(no subject)
so, much like school at michigan, i got out of class yesterday thinking "wow, i have a whole day ahead of me, what should i do?". i love moments like that, where you can do everything or nothing, accordingly to your volition.
i made the choice to call the one enduring french interlocutor that i've encountered, the guy who i managed to meet in a lavagerie. we met at a café at hotel de ville, and like one would expect, our first topic was politics. this was unfortunate because i do not talk much politics in the US, and i was trying to explain to him in my broken french that there are two political cultures in america - a good one and a bad one. obviously, the bad one is in power and we agreed to that, but i also tried to describe fear/scare tactics (remember that michael moore talk at hill auditorium, the crazy republicans screaming at everyone?). I think i used the words "agressif" et "violent", so i think he understood it to the extreme, and when i tried to clarify, i found it difficult.
i also discovered that i have a switch. to comprehend french, it requires that switch to be pushed and then held down. when i function in english it suffices to push it once and it sticks, but french ostensibly needs me attentively to stand next to the switch holding it down while the processes perform their function. about halfway through the conversation, let's say "my finger hurt", so i took it off and it still managed to function. i was delighted and surprised, but i was still needing to be very attentive at all times.
i told this french boy fabien, a 26 year old student at lécole des beaux arts, that i am interested in language, writing, and acquisition of language, and these are what i view as my form of art. his own is of a digital type, through computer code image making and manipulation. our interests overlapping once abstracted, he said to me "t'as deux secondes? je reviens" at which point he ran home (just around the corner) and back with a notebook, a type of portfolio. he proceeded, "as someone who is interesting in language and writing, i wanted to know what you thought of these." i turned the first page to see an image, nothing inherently profound, and i turned to the next page, lines of computer code which apparently is the basis of the resulting image. i should also note that within this code was a function that responds to live input. that is to say, you speak, and based on the strength of the sound and its tone, the image responds accordingly. he asked, "do you know what they call that?". slightly disoriented liguistically, i didn't know what he was looking for, nor in which language. he answered his own question: "c'est du langage!". it connected.
he asked me, 'what do you think of the relationship between a language like this and - let's say - the language you are learning now." i responded "well, it has variables for creative input and formulas for structure. the main difference i can see from these sheets in front of me is that your type of language has a resulting image, a picture which is a direct result of the input backing it up." i paused for a second, and continued, "although, perhaps that's exactly it right there - maybe spoken language works within the same realm, for words most definitely have a resulting image, a connotation, a picture, and a feeling, that serve to contribute it's content and meaning". what he said was this: "voilà! exactement". from that point forward, i felt inside the city. one of fabien's friends came and sat with us for the remainder of the time, discussing everything in no apparent order.
i had a twenty minute oral test this afternoon with my "general" french class teacher, and she managed to work in some serious compliments. "based on your writing, you have a unique and subtle way of seeing things, and although your accent, word choice, grammar, and everything in between are all lacking, you still have a good conception of the rhythm of the french language. you will be here for a year, and i for one, and not worried about you. HOWEVER, don't get too comfortable, il vous faut toujours du travail et continuez à écrire.".
i am lacking tu relationships.
i made the choice to call the one enduring french interlocutor that i've encountered, the guy who i managed to meet in a lavagerie. we met at a café at hotel de ville, and like one would expect, our first topic was politics. this was unfortunate because i do not talk much politics in the US, and i was trying to explain to him in my broken french that there are two political cultures in america - a good one and a bad one. obviously, the bad one is in power and we agreed to that, but i also tried to describe fear/scare tactics (remember that michael moore talk at hill auditorium, the crazy republicans screaming at everyone?). I think i used the words "agressif" et "violent", so i think he understood it to the extreme, and when i tried to clarify, i found it difficult.
i also discovered that i have a switch. to comprehend french, it requires that switch to be pushed and then held down. when i function in english it suffices to push it once and it sticks, but french ostensibly needs me attentively to stand next to the switch holding it down while the processes perform their function. about halfway through the conversation, let's say "my finger hurt", so i took it off and it still managed to function. i was delighted and surprised, but i was still needing to be very attentive at all times.
i told this french boy fabien, a 26 year old student at lécole des beaux arts, that i am interested in language, writing, and acquisition of language, and these are what i view as my form of art. his own is of a digital type, through computer code image making and manipulation. our interests overlapping once abstracted, he said to me "t'as deux secondes? je reviens" at which point he ran home (just around the corner) and back with a notebook, a type of portfolio. he proceeded, "as someone who is interesting in language and writing, i wanted to know what you thought of these." i turned the first page to see an image, nothing inherently profound, and i turned to the next page, lines of computer code which apparently is the basis of the resulting image. i should also note that within this code was a function that responds to live input. that is to say, you speak, and based on the strength of the sound and its tone, the image responds accordingly. he asked, "do you know what they call that?". slightly disoriented liguistically, i didn't know what he was looking for, nor in which language. he answered his own question: "c'est du langage!". it connected.
he asked me, 'what do you think of the relationship between a language like this and - let's say - the language you are learning now." i responded "well, it has variables for creative input and formulas for structure. the main difference i can see from these sheets in front of me is that your type of language has a resulting image, a picture which is a direct result of the input backing it up." i paused for a second, and continued, "although, perhaps that's exactly it right there - maybe spoken language works within the same realm, for words most definitely have a resulting image, a connotation, a picture, and a feeling, that serve to contribute it's content and meaning". what he said was this: "voilà! exactement". from that point forward, i felt inside the city. one of fabien's friends came and sat with us for the remainder of the time, discussing everything in no apparent order.
i had a twenty minute oral test this afternoon with my "general" french class teacher, and she managed to work in some serious compliments. "based on your writing, you have a unique and subtle way of seeing things, and although your accent, word choice, grammar, and everything in between are all lacking, you still have a good conception of the rhythm of the french language. you will be here for a year, and i for one, and not worried about you. HOWEVER, don't get too comfortable, il vous faut toujours du travail et continuez à écrire.".
i am lacking tu relationships.