*à le niveau suivant

Learning a new language is tough. There a lot of things to unlearn, new rules to follow and foreign accents to adopt. I'm making my vocal chords vibrate in a totally new fashion and my tongue twists and contorts to make sounds it does not usually make. It is tough. Especially if you really need to learn, if you are serious about it--not just memorizing a couple of phrases for a holiday vacation.

My medium to make sense of French is English--like most if not all of us in class. And another thing you have to remember when learning a new language is the proficiency in the language you use as medium. So, I am faced with the task of refreshing all the rules of English grammar in my mind again. I must admit, four years in FA left me a little rusty--language in that college doesn't really matter: that which is seen trumps that which is heard. And the 30 units of humanities courses doesn't really hone one student much in effective writing...you need constant practice. And my two years out of school didn't help.

I have been learning English on and off for almost two decades now. And I am requiring myself to learn French in a year or two in time for the foreign language exam for my MA. A pretty tall order. I do not know if it is even possible--I am happy if I could develop a reading knowledge of French during that time...its ok even if my speaking and listening skills (a totally different aspect of communication) suck. And it doesn't help that foreign languages were not included in the FA curriculum--I could've at least attended the intermediate french classes instead of bungling around on the basic level.

So I worry. I am frustrated. I am impatient.

You can't speak French just by attending classes that is for sure. You have to review, study further and practice almost everyday. Now I understand why immersion courses are the most advised method of instruction...you are literally forced to use the language. Though I get the sense of it in class for a couple of hours, I get back to reality once outside. Hayyy...but do not get me wrong it is definitely fun--if you take out the pressure and shit. I spray saliva almost everytime we do the vocabulary excercises hehehe and you use your hands more! like it is the most natural thing to do when speaking hehehe.

And I was motivated again when I saw this:


The French library in Alliance has quite a sizable fiction collection in French. And behold! They have the complete Proust in French! I remembered immediately how I desired to be worthy and competent enough to read this narrative in Français--especially after knowing how the English translation doesn't quite compare to the original.

*There were other nice volumes available. I am a sucker for a book's material aesthetic too not just the content. And I saw this wonderful cloth bound edition of Stendhal's "The Red & the Black"--it has an art nouveau motif pressed on the cover, ganda tlga.

The original translation of À la recherche du temps perdu in English has been for a couple of decades "Remembrance of Things Past" (my English copy still has this translation) only recently (with the release of the new English translations) do we now accept "In Search of Lost Time" as the more accurate articulation. This is because the last book in the monumental text is entitled "Time Regained" or Le Temps retrouvé--which makes more sense right? But I do not blame the translators really, this is really a complicated texts...some passages (as I have said before, run for almost a page long! Kaya when you read it parang nawawala ka na dun sa original sense nung inumpisahan mong basahin sa sentence...ibang experience talaga--is this Proust way of invoking memory? the verbal constipation? nausea?-- I have to finish the remaining volumes first (my reading got stalled kasi when I entered advertising, I was so busy even to eat lunch during those days), I'll let you know what I think.

*An important postmodern lesson: language is not transparent. (that and a whole lotta other mind blowing--blasphemous things) hehehe

Pero meron akong a little summer project na gusto ko gawin, as in total Geek-out! talaga. I've read Thomas Mann's (also a monumental endeavor) "Magic Mountain" last year...I loved it! wala akong paikialam kung ayaw niyo! and one of the great frustrations I faced in reading the novel is a missing annotation/translation of Castorp and Chauchat's conversation in French. Chauchat is a young French woman kasi, and medyo mahaba yung conversation nila a couple of pages long. Though I admired Mann even more cause his a polyglot pala german na french pa. Pag dumating na yung inorder kong unabridged French dictionary I'll try to do it hehehe--which reminds me, I don't even know how I would pay for that shit.

I find it a outrageous na books devalue greatly in time...while other material things don't. It's sad cause I have invested a lot in each book that I have bought, tapos wala lang siya pag naging luma na :-( its a shame! Knowledge is POWER!--in the Foucauldian sense not Ernie Barong's.

Nabuhayan ako ng loob. kung bumagsak man ako sa language exam eh ganun tlga. Pero hindi ko maisusuko ng ganun-ganun lang yung pag-aaral ko ng French, kasi gusto ko tlga magbasa literally ng panitikang Pranses. At hindi ko pa sinasama yung mga existential heroes ko! At syempre kasama na din dito ang pangarap kong pumunta ng Paris naunahan na ko nila boom at gigay eh, sana makahabol ako.

kaya yun

allons-y!
à le niveau suivant!

*i tried forming this phrase from the basic lessons i've learned. not quite sure if it is correct!