Deinonysus wrote:However, you always use the informal pronoun when talking to God, at least in the languages I'm familiar with. For example, in the King James Bible, which was written when English still kept the distinction between the informal "thou" or "thee" and the formal "ye" or "you", it's "hallowed be thy name", not "hallowed be your name".
This made me laugh because many people who read the KJV have the opposite assumption (that thee and thou are the formal version, even though I believe you are correct).
Oh linguistic drift! Never a dull moment.
Yes, I've definitely had people not believe me that "thou" was informal. I think it's because people tend to only encounter it in texts that they see as very formal or heightened, and so that's how they view the word.
I do love how the Icelandic translation of "thou art" is almost the same – "þú ert" – Although Icelandic doesn't have a formal/informal pronoun distinction.
Je viens d'acheter mes billets pour un récital de Lawrence Brownlee, dans la deuxième rangée! C’est un ténor américain, et il pourrait être le meilleur ténor du monde maintenant ; au moins, personne ne chante mieux qu’il. Je croix qu’il va commencer le concert avec « Ah mes amis » de La fille du régiment, avec 9 do hauts (high Cs) ! Le concert consistera des arias d’opéra dans la première moitié, et des spirituals dans la seconde. Il chante avec le Baryton-basse Eric Owens.
Il sera le deuxième chanteur d’opéra dans ma bucket list qui j’aurais vu en concert. La première était Natalie Dessay ; je l’ai vue l’année dernière, et elle était formidable ! On l’a fait revenir pour six rappels, dont un était « Mes longes cheveux » de Pélleas et Mélisande. Elle a chanté en français et en allemand. Elle est à la retraite de l’opéra depuis quelques années, mais elle chante encore en récital. C'est une formidable chanteuse des art songs, et elle en a plusieurs formidables albums en français, allemand, et anglais.
Here's a clip of Lawrence Brownlee singing some ridiculous high notes:
And here's Natalie Dessay also singing some ridiculous high notes:
I started writing this in English, and then I thought I'd might as well write it in French and get some practice:
J’ai fini enfin Carmen! Je devais utiliser des sous-titres, parce que le français opératique est déjà difficile de comprendre, et un plus, le plupart de chanteurs ne sont pas de locuteurs natifs. J’ai le mauvais habitude d’écouter seulement les arias et de pas voir des opéras entiers, donc je n’avais jamais vu l’opéra entier avant.
J’ai trouvé les caractères très intéressants, surtout Carmen même. Don José était un héros tragique typique ; il avait une vision du monde très protégé et religieux, et lorsque sa vision était challengé, il cassait, et il était devenu le méchant, et bien sûr, il a tué la femme qu’il aimait. Mais d’autre part, Carmen était un genre d’héros différent. Elle est comme dans Don Giovanni ; elle ne regrette rien, et elle refuse de repentir même au face du mort.
Here's a translation, or at least it's what I meant to say in French:
I finally finished Carmen! I had to use French subtitles, because operatic French is already hard to understand, and on top of that, most of the singers were not native speakers. I have a very bad habit of just listening to arias and not actually watching entire operas, so I'd never seen the entire thing before.
I thought the characters were very interesting, especially Carmen herself. Don José was a typical tragic hero; he had a very sheltered and religious worldview, and when that vision was challenged, he broke, and he became the villain, and of course, he killed the woman he loved. But on the other hand, Carmen was a different type of hero. She's like Don Giovanni; she regrets nothing, and she refuses to repent even in the face of death.
I'm very close to the end of Duolingo French. I also started looking at Baldur's Gate in French. I started by going through the character creation menus and putting the words I didn't know into Anki. I think I'll finish doing this for every possible character creation option, and maybe by then I'll have enough RPG/high fantasy vocabulary to play through it as extensive reading.
I have also gone back to reading some training materials for work in French. I read that intensively as well and put the words I didn't know into Anki. This is a much more fun way of vocabulary building than just going through a Memrise course of the top 5000 French words out of context.
In honor of all the talk that's been going on about listening comprehension, I tried intensive listening comprehension with a 2-minute video by the French YouTuber Cyprien. I'm not going to link it because it's fairly risqué and I'm not sure how strict the rules are. My process had five steps (including four viewings):
Watch blind with no subtitles
Watch with French subtitles, pausing the video as needed to write down any unknown words
Watch with English subtitles, trying to define the unknown words
Look up unknown words to clarify definitions
Watch again with no subtitles
I started with about 50% comprehension and ended up getting almost everything except for a couple of fast parts, and one spot where the subtitles cut out and I could never quite parse what they were saying.
