Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Mon Nov 19, 2018 12:11 am

Despite knowing extremely little French, with dictionary in hand I'll be launching myself into Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications by François Rouiller, winner of the Prix Rosny-Aîné. According to Amazon.fr, I'll be receiving my copy of the book on November 29. So I'll be slogging through the first paragraph (or sentence, or whatever) on November 30. I'll be marking my progress in the comments to this post.

With luck, I'll be done with the book before the end of 2019.
1 x

User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:16 am

The book has arrived five days early. It's time to start in on it.

20181124_175448-min-min (1).jpg


Of course, the place to start is the back cover.

Régis, dernier de la classe, ne veut pas prendre de Métaquine©, le médicament qui transforme les cancres en écoliers modèles. Des millions d'enfants inadaptés bénéficient pourtant du traitement, au grand soulagement des profs et des parents. Mais Régis craint que la chimie dissolve le Duché la contrée fabuleuse d'ou son imagination tire châteux, dinosaures et compagnons de jue invisibles.


This is the first paragraph. I'm starting slow.

Régis is apparently our hero. But he's last in his class, doesn't want to take Métaquine (copyright), the medicine which transforms stupid people into model students. Millions of children can't gain the benefits of the treatment, relieving their teachers and parents. But Régis is afraid of the chemicals dissolved in the kingdom of his imagination, the house of his imagination, or his invisible dinosaur friends.

OK, that last sentence seems much less straightforward. I think it basically means that Régis is afraid because his imagination has run away with him.

Let's see what Google Translate says:

Regis, the last in the class, does not want to take Metaquine ©, the medicine that turns dunces into model schoolchildren. Millions of unsuitable children, however, benefit from treatment, much to the relief of teachers and parents. But Regis fears that chemistry will dissolve the Duchy, the fabulous country from which his imagination draws châteux, dinosaurs and invisible companions.


The difference is that the other children benefit, not that they can't benefit. So let's see where I went wrong. I think I went wrong with the word inadaptés, which means unsuitable (for). I was taking it as if they were unsuitable for the drug, when the word was being used to say that they were unsuitable for life, and the medicine fixed it to the relief of their parents and teachers.

The other difference is that last sentence, which basically implies that Megaquine may make our hero less imaginative.

The next one or two of my posts will deal with the rest of the back page. After that, it'll be time to go into the book. And I won't be copying the text in the book; it's probably a copyright violation.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
3 x

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:03 am

fcoulter wrote:The book has arrived five days early. It's time to start in on it.

Of course, the place to start is the back cover.

...dinosaures et compagnons de jue jeu invisibles.


The word jue threw me slightly, until I verified with amazon.fr

Although I find the cover ghastly, the book seems somewhat interesting and the two reviews on amazon.fr are particularly favourable. Truth be told, it’s probably right up my alley. What made you choose it? Because of the win with le Prix Rosny-Aîné? Oh, and bonne chance fcoulter!
1 x

User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Sun Nov 25, 2018 12:09 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:The word jue threw me slightly, until I verified with amazon.fr
Although I find the cover ghastly, the book seems somewhat interesting and the two reviews on amazon.fr are particularly favourable. Truth be told, it’s probably right up my alley. What made you choose it? Because of the win with le Prix Rosny-Aîné? Oh, and bonne chance fcoulter!


I'm probably not the best typist in the world, especially since this is the first time I was using the international keyboard. I thought I did reasonably well. But apparently not perfect.

As for how I picked that book? Well, I'm a Hugo voter, and read all of the finalists every year. So it seemed like reading the latest award winner in French served right up my alley. (I wonder if I'll ever be good enough in French to read their short list in time to vote. Probably not, but it's an interesting idea.)
2 x

User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Sun Nov 25, 2018 2:04 pm

ロータス wrote:Will reading this book be all you are doing in French? Is your goal only to focus on reading French? May I ask why a paper dictionary and not an online one? Especially for this method, wouldn't it be easier and take less time if you used an online dictionary or Kindle. I hope to see you post your progress through the book. It will hopefully push me to read more in Mandarin lol.

Also have you thought about highlighting the words you look up in your dictionary, as a way of tracking your progress. I see this done alot on Instagram and it looks nice to see how far you have came after just one book.


No, it's not the only thing I'm doing. I'm also working through the Pimsleur French courses and through Duolingo. I just don't feel the need to post my progress here. (Although it's possible that when I make certain process, I'll mention it...)

I've thought about flashcards, highlighting, etc. But I'm just getting started, so this is very much a work in progress.

An online dictionary means that I'm stuck doing this next to a computer. I'm lazy and like my comfort.
0 x

User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Sun Nov 25, 2018 2:07 pm

ロータス wrote:Will reading this book be all you are doing in French? Is your goal only to focus on reading French? May I ask why a paper dictionary and not an online one? Especially for this method, wouldn't it be easier and take less time if you used an online dictionary or Kindle. I hope to see you post your progress through the book. It will hopefully push me to read more in Mandarin lol.

Also have you thought about highlighting the words you look up in your dictionary, as a way of tracking your progress. I see this done alot on Instagram and it looks nice to see how far you have came after just one book.


No, it's not the only thing I'm doing. I'm also working through the Pimsleur French courses and through the Duolingo V2 French tree. I just don't feel the need to post my progress here. (Although it's possible that when I make certain process, I'll mention it...)

Yes, I'm only working on the one language. Those who study multiple languages impress me, but it doesn't appear to be something I can do at this time.

I've thought about flashcards, highlighting, etc. But I'm just getting started, so this is very much a work in progress. I'll work out details as I go along.

An online dictionary means that I'm stuck doing this next to a computer. I'm lazy and like my comfort.
0 x

User avatar
fcoulter
Orange Belt
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Central Florida
Languages: English (N), French (beginner)
x 113
Contact:

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby fcoulter » Tue Nov 27, 2018 3:30 am

I finished reading (with a lot of help from the dictionary and from Google Translate for terms not in the dictionary) the back cover. It looks like our hero's mother is in a VR daze, while his step-dad reads really bad magazines. The book looks like it'll be a battle between the giant pharmaceutical company and our hero.

Interestingly, this mirrors in some small way the first science fiction book I read, all those many decades ago. I even remember the name, "The Man Whose Name Wouldn't Fit", about a man who's name didn't fit on credit cards. He ended up taking on the giant corporations who tried to get him to change his name.

Funny the things you remember.

On a different note, the Pimsleur app again locked up. This happens every week or two, which can get very discouraging. I may try the Rocket Language French free lesson to see how it works. I'm looking for an audio French course that I can do in the car while driving to work. This means I can't interact with the app while taking the lesson, and a run time of half an hour or less. (Or the Pimsleur app stops frustrating me and I continue with Pimsleur.)

I supposed I could play the Pimsleur audio files using my audio player, but Pimsleur makes it difficult to just download the mp3 files. To get them on my phone, I have to:
1) open the Pimsleur app on my computer
2) download the entire course
3) find where the mp3 files are located on my computer (C:\Users\Public\Pimsleur French Unlimited\French I 2018\audio)
4) upload the lesson files (but not the other files) to Google Music
5) change the metadata of the files
6) on my phone, download the files

Pain in the...
1 x

Arnaud
Blue Belt
Posts: 984
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:57 am
Location: Paris, France
Languages: Native: French
Intermediate: English, Russian, Italian
Tourist : Breton, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, Latin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=1524
x 2172

Re: Métaquine, Tome 1 : Indications

Postby Arnaud » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:02 pm

No news, good news ?
I've just finished reading Métaquine 1. That's an excellent book, very well written, a real page-turner.
The problem is that it's mainly written in colloquial french, with thousands of expressions throughout the book. So if you felt overwhelmed by the book, that's normal. Don't get discouraged. Simply choose another easier book and come back to Métaquine later.
Anyway, thanks for making me discover it, I had great pleasure reading it. ;)
1 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 2 guests