Postby MamaPata » Fri Jul 12, 2019 6:19 pm
My spate of disappointing reads/watches has been temporarily abated. I went to see family in Scotland recently so I had over 8 hours on the train, which meant I clocked up a few things for the SC. I’m seeing other family this weekend, but much closer so not sure how much I’ll tick off. And I have a few English language films I’ve been meaning to watch for ages and as I’m in more of a film mood at the moment, that may take preference.
French
Starting with one I wasn’t convinced by, I read ‘Amours’ on the train. It’s a love story (shockingly) set in the early twentieth century. If anyone’s read The Crimson Petal and the White, it reminded me a bit of that (which I was also underwhelmed by). But if you liked that, you might like this. It is much much shorter though- only 200 pages. It’s a very easy read, it just didn’t particularly grip me. If anyone else has read it, I’d be intrigued to know your thoughts.
Then much more fun: films!
I watched Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont and Fille du Patron on the train (both available on UK Netflix).
Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont is my sort of film. Essentially the premise is that a doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo moves to work in a small village in France in the 70s. It’s very similar to the Indian Doctor, which I really enjoyed. But I found this particularly fun to watch, I’d 100% recommend it. It’s actually based on the rapper Kamini’s father’s life. Kamini became famous after he released a rap about Marly-Gomont, which is very funny. I’m on the bus now, but I’ll try and share it later.
Fille du Patron I wasn’t sure I’d like but Netflix kept suggesting it. They weren’t wrong, I quite liked it. It’s a love story, but it’s not too romantic and it’s not sappy at all. It’s also about work and industry and rugby, which is fun. Again, it’s my sort of film. It’s a bit like something like Full Monty but not a comedy. I liked the cinematography, it’s got some great shots.
In terms of difficulty, I didn’t really have any problems. That said, I kept a list of words I didn’t know (some I recognise, but couldn’t define, and some I understood in context but couldn’t use, quite a few I just didn’t know). For BaMG, I didn’t know 57 and for FdP, I didn’t know 33. (There is a lot less talking in FdP). They’re both about an hour and a half so that’s a new word every minute or so. I’ve got my C1 qualification, it just proves how much there is left to learn.
Spanish
I read the book Mujeres que compran flores. I have a few Spanish books but they’re a bit beyond me, so I’m just trying to find romance books or crap crime novels at the library. Unfortunately the librarians seem to have better taste. This was fine, nothing really to report. It’s a sort of self-help fiction story. I am just finding reading in Spanish hard. I lack so much vocabulary and I can really understand why people around B1 give up on reading, thinking they should wait until they’re better. I know if I just push through, it gets easier as you get further into the book. And then the next book is easier. But at the moment, it feels 50:50 as to whether I am actually learning or making progress.
Onto the next crap novel I guess. I think I really need a few translations from English or YA novels but there aren’t any in the library. And weirdly, while most charity shops (if they have foreign language books) have some in French, it’s really hard to find Spanish. If there are any, they are always really serious. There are many Spanish speakers in the UK, why are there so few books?! I can’t afford to pay full price at this level!
I watched the film A pesar de todo, also on Netflix. Crap Spanish comedy, reasonably enjoyable, though predictable. There are some things in it I felt could be a bit problematic, but it has Amelia from Gran Hotel as a very cute lesbian. I’m a sucker for an attractive cast. It’s definitely switch off your brain watching though.
I also watched Dos Cocinas, which is a short 30min documentary/advert for a female chef who started with a restaurant in Mexico and then opened one in the US. I didn’t bother counting it for the SC though because it’s about 50:50 English:Spanish. But a fun, short watch.
I then went back to Chicas de Cable. I’ve watched maybe three episodes and I liked it every time, but never got stuck into it. Feel like I have overcome that, so hoping to keep going with it now!
Russian
I recently rewatched Legenda no 17, which I’ve talked about here before. I’ve got a few other films I want to watch, but I don’t really have much I can download so that limits when I can watch Russian stuff. I also started reading Svetlana Alekseivich’s Zinky Boys, but I’m only a couple of pages in.
Mostly though, Russian is very left out which is a bit ridiculous given that it’s important for work and academia for me. I’ll probably talk about this in more detail another time.
But yeah, I’d get much more done with languages if I could go away every weekend!
6 x
Corrections appreciated.