This was a good exercise, but I don't think this particular sort of material is right for me, for two reasons:
Young comedy YouTubers talk extremely fast, much faster than anyone will talk to me in France.
While this was entertaining, it really isn't the sort of material that I spend hours watching on YouTube. I think stuff about opera, languages, food, travel, and history would be much more binge-watchable for me. Here is a great video on French history that I found; this had almost the opposite problem of Cyprien because the speech was very slow and deliberate. But I enjoyed it anyway, it made for good extensive listening:
Reading List and Window Shopping Here's an update of what remains on my French reading list, plus a couple of additions. I'm hoping to finish a Verne novel along with a good chunk of my beginner material by the time of my trip, which is two months away. There's no way that I'll finish the entire list by the then, but maybe I can get it done by the summer.
I'm assigning myself some Dumas and Hugo as a "final boss" of French. I think if I can get through that, I can call myself advanced.
French: Beginner:
Le petit prince
Tintin (4-7)
Babar (3)
Au revoir les enfants
Intermediate:
Madame Fifi
La première gorgée de bière
Sartre - Huis clos
Camus - L'étranger
Sagan - Bonjour tristesse
Jules Verne:
Voyage au centre de la terre
De la terre à la lune
Vingt milles lieues sous les mers
Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours
Advanced:
Dumas:
Les trois mousquetaires
Le comte de Monte-Cristo
Hugo:
Les misérables
Notre Dame de Paris
And once I'm done with that, I'm looking forward to reading a whole bunch of German! I don't think I can finish all four "advanced" French novels on top of my "intermediate" list by May to start the Super Challenge, but maybe I can start it late or just do it on my own time. I really want my level of French to stick so I'm not sure about cutting my reading list short.
Here's a list of of a lot of reading I want to do in German:
Beginner-Intermediate children's books:
Michael Ende:
Die unendliche Geschichte
Momo
Der Wunschpunsch
Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer
Otfried Preußler:
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz
Das kleine Gespenst
Die kleine Hexe
Cornelia Funke - Tintenherz
Janosch -Ach, so schön ist Panama! (collection of Bär und Tiger stories)
J'étais prêt de partir pour mon travail ce matin, lorsque j’ai vu de l’eau et des taches marron sur le sol de ma maison. J’ai regardé dans la salle d’eau, et ma toilette a inondé et fui sur le sol et dans ma cave ! Ma cave a inondé, mais heureusement, j’avais acheté un aspirateur d’atelier bien-marché la dernière fois que ma cave a inondé.
J’ai téléphoné deux plombiers, est j’ai utilisé le premier qui m’a rappelé. Il est venu chez moi pour « serpenté » mes tuyaux. Il a dit qu’il faudrait qu’il inonde ma cave avec trente gallons de l’eau sale, mais j’ai eu une poubelle extra, donc on l’a rempli au lieu. J’apporté la poubelle au drain à l’égout, et je l’ai vidé avec un seau lorsque le plombier serpentait mes tuyaux.
Ma femme est partie tôt de son travail, mais d’ici à ce qu’elle est arrivée chez nous, le plombier a terminé. Elle a apporté du MacDo, que j’ai dévoré. Puis, j'ai pris une douche très chaude et je suis allée au bureau pour une demi-journée de travail.
La leçon Pimsleur ce matin a été au sujet de plomberie. Trop tôt...
Deinonysus wrote:I'm assigning myself some Dumas and Hugo as a "final boss" of French. I think if I can get through that, I can call myself advanced.
French: Beginner:
Le petit prince
Tintin (4-7)
Babar (3)
Au revoir les enfants
Intermediate:
Madame Fifi
La première gorgée de bière
Sartre - Huis clos
Camus - L'étranger
Sagan - Bonjour tristesse
Jules Verne:
Voyage au centre de la terre
De la terre à la lune
Vingt milles lieues sous les mers
Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours
While 'L'etranger' is probably thematically more complex than Tintin, I think you'll find the language is quite accessible. You might want to make it the first book you read on your 'intermediate' list.
