Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Wed Oct 05, 2022 2:39 pm

jeffers wrote:I suppose a lot depends on what you want from the film/series, and one thing I always hope for is "cultural currency". Many classic films are still part of the current conversation in France. I love it when I hear a podcast discuss an old film and I know what they're on about because I've seen it.


I was watching something on Arte about class differences and one of the talking heads made an allusion to Le Rouge et Le Noir, which I had just finished reading, and I think I floated on that feeling for a week! Cultural currency is very, very satisfying.
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Amandine
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Amandine » Wed Oct 05, 2022 9:44 pm

An interesting Netflix original in French I don't see people mention much is Drôle (Eng: Standing Up) which was created by the co-showrunner of Dix Pour Cent. It follows a group of young stand up comedians trying to make it in Paris. Unfortunately it got cancelled after the one season but I enjoyed it. Its not perfect or life-changing but I was very charmed by the young actors and it was refreshing to see a younger, more diverse Paris. I think it was filmed around the real-life Barbes Comedy Club (which sadly I just read itself closed last month).
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:28 am

Amandine wrote:An interesting Netflix original in French I don't see people mention much is Drôle (Eng: Standing Up) which was created by the co-showrunner of Dix Pour Cent. It follows a group of young stand up comedians trying to make it in Paris. Unfortunately it got cancelled after the one season but I enjoyed it. Its not perfect or life-changing but I was very charmed by the young actors and it was refreshing to see a younger, more diverse Paris. I think it was filmed around the real-life Barbes Comedy Club (which sadly I just read itself closed last month).


Oh! I’ve seen this listed, I appreciate the recommendation. I’ve just started a very cute Italian series, Generation 56K, in French dub, but I always need new things to watch!
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Oct 06, 2022 2:32 pm

Annie Ernaux won the Nobel lit prize! And I actually have one of her books! So really, I won today!

She’s really good. She writes with a deceptively simple, straight forward style that reminds me a lot of Joan Didion. Very, very accessible and rewarding. Sweden and I recommend!
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Oct 06, 2022 3:38 pm

I haven't read a single line, but she's rather popular among the patrons (←at the local library where I work). This very morning, someone had placed a hold on one of the titles - a few hours before the public announcement. :o
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Oct 06, 2022 4:47 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:Annie Ernaux won the Nobel lit prize! And I actually have one of her books! So really, I won today!

She’s really good. She writes with a deceptively simple, straight forward style that reminds me a lot of Joan Didion. Very, very accessible and rewarding. Sweden and I recommend!

Whoops. I've already dissed her. :( Looks like I might have to eat some crow. Horseradish goes well with crow, I hear. :)
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Dec 19, 2022 7:39 pm

So I’ve sidelined French and made Korean my main focus. Time to reflect on what I’ve achieved since I started my French project in 2017. (I took a complete year off in 2020, so let’s call it five years.) I’ve read just over 8,000 pages, and I can read middlebrow adult contemporary fiction comfortably. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Elena Ferrante!) This is a fine place to be, although some of the books I bought on the Bac reading list are definitely more difficult than this. I could definitely read them, but it would be more of a slog. Let’s call my level B2+. Not *quite* university level, but solid. I’ve watched just over 500 hours of TV. I can follow any show comfortably, but I don’t understand everything. My listening is below my reading, so let’s say B2. Also a fine place to be. My active skills are an order of magnitude weaker. I can happily string along any number of things in the present or simple past tense. Which I often do with my kids. “Est-que tu veux aller au parc ce apres-midi avec moi et ta sœur? Je sais qu’il fait froid, mais je crois que on doit faire un promenade.” Let’s be generous and call this A2. I can say what I need to say, even if it’s not graceful or entirely correct.

This leads me to the raging success portion of my project, where I have exceeded all expectations: my kids. It helps that my oldest, age 9, is highly verbal, but still. We are about a year or so into actively studying French and my goodness. They watch an hour a day of French dub cartoons, so they’ve had a least 300 hours of exposure. My oldest has done all of Paul Noble’s French for Kids, and is halfway through Paul Noble’s French for Beginners. Her accent is better than mine. (Her [r] kills me.) She can string together simple sentences, comfortably read kid’s comics, and is currently reading Harry Potter. (Doesn’t hurt that she has the book practically memorized in English, but still.) This is just way more, way sooner than I expected. Put your kids in front of Netflix, people! I only wish I had started sooner!

Did I have dreams of going higher than passive B2/Active A2? I did, but I didn’t really want to put in the work. I think this level makes you a very, very comfortable tourist, and it’s also pretty stable. I haven’t dropped French completely, I’m still reading a bit before bed, and working with my kids. It’s a part of my life now, but not my active focus. I’m content.
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Dec 18, 2023 3:34 pm

In Quebec City. I hope the hotel concierge, who responded in English to my ten year old’s carefully rehearsed
French request for breakfast tickets, steps on a Lego.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Mon Dec 18, 2023 5:08 pm

May that concierge choke on his Canadian bacon!
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: Lawyer&Mom, Less is More (French & German)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Dec 25, 2023 7:21 pm

All in all, the Quebec trip was a resounding success. After sidelining French for over a year, I was still a very comfortable tourist. Absolutely no problem reading menus, following transportation announcements, asking for items in shops etc. I didn’t always understand everything spoken to me, but it was usually just a matter of processing speed, I only needed a few extra seconds to follow the meaning. Unfortunately if the speaker perceives a mere moment of hesitation they immediately switch to English. I ended up having several conversations where the native French speaker spoke English and I responded in French. And it worked, wasn’t awkward, and we got along just fine. Regardless of language we were definitely all (North) Americans. The cultural gap is much narrower than in Europe. I felt comfortable that any miscommunications could have been conquered easily enough had I been dealing with monolingual French speakers. (Not that I encountered any. Even the construction worker I watched harass a woman for not speaking to him in French, did so in English. But he was really the only jerk I encountered. Everyone else was just lovely.)
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