Drunken Owls and Other Delights

... mais je peux le comprendre très bien.

I can hear A. in the other room using a Learning French podcast and practicing along with it for our impending vacation. I'd have done so myself, but I have not had the time to do so. Unfortunately my brain is crunching numbers and bank systems all day, so if I listened to the same podcast, I'd only be half paying attention and learn nothing.

There's also the fact that I had four semesters of it in college and barely scraped by. It's very weird...I find I'm unable to successfully learn a foreign language. I think it might have been a few things: learning Spanish in high school, I was taught the "A Word = B Word" method with not that much immersion other than homework, so I never quite learned how to learn a different language. There's also the fact that my thought-to-speech process tends to be a bit different from other people; I tend to completely think out what I'm going to say and then say it; that's why I so often trip over my words when I speak. It's also why I get irritable when I'm interrupted.

In short, speaking French for me is pretty tough, considering that A) I have to think about what I'm going to say, B) I have to translate it in my head before I say it, and C) by the time I say it, the listeners' patience has worn thin. This is why I've pretty much resigned myself this time to the tourist basics of "bonjour" and "s'il vous plait" and "merci" and so on. Per Rick Steves, most of Paris probably knows English better than I do anyway.

On the other hand, I can comprehend it just fine if it's clear in my ears. I may not pick up every single word you say, but I get what you're talking about. That's about as far as I can get with foreign languages on a communicative level.


[Granted, I find it funny that I'm also a writer who's created a conlang for his novels. The same rule applies, though: I can create a great sentence in Anjshé if I have my glossary in front of me, but don't ask me to speak it in conversation, I'll just trip over myself.]

First, to get this out of the way:

WOOOOO!!! GO PATS!!! :D :D :D :D :D

*ahem* Carry on...


Been a surprisingly productive weekend here at Casa TC. Yesterday was mostly Errand Day, as our cupboards were emptying out. So, shopping at Westlake Mall! I had a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more of food at World Market, so we went a bit wild with snacks (various chocolates, Zapp's potato chips with an interestingly vague flavor name of "Voodoo", some maple pecan popcorn, among other things) some pumpkin ale, and some wine. Also, a good portion of regular food was purchased downstairs at Trader Joe's.

We also decided to head over to the DSW shoestore for new footwear specifically for our Paris trip in a few weeks [HOKEY SMOKES, is it coming up that quickly?!??]. As I have been informed that I will apparently be laughed off the continent for wearing New Balance sneakers, I spent the extra money and got some nice and comfy solid black Nikes. Emm got a nice pair of walking shoes as well, along with a pair of pumps which surprised both of us (she normally doesn't wear them).

Spare Oom got another good going-over yesterday as well...I managed to combine all my work-related stuff into one box and shoved that into the closet, magazine piles were thinned out, and things were moved so I can actually use the loveseat behind me again! Now I just need to make a trip to the Fort Mason book drop and the Goodwill up the way, and the floor will be even more open.

Today was Clean All The Things! Day, so I did quite a bit of vacuuming and dusting, arranging, throwing away, and wiping up of said Things. I really should have taken a Claritin, as I am still slightly congested from the Great Dusting of Jon's Corner of the Bedroom. Clearly I should have done this quite some time ago, and it would not surprise me in the least if I find myself NOT snoring from congestion tonight. And lastly, I just kicked off an email to our building maintenance guys (cc'ing our building manager, of course) detailing some plumbing issues. Nothing horrible, but just enough to warrant fixing.

So! It's just past two pm here, I'm kicking back and listening to WAMH online, and wondering what I'm going to do with the rest of the day. Emm is currently in the kitchen making a giant batch of applesauce, but once that's done we'll most likely take a walk up to Land's End and then over to the Quickly on Geary for some bubble tea. So what's next?

I'll be working some more on Chapter 6 of A Division of Souls, and I know that it's going to be a big pain in the ass like Chapter 5 was...but I'll going into that in another post momentarily. In fact, a lot of writing-related thoughts I'd like to touch on in the next post. Stay tuned!

Also...I need to install the Rosetta Stone Francais software and get crackin' on it, as we have just a few weeks for me to brush up on a foreign language I haven't actively studied since 1993. Geez, and I call myself French-Canadian...! The packaging is a bit vague as to how many people can use it, and how many computers it can be set up for, so I'm thinking maybe setting it up on the Spare Oom PC here, and then onto the Lenovo, that way we can get it up and running and the both of us can use it. As I've said, I can passably say the little things one needs--y'know, the please, thank you, I'm afraid I've eaten too much cheese, things like that--and I can understand it a lot more than I can speak it...but I should at least try to recapture more of it.

Okay! Time to head outside and enjoy a bit more of this shockingly warm day (I say shocking, considering it's been in the 50s and foggy for the last few weeks) and partake in some tasty bubble tea.

MOre soon!