingo account way back in September 2016, but luckily, I could remember my login info and started things up from there.
I’m going to go for French. Three reasons why:
- It’s in the same general family as English and thus would be easier to learn than, say, Hebrew or Greek.
- It’s one of Canada’s official languages and is thus on packaging and other things up here; it would be something easy to practice and, of course, it’d be cool to know Canada’s other official language.
- (I could possibly read some original, untranslated Leibniz!!!!!)
So yeah. We’ll see how this goes. I know Duo doesn’t replace actual language courses and experience, but it’s a good start, right?
bllpp.
Someone (PERHAPS ME??????!?) needs to write a story featuring many of these words.
They’re great. I love this kind of stuff.
Speak the Speak
I hadn’t heard “pencil crayons” until Nate said it when referring to my colored pencils. I guess it makes sense, though. They’re like crayons but in pencil form?
I have never heard “garburator” in my life and if I didn’t see what it was referring to, I would think it was Canada’s name for Bigfoot or something.
What kind of nerd is down with “soccer baseball?” “Kickball” is a fairly unambiguous term; you’re kicking a ball like in soccer, but you’re doing so in a game form that’s like baseball. “Soccer baseball” could imply that, but it could also imply that you’re whacking soccer balls around with a baseball bat. Which I guess is kinda cool.
Definitely heard it referred to as “hydro bill” in BC.
Odd.
Jendah
‘Sup?
So this is quite depressing (but also unsurprising): “Gendered Language in Teaching Reviews” is an interactive chart made by Ben Schmidt that allows you to see how frequently certain words are used on RateMyProfessor.com to describe male and female teachers. It also breaks it down by field.
A few:
Words that did not have that consistent gender split: lazy, stupid, boring, engaging, quiet, bad professor, good professor, harsh.
Conglomerate
This is interesting. Check it out if you like linguistics at all.
A Thought I Had Today:
We use the same prefix “im-” for both impossible and impossibility, but why do we use “un-” for unstable but “in-” for instability?
I did a bit of internetting to see if I could find a reasonably believable answer. Turns out the word “unstable” dates back to the 13th century and borrows from Old English and Old French, both Germanic languages. Germanic languages use the “un-” prefix.
“Instability,” on the other hand, is slightly newer and dates back to the 15th century. It borrows from Latin; Latin uses the “in-” (or “im-”) prefix.
Both “impossible” and “impossibility” borrow from Latin, hence the same “im-” prefix.
The more you know!
Bias
Are there certain sounds and/or combinations of letters in the English language that you find unappealing, regardless of the words they’re in?
For example, I don’t like the long “o” sound (like in boat or moat or goat), but only if it’s spelled with “oa”. Tote and smote and wrote are fine.
Same with “s”. I only like that sound when it’s spelled with the “s”, like pass or summer or loose. I don’t like pace or rice or ceiling.
Words that end in “b” drive me nuts (job, crib, drab). Even if the “b” is silent (like in limb).
I’ve never really liked “w” in general.
Not a big fan of the long “e” sound, either, especially if it’s spelled with “ea”. Lease, east, peanut. Beer, Weedle, and peer are fine.
So what do I like?
I like the “k” and hard “c” sound. Coin, click, coffin.
I like “ch” and “tch”. Batch, cheddar, kitchen.
The “h” sound isn’t bad, either. Hoop, honor, rehire.
I like “v”, but only at the beginning of words. Vacancy, victorious, vanity. Not glove or rave or reverberate.
I dunno.
Hey, remember back when my blogs were good?
Me neither.
I may have mentioned this video on here before, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never posted it or really talked about it. And I re-discovered it the other day, so here you go.
This nifty little song is called Prisecolinensinenciousol. Written by Italian Adriano Celentano, the song’s lyrics are total gibberish designed to sound like American English.
Catchy, ain’t it? I remember one spring when Nick and I would talk to each other in fake French we actually convinced some dude at Hastings that we were really speaking French. We’re bad people, oui?
This is perhaps the most hilarious thing I’ve read in awhile
Oh man. This is fantastic.
“The Swedish Chef does not speak any known language, and the fact that his nonsense words are so widely interpreted as Swedish-sounding is bewildering and annoying to Swedes.”
“Riad, one of 18 members of the prestigious Swedish Academy, which determines who wins the Nobel Prize in literature, wrote an article in the Swedish language magazine Spraktidningen titled “Börk Börk Börk. Ehula Hule de Chokolad Muus.””
““There are three things that people talk to Swedes about pretty uniformly: the Swedish Chef, Abba, and Ikea.””
Hahahaha. Gotta love the Swedes.
TODAY HAS NO TITLE OH GOD
The online class is helping with the sentence structure and whatnot. However, since the only words we’ve learned how to say are “pencil,” “book,” “magazine,” “box,” “yes,” “and,” and “this is a,” I figured I’d see if I could expand my vocabulary a little using the random article search in Greek Wiki. These are now the words I know:
- Metal
- Gallium
- Titanium
- Glass
- Biology
- Genetics
- Bibliography
- History
- Technology
- Litre
- Size (not even close to anything in English)
Yay!
I’m learning Greek!
Because I realized that I just got a college degree without knowing how to count to ten in another language (except for Spanish…but that doesn’t count because that’s all they taught us).
Also, Greek is badass.
I almost flew off the handle last night until I realized I didn’t have wings…
Ahh, Sean, where would I be without you?
Well, I’d be looking up rarely used words online at 2:00 in the morning all alone, that’s where.
This was fun. It was inspired by our Psych of Emotion class, in which our teacher claimed there was no exact English word for the German word Schadenfreude. It turns out there is—it’s epicaricacy. We found it on this online dictionary full of a bunch of rarely used words.
So here are some interesting ones in my opinion, plus some fun snippets of our conversation.
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: this is a goldmine for confusing people
*hsus says: hell yes
*hsus says: bookmarked
Xenodocheiorology: love of hotels and inns
Acritochromacy: colorblindness
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Tittup
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: To prance
*hsus says: haha
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: I’m so using that in everyday conversation
*hsus says: good luck
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: “Tittup over there and get me those papers!”
*hsus says: wow, you really need to be a teacher
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Haha
*hsus says: ‘cos for some reason that fits perfectly
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Final exam: “Tittup or F in the class. It’s up to you to figure out what that means”
*hsus says: haha
*hsus says: that’s cruel
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: But oh so funny
Adoxography: good writing on a trivial subject
Adscititious: superfluous
*hsus says: “oh, we’re covering this?”
*hsus says: “why, do you think we shouldn’t?”
*hsus says: “well, I’m just saying it’s a bit…adscititious is all”
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Haha
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: “But…but we’re not talking about acid at all”
Sacerdotophrenia: clerical stage fright
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Haha, schediasm
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Impromptu work
*hsus says: nice
*hsus says: that also describes my pscyh papers
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Same here
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: And essentially every other paper I’ve written/will write
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Freud paper? OH SHIT
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Doctorate thesis? OH SHIT
Obdormition: when a limb “goes to sleep”
Steatopygous: pertaining to or characterized by a large buttocks
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Parasigmatism
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Inability to pronounce the sound “s”
*hsus says: awesome
Leibniz Rocks My Socks says: Which would suck to tell someone you have, seeing as it has two “s”s in it
*hsus says: “I have para-…para-…fuck it”
Perissotomist: a knife-happy surgeon
Eigenblogger 