Calling all French lovers – you have to read The Story of French. I can’t imagine the kind of dedication it must take to write such an informative and interesting book, but I’m definitely grateful to the people that did it. It’s a reference book on my favorite subject that reads more like a novel – I enjoyed it immensely.
French language
Laryngitis
It turns out I probably don’t have strep throat since I have developed laryngitis, and the two do not normally go together. Laryngitis is a funny thing – my voice was scratchy on Friday, completely gone yesterday, and is very hoarse today – which I guess means it’s getting better, but I still feel awful. Here are some interesting things I’ve discovered about laryngitis:
- When you whisper, kids will whisper back
- I shouldn’t even be whispering, as according to the Mayo Clinic, whispering puts more of a strain on the vocal cords than talking
- My French R is completely unaffected
Time to drink my 4,391st cup of tea.
Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal won the Socialist party nomination yesterday, making her an official candidate for the French presidential elections, the first round of which will be held in April. If elected, Ms. Royal would be the first female French president.
The Age: Populist “Sego” gets Royal assent from France’s left
Le Mouv’ and Mots fléchés
My favorite French radio station is Le Mouv’. I started listening to it when I lived in Toulouse, and before I left I managed to find it on the internet. It’s a fairly good mix of music, mainly alternative rock (which they call indé, an apocope of indépendant), about half in French and half in English, with the occasional song in another language. Unfortunately, the connection can be a bit spotty. 🙁
I tend to put Le Mouv’ on in the morning while doing a mots fléchés, which I’ve become addicted to – I have to do one every morning – and then keep listening while doing non-work stuff.
Words of the day (with lots of vowels)
According to a Mexican friend of mine, murciélago (bat) is the only Spanish word with all five vowels.
In English, we have facetiously, which has all 5½ vowels (y is the half) in alphabetical order. I also like the words vacuum and aardvark for the unusual double vowels.
The coolest French word may be jouaient (third person plural imperfect of jouer – to play), which has all five vowels in a row!
And créée (feminine past participle of créer – to create) with its triple E.
Any other vowel-laden words?
Coup de boule – the song
We all knew that Zidane’s head butt during the World Cup Final would go down in history, but did you ever think about the marketing aspects? A French song parodying the event is breaking records (ha ha) in France, and there are several ringtones you can purchase too, all from La Plage Records
I’m not going to translate the whole song, but here’s the chorus:
Zidane il l’a frappé, Zidane il l’a tapé (Coup de boule!)
Zidane he hit him, Zidane he slapped him (Head butt!)