Deinonysus wrote:Here's a list of of a lot of reading I want to do in German:
Beginner-Intermediate children's books:
Michael Ende:
Die unendliche Geschichte
Momo
Der Wunschpunsch
Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer
Otfried Preußler:
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz
Das kleine Gespenst
Die kleine Hexe
Cornelia Funke - Tintenherz
Janosch -Ach, so schön ist Panama! (collection of Bär und Tiger stories)
Grimms Märchen
Emil und die Detektive
Heidi
Swiss Family Robinson
Die Biene Maja
Hoffmann - stories
I have a very shaky grip of German with absolutely no systematic base and very little real study done. That being said, I found 'Die unendliche Geschichte' very hard. I've only had a brief look through Momo, but it seemed much easier. Tintenherz is a breeze in comparison to DuG. I have no real experience of the others in German (although I own a few) but I would imagine that Heidi is also an easier read, and that how accessible you find the Märchen depends on which edition(s) you pick.
Elenia wrote:While 'L'etranger' is probably thematically more complex than Tintin, I think you'll find the language is quite accessible. You might want to make it the first book you read on your 'intermediate' list.
I've heard that, and it's definitely up there on my list! I do want to finish Voyage au centre de la terre before I go to France because we'll be visiting the Jules Verne Museum in Nantes, but L'etranger is right after that on the list.
Deinonysus wrote:I have a very shaky grip of German with absolutely no systematic base and very little real study done. That being said, I found 'Die unendliche Geschichte' very hard. I've only had a brief look through Momo, but it seemed much easier. Tintenherz is a breeze in comparison to DuG. I have no real experience of the others in German (although I own a few) but I would imagine that Heidi is also an easier read, and that how accessible you find the Märchen depends on which edition(s) you pick.
Really enjoyed catching up on your log!
I'm glad it's not just me! I started reading the first chapter of Die unendliche Geschichte and I just had to look up too many words for it to be enjoyable. I read it in English translation when I was a kid and it was one of my favorite books, and reading it in the original has been a major goal, but I'll definitely take your advice into consideration. I'll work my way up to it and make it my "final boss" of intermediate German so I can get the most out of it.
I think my copy of Grimms Märchen is unabridged. It's a nice hefty hardcover Gesamtausgabe from Germany that I picked up at Schoenhof's before it closed down. I'm hoping to pick up a comparable copy of Perrault's fairy tales when I'm in France. I didn't have much trouble getting through „Der Froschkönig”, although there was a lot of simple past and some words I had to look up. My German has rusted considerably since then, so I'd probably have a tougher time with it now.
Deinonysus wrote:Lyrics to "Après un rêve" ("After a dream")
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image ... In a slumber that enchanted (charmed) your image,
Bonsoir Deinonysus! Je connais bien cette mélodie - je l'ai souvent accompagnée (je l'ai chantée aussi mais seulement quand personne n'étais pas là) et j'adore la musique de Fauré.
Il me semble que 'a slumber that enchanted your image' serait 'un sommeil qui charmait ton image', et la poème dit plutôt 'a slumber that your image enchanted' - est-ce que j'ai raison?
Deinonysus wrote:Lyrics to "Après un rêve" ("After a dream")
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image ... In a slumber that enchanted (charmed) your image,
Bonsoir Deinonysus! Je connais bien cette mélodie - je l'ai souvent accompagnée (je l'ai chantée aussi mais seulement quand personne n'étais pas là) et j'adore la musique de Fauré.
Il me semble que 'a slumber that enchanted your image' serait 'un sommeil qui charmait ton image', et la poème dit plutôt 'a slumber that your image enchanted' - est-ce que j'ai raison?
Salut Neurotip ! C’est vraiment une belle mélodie. Il n’y a pas d’honte en chanter seul. Chanter dans la voiture ou dans la douche c’est l’une des meilleures choses du monde.
Je croix que t’as raison. Je n’ai pas reconnu cette construction parce qu’elle n’existe pas en anglais. La traduction la plus proche serait “in a slumber whom enchanted your image”, mais ça ne marche pas. La construction la plus proche serait peut-être “him enchanted your image”, mais c’est pourtant très bizarre.
Cette construction marcherai mieux en allemand qu’en anglais : „In einem Schlummer, den dein Bildnis verzaubert hat.“
