alexpgp: (Default)
[personal profile] alexpgp
I decided to take an advance on a weekend day today, and spent most of the day cleaning and moving stuff around. A happy side-effect of all this was finding several items that have eluded me for some time.

One of the things I found was an interesting CD called SmartFRENCH, which intelligently used multimedia to highlight the little shortcuts that native French-speakers use in normal conversation. (For example, "eeya" or even just "ya" for "il y a" ["there is" or "there are"], in much the same way an American - at least one from New York - might say "jeetyet" instead of asking "did you eat yet?")

Unfortunately, the silly thing doesn't seem to work under Vista, so it looks like I'll have to try it with the virtual Windows 2000 machine I've got set up on my work netbook, which has already successfully allowed me to install a piece of software to familiarize me with basic phrases in Egyptian Arabic.

I also ran across a volume of collected poems by Robert W. Service, and read the text of the poems included in an album of Service readings by Jean Shepherd. Read the first line of The Ballad of Blasphernous Bill and hear the rhythm of the language:
I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill McKie...
It's not Byron or Macaulay, but it does sing.

My bride calls from upstairs. It's time to relax.

Cheers...

Date: 2010-04-09 04:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] furzicle.livejournal.com
Ahhh..strange things done, 'neath the midnight sun by the men who toil for gold.

I need to get me a copy of this book. Come to think of it, a copy of the French book would be entertaining and educational also.

Somehow this all transposes in my mind to the thought of translating Robert Service into French. My French is not anywhere capable of that but it brings to mind the question, have you ever seen the translations of Jabberwocky into various languages? It's quite entertaining. I suggest you google it.

Date: 2010-04-09 04:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] furzicle.livejournal.com
Having posted this comment, I then googled Robert Service poems French and learned that he married a French woman and lived out his life in France. A ha!

Profile

alexpgp: (Default)
alexpgp

January 2018

S M T W T F S
  1 2 3456
7 8910111213
14 15 16 17181920
21222324252627
28293031   

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 19th, 2025 05:22 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios