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Subconscious guidance? Or pure, dumb luck?
Sep. 1st, 2002 09:19 amThe prospective gig in the middle of central Asia that's supposed to start about 6 weeks from now involves the phrase "knowledge of French a plus," or words to that effect. Having struggled through six years of junior-high and high-school French (the last two of which passed very slowly under the auspices of "Missus-Vee," as we used to call her), I actually got to the point where my comprehension was not all that bad, and though my spoken French was not mellifluously fluent, I did a reasonable job of getting my point across.
It was, in fact, my French background that got me my first gig in the then-Soviet-Union, tagging along as an "escort" to a group of French-Canadians while Intourist actually handled us all in Kiev, Erevan, Tbilisi, Baku, and Moscow. After a couple of days on the tour, it became clear that my spoken French was not up to par (though my comprehension had somehow survived), so an uneasy truce was arrived at, in which members of the group were free to address me in French, to which I would reply in English. A half a loaf is better than none, I suppose, especially half a world away.
Anyway, between translating and cleaning up my office (during which procedure I keep an eye peeled for my old French textbooks), I got to thinking what a wonderful thing it would be to have my old "verb charts" again. To those not familiar with the animal, a verb chart is a summary of all the major tenses of a verb. Mine were divided into five columns, with various tenses listed in each column. I had created a number of such cards back in high school, on large index cards. Alas, I had long ago lost track of them. In fact, something in the back of my mind said I'd actually thrown them out a decade or two ago.
While listening to some French conversational CD's I'd borrowed from Feht the other night, I was in the "mud room" that's just off my office (and where I keep books, wires, tapes, videos, etc.), looking for a box to eviscerate so that I might throw out most (if not all) of the contents in my current jag to minimize clutter around here. I picked a box that had been in Colorado for the 5 years we lived in Houston. It contained a bunch of old reel-to-reel tapes (which I would like to get copied, except that it's not that easy to find someone with a reel-to-reel tape recorder), a box of 5-1/2 inch diskettes, and a large plastic index card file box.
Yep. You guessed it. Those verb charts were inside!
Looking at one of them, for the verb 'dormir' (to sleep), I see that my nerdy, high-school self added times to the bottom of each column, apparently in an attempt to understand just how long a torture session it was to compile one of these cards (5 minutes, 28 seconds for 'dormir').
I think I may find a use for these things, after all those years... but first, I have a translation to complete and some stuff to clean up.
Cheers...
P.S. Huntur is not feeling all that hot, said Drew a few minutes ago in a phone call. So the adults are not going to Creede, and Huntur - if she does come to visit - will only be here for a little while.
It was, in fact, my French background that got me my first gig in the then-Soviet-Union, tagging along as an "escort" to a group of French-Canadians while Intourist actually handled us all in Kiev, Erevan, Tbilisi, Baku, and Moscow. After a couple of days on the tour, it became clear that my spoken French was not up to par (though my comprehension had somehow survived), so an uneasy truce was arrived at, in which members of the group were free to address me in French, to which I would reply in English. A half a loaf is better than none, I suppose, especially half a world away.
Anyway, between translating and cleaning up my office (during which procedure I keep an eye peeled for my old French textbooks), I got to thinking what a wonderful thing it would be to have my old "verb charts" again. To those not familiar with the animal, a verb chart is a summary of all the major tenses of a verb. Mine were divided into five columns, with various tenses listed in each column. I had created a number of such cards back in high school, on large index cards. Alas, I had long ago lost track of them. In fact, something in the back of my mind said I'd actually thrown them out a decade or two ago.
While listening to some French conversational CD's I'd borrowed from Feht the other night, I was in the "mud room" that's just off my office (and where I keep books, wires, tapes, videos, etc.), looking for a box to eviscerate so that I might throw out most (if not all) of the contents in my current jag to minimize clutter around here. I picked a box that had been in Colorado for the 5 years we lived in Houston. It contained a bunch of old reel-to-reel tapes (which I would like to get copied, except that it's not that easy to find someone with a reel-to-reel tape recorder), a box of 5-1/2 inch diskettes, and a large plastic index card file box.
Yep. You guessed it. Those verb charts were inside!
Looking at one of them, for the verb 'dormir' (to sleep), I see that my nerdy, high-school self added times to the bottom of each column, apparently in an attempt to understand just how long a torture session it was to compile one of these cards (5 minutes, 28 seconds for 'dormir').
I think I may find a use for these things, after all those years... but first, I have a translation to complete and some stuff to clean up.
Cheers...
P.S. Huntur is not feeling all that hot, said Drew a few minutes ago in a phone call. So the adults are not going to Creede, and Huntur - if she does come to visit - will only be here for a little while.
