A language learners’ forum

rdearman wrote: French definitely isn't spelled like it sounds!

That's a matter of perspective, really. I definitely (quietly?/loudly?/annoyingly?) disagree! (don't mind me, i'm tiptoeing off into the sunset, nothing to see here).... Oh and nice work everyone with the writing! It'd do me some good to do something like this, but hey, too busy (collecting resources <-- serious stuff! procrastinating maybe?)

Okay, why do I disagree? I want to explain, but I can't see how I can avoid coming off as haughty... well, here goes... If when you learn French you associate each phoneme/sound with the letters/groups of letters that are represented by those phonemes, then nothing should be overly surprising. English is another story! Anyway, I guess we all learn differently and I'm just going to quit now before I dig/sink any deeper. Feel free to ban me from the forum due to my overbearing arrogance with regards to absolute mastery of the French language. Hence, why writing challenges are well below me. I make Victor Hugo look like he was in kindergarten when he wrote anything well-known. Is this a battle? A rap battle, Aiight.. sup foolz... walk away Peter Mollenburg, walk away!!!

Actually P.Mollenburg is right: there are some rules to be learnt about what NOT to pronounce in French, and if you follow them the pronunciation is fairly predictable (unlike the English pronunciation, which essentially is unpredictable). However the French go one step further when they concatenate elements and drop some sounds in the process (or pronounce others which normally would be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzilent). If you don't take this extra step you will sound like a stuffy nerd reading aloud from a book by Victor Hugo, but you will be understood. However once you have picked up the deliberately sloppy daily speech patterns from listening to French natives then those patterns also become somewhat predictable.

EDIT: Actually I don't need to participate in a novel writing competition - I've got my log, and the entry from today alone (5.nov) has got 733 words, none of which are in my native language. The whole log is at least the length of a standard bricksized novel, and most of it is not even ficticious, which for me is a positive statement.

I've written nothing, nought and also nada. I did write a 300-350 word short essay for class on Thursday, but that I shall not count. I'll be going to a write-in tomorrow, but will most likely be focussing on one of the English language options. Today, I'm working on knitting my jumper (it's also NaKniSweMo - knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in November!)

Elenia wrote:Today, I'm working on knitting my jumper (it's also NaKniSweMo - knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in November!)

Wow! That's cool! I didn't even know NaKniSweMo existed. I love knitting! Next year I might try it out!

How's everyone doing? We're already at day 5!

I'm please with my word count of 3,137 as of this morning — this includes spending much of my free time moving out of and cleaning an apartment! I'm writing a lot faster and more easily in Spanish than I had expected, which is a really nice feeling.

As (mostly) a pantser, I've already been "surprised" by a few things my characters have done.

The main character's grandma was supposed to be a warm fuzzy lady, like Mama Coco or the teapot in Beauty and the Beast. She keeps insisting on being grouchy and feisty, more like the chancla-wielding grandma in Coco instead.

And the culture keeps wanting to have lots of rote phrases in response to things. Apparently they're gonna need a religion or something else that compels them to all be meeting up and reciting things together regularly. That hadn't been planned, but the villagers are insisting.

Next up in my story, the "patient zero" refugee family arrives!

What are your writing habits? When are you making time to write?

I've taken to waking up early (and I'm not a morning person!) and walking to a cafe a couple blocks from my house. They have a heated patio that's quiet in the mornings, so I have a croissant (or cookie, heh) and a cup of coffee and I get out another ~300 words each morning.

I write on the bus commute on the way home. If I manage to get a seat on the morning commute, I try to write then too.

I've spent most of my November evenings so far moving out of our apartment, so I don't have a habit yet of writing further in the evenings.

3,742 words and counting!

James.A. wrote:

Elenia wrote:Today, I'm working on knitting my jumper (it's also NaKniSweMo - knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in November!)

Wow! That's cool! I didn't even know NaKniSweMo existed. I love knitting! Next year I might try it out!

This is definitely not the place to be talking about this (and I should be hiding my face in shame as I have barely written anything on my English project, let alone my Swedish) but WOO DO IT! There's a group on Ravelry and a hashtag on Instagram. It was actually another member here who taught me about NaKniSweMo...

Hello people!

So, after a work related absence of 10 days, I start again writing! I have to write about 1200 words a day to reach my goal, I think I can still manage it. We'll see! How are you all doing? How are your novels going?

I give up, guys... It was nice, but I can't do it... I'm too pressed from work. Can't do it. Maybe next year. Good luck to everyone else!

Hi!
Just came by to see how it went for you.
For me is was not good. At first I forgot I was supposed to write in english and wrote about 700 words in spanish. Then I wrote about 200 words in english. A few more in spanish and that was it. November was a very busy month with many unexpected things happening.