So long 2008! Come on in, 2009! This was one of the best years of my life – I started out in Costa Rica and ended up – after trying to move here for almost 20 years – in France! May all your dreams come true, too.
Here’s some reading material and ideas for New Year’s Resolutions:
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French is a Romance language, a linguistic family which includes Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and five other languages. [1] It is the world’s 11th most spoken language, with somewhere between 77 and 128 million native speakers in dozens of countries. French is the second most commonly taught second language, with some 100 million students all over the world. [2] |
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Le français fait partie des langues romanes, une famille linguistique comprenant l’espagnol, l’italien, le portugais, le roumain et cinq autres langues. [1] C’est la onzieme langue du monde, avec entre 77 et 128 millions de personnes qui la parlent en tant que langue maternelle, dans des douzaines de pays. Le français est la deuxième langue étrangère la plus enseignée, avec environ 100 millions d’étudiants dans les quatre coins du monde. [2] |
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Learning French |
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Apprendre le français |
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There is no “secret” to learning French – it takes time, effort, and usually some money. Studying in France or another French-speaking country is ideal, but not essential. The Alliance française offers classes and events all over the world in their 1,100 chapters (including 130 in the US). |
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Apprendre le français n’a rien de « secret » – il faut du temps, des efforts et généralement de l’argent. L’idéal est d’étudier en France ou dans un autre pays francophone est idéal, mais ce n’est pas essentiel. L’Alliance française propose des cours et des activités partout dans le monde grâce à leurs 1.100 branches (dont 130 aux États-Unis ). |
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If classes are not an option, the internet is a wealth of free information for learning: |
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Si un cours de français n’est pas une option viable, l’Internet offre énormément d’informations : |
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And for daily practice: |
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Et d’exercices quotidiens : |
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There are also plenty of online tools, including dictionaries and |
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Il y a aussi beaucoup d’outils sur Internet, y compris des dictionnaires et des conjugateurs de verbes. |
| France | La France | |
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France is a country in western Europe with a population of about 60 million. In French, the country is often referred to as l’Hexagon due to its geometric shape, and it’s divided into 22 régions, which are further divided into départements. [3] However, France is not limited to Europe. French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion are départements d’outre mer, or DOM and are part of France. In addition, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, and the French southern and Antarctic lands are territoires d’outre mer (TOM) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Mayotte are collectivités territoires which belong to but are not part of France. [2] |
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La France est un pays occidental avec une population d’à peu près 60 millions d’habitants. En français, on l’appelle souvent l’Hexagone à cause de sa forme géométrique, et elle est divisée en 22 régions, qui sont elles mêmes divisées en départements. [3] Cependant, la France existe aussi en dehors de l’Europe. La Guyane française, la Guadeloupe, la Martinique et la Réunion sont des départements d’outre-mer (DOM) et font partie intégrale de la France. De surcroît, la Polynésie française, la Nouvelle-Caledonie, Wallis-et-Futuna et les Terres australes et antarctiques sont des territoires d’outre-mer (TOM) et Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon et Mayotte sont des collectivités territoriales à statut particulier qui appartiennent à — mais qui ne font pas partie de — la France. [2]
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The largest city is Paris, which has a population of about 2.1 million. Next is Marseilles, with 808,000, and then Lyon (422,000), Toulouse (366,000), and Nice (346,000). [4] French is the official language of France, but there are numerous dialects and regional languages including Breton and Provençal. |
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La plus grande ville, Paris, a une population d’à peu près 2,1 millions d’habitants. Viennent ensuite, Marseille avec des 808.000 habitants, et puis Lyon (422.000), Toulouse (366.000) et Nice (346.000). [4] La langue officielle est le français, mais il y a de nombreux dialectes et langues régionales, comme le breton et le provençal. |
References
1 https://www.lawlessfrench.com/linguistics/introduction-to-french/
2 "La Francophonie dans le monde" (Synthèse pour la Presse). Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, Paris, Éditions Nathan, 2007.
3 https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/learn/reading/les-nouvelles-regions
On 5 and 6 April 2008, the southern French city of Hyères hosted its annual flower festival with an open day event at SICA (Société d’intérêt collectif agricole) / Marché aux fleurs d’Hyères. 500 growers produce over 180 million flowers a year, making it the largest flower market in France and the fourth largest in Europe. With information booths, wine and flower tasting, and a flower parade, it was a fascinating look at this colorful aspect of the Hyérois community.
Yes, that’s right – the French visa court was so moved by our appeal that, after only a year of deliberation, they decided to grant us our long-stay visas. We picked them up last month, and now we’re good to go. We’ll be moving sometime between Febrary and April, 2008, but we’re not sure where yet. Originally, we planned to go back to Toulouse, since we loved it so much. But then I started thinking about how nice it would be to live near the beach, so Nice and Marseille started looking good. And then we wondered about living all over – spending a month or so in a dozen different cities, and that’s what we’re leaning toward right now. There are several problems with that:
I’ve got some good leads on number 3, so now I’m doing some research on number 2 – maybe we could find a rental agent who could help us find a place in each city, something like that.
In any case, it’s still all way up in the air, but at least now we know for sure that in just a few months we’ll be moving to France for a year – something I’ve been wanting to do for more than half my life.