Hello
everyone!
The
weather in Québec City has cooled off a little, which is nice. The
humidity and constant sweating gets tiresome rather quickly. There have
been rainstorms and windstorms, too. The weather certainly does change
swiftly here. It’s fairly prudent to bring a hat and/or umbrella with you
everywhere you go (except into a concert – security collects all the umbrellas
and presumably sells them on eBay).
There
are a couple of other Coquitlam teachers here (Judy from Centennial, Franca
from Terry Fox) who teach secondary French. They are both in the advanced
class (as they should be) so I don’t see them much, but they are pretty
friendly. Almost everybody here is inclusive and helpful; it’s a pretty
good group.
Apparently
the words for “neck” and “ass” sound remarkably similar. Who knew?
Every
couple of days we do workshops. The first workshop we had was that one in
the computer lab with the web resources. The second workshop was about
pronunciation. I have discovered that I CAN roll my R’s after all!
Basically, you just gargle, right? I tried to demonstrate with “Rrrrrroll
up the rrrrrrim to win” but my prof did not seem impressed. However since
then, I get strange looks all the time and I think it’s because people are so
surprised at my amazing progress.
We
had our third workshop today, and it was a group project. We created a
comic strip and it turned out pretty great if I do say so myself. J I have attached it to this email
so I can show off my newfound skillz. The last workshop is next week.
The
visit to the chocolaterie was pretty cool except it’s not really fair to bring
a bunch of poor & starving BC teachers to a store like that. It makes
me feel like I am starring in the next installment of those “Confessions of a
Shopaholic” books. Basically, I just pretend like I have money, and then
after I eat all the chocolates there is no evidence of my spending
anyways. Didn’t work out so well for the girl in that book…
Le
Festival d’Été is still going strong. There are so many stages and
musical acts, indoor and outdoor, that even if you just wander around you can
soak it all in. We saw Young the Giant and The Killers the other
night. It was a great concert and slightly less crowded than Lady Gaga,
which was nice.
Earlier
this week our debutante class got a bit of a pep talk from one of our
instructors. He reminded us that it takes years to learn a second
language, and that we need to be “gentle with ourselves.” Good
advice! I was thinking that perhaps I could take a French course starting
in the fall to make myself practice a little more regularly. I am still
using the Rosetta Stone, which is great, but it’s self-directed, and perhaps if
I had a little more structure, I’d keep up with it more consistently.
Anyways, do you know about anything like that? I suppose I could look
into whether SFU or UBC or Douglas or some place has a beginner’s French course
I could take – doing it online would be an option too. Anyways, it’s
something for me to think about. I don’t want to lose all my
progress. ;-)
Did
you know that “le trombone” is a musical instrument and “la trombone” is a
paper clip? J
Does
anyone have any news from home? I’m a little homesick, so feel free to
write me a quick note. Seven days until I come home…
Tomorrow
we go to the sugar shack! So excited!
Cheers,
E!
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