Le Projet Français/The French Project: 23 Jours/Days, 55% Fluency/Aisance

Je suis au dessous un ciel fumé comme j’écris ce soir. Il y était une été sans ambition pour moi d'etudier une autre langue. J’étais fainéant cette fois-ci. Il est parce que français est une langue que n'est pas tellement une nouvelle langue pour moi, et la noveltie d'apprendre quelque chose different du cela n'est pas vraiment plus là, et ceci m'ennuie. Donc, je me challengerai à composer et écrire cela sans l'effort d'étudier plus de français. Je dois à prouver à moi mème que je peux me souvenir l'encore. Je suis satisfait qu’il suffit que je peux comprendre une niveau intermédiaire; je pouvrais rechercher la reste facilement, si ou quand j'ai le besoin.

Translation: I’m underneath a smoky sky as I write this evening. It was a summer without ambition for me to study another language. I was lazy this time. It’s because French is a language that is not so much a new language for me, and the novelty of learning something different from it is not really there anymore, and that bothers me. So, I will challenge myself to compose and write this without the extra effort of studying more French. I have to prove to myself that I can remember it again. I’m satisfied that it’s enough that I can understand an intermediate level; I could easily research the rest if or when I need to.

I am also writing through a state of depression it seems: as I close this chapter of re-familiarizing myself with French, as this reminds me that this would have been the time I would have been flying to Montreal right now for a proper vacation if other life circumstances hadn't interfered and defunded me from doing so this year. I would have been actually using my wits to use and practice the language thusly. I wouldn't be speaking like a Quebecois though. It appears that when I speak French my accent trails off into being more European it seems, though much less nasal. That's OK by me. Montreal demands that I try out my French and tour the out of the way shops: the fromageries, boulangeries, chacuteries, and micro-brasseries. I wouldn't need to use a restaurant at all; I could live off the local cheeses, bread, deli meat, and some of the odd local beers. 

I'll skip a more lengthy treatises about difficulties and interesting words as I had done with my last few language project reviews. The French language for me is generally a summary for being able to express all that is good about gastronomical adventures: from cooking techniques, to making things that would ordinarily make us squeamish sound more palatable. To be able to 'julienne' and 'sautée' a carrot makes you sound like a master chef compared to just cutting it to matchsticks and frying it. Fruits du mer sounds more appetizing than shellfish. Brochettes sounds like a feat of genius and far more interesting than plain old meat skewers, or at least less banal or disgusting than 'meat on a spit'.

The next project: becoming re-acquainted with Spanish, hopefully advancing to a more intermediate level. After that, by process of elimination, beginning in November: Russian. The hardest of the bunch I committed to learning.