J-20 - Je parle un petit peu français...

Some people asked me why I often use english words in my daily life, in mails or on the phone...It might sound weird but sometimes the words come to me in english rather than in french. I assume it's because the english vocabulary is more efficient and figurative than french, it gets more logic then.

I watch the tube in english as much as I can (french dubbing is rarely good !), I read in english, I have english speaking friends, I just love it !!

I grew up in an international family. My grand father was raised in Vietnam in the time when it was still called Indochina,  my mum was an interpreter, I had aunts in the US, in Germany and in a very natural way I felt the need to learn english myself very soon as well as a second language, I chose german. I learned english with an animated method, much more funny that the german one ! (who said Germans are rigid and strict ?) This was about green monsters and a princess. I totally loved it !

So, I finally managed to have conversations in english and german, then I learned a bit of spanish and even breton (I'm kidding you not) ! I also tried a bit of hindi, turkish and japanese but without great success. I guess the older you get the lazier you get to learn new things...

J-25 - J'ai commencé à apprendre l'anglais grâce à...

...Pass the Dutchie, que j'ai écoutée en boucle en me dandinant ! Je devais avoir 5 ou 6 ans.

Une araignée qui se balancait sur une toile toile toile, toile d'éléphant !!

Dans les années 60, un chercheur a donné toutes sortes de drogues à des araignées pour en étudier l'effet sur leur toile. Vous avez tous sûrement déjà vu ce reportage qui montre l'aspect des différentes toiles en fonction de la drogue qui a été absorbée...

Et bien, en voici une version alternative, en anglais, qui devrait en surprendre plus d'un !

L'amour à l'anglaise

Thursday night, everything's fine
Except you've got that look in your eye
When I'm telling a story, and you find it boring
You're thinking of something to say

You'll go along with it, then drop it
And humiliate me in front of our friends
Then I'll use that voice that you find annoying
And say something like,
"Yeah, intelligent input, darling.
Why don't you just have another beer then?"

Then you'll call me a bitch
And everyone we're with will be embarrassed
And I won't give a shit

Do you speak english ?

As I went to Cambridge to visit one of my high school friend, I took to Eurostar for the first time of my life last week-end. Though I wouldn't ever be afraid of the plane, I must admit I was a bit anxious regarding the fact that I would be sitting in a train crossing the channel...in an underground tunnel ! Fortunately, I had forgotten that the worse part of taking the train in France would be the freezing air conditioning, which made me spend my whole trip trying to warm me up instead of thinking of the sea beneath my head.

Cambridge is a small place yet very lively because of all the students. I discovered the nice feeling of being surrounded by a bunch of the cleverest PHD of the planet. This could be quite imposing but as kindness is a way of life in Great Britain I had an amazing time.

After a few misunderstandings because of my obvious american way of speaking (thanks to all the MTV shows I'm watching) I had to switch my "d" prononciation ot the "t" by a "t" one. It seems to me that this could be where the difference between british and american english stands.

On saturday, we went to that Fez place, the only night club in the city that would close at 3 am. As "thirty-years" we tried to get integrated in this place full of teenagers and very young students.

This was a "I love Ibiza" night and we danced two hours looking like fancy clubbers, without drinks (we had used the left pounds we had to pay the entry fee) or cigarettes (it's no longer allowed to smoke inside places in the UK). Still we had a lot of fun and made the most of the night like real british mates.

The week-end was also a bit cultural. I'll upload some more pics tomorrow and finish my story in french.