Le Mot du Jour: GAB

Sorry that I'm posting today's mot du jour so late, but it's been a long day over here in the East Coast. It started snowing today and I wouldn't have minded that if it wasn't for the wind slapping my face constantly. It's seriously cold outside!

Le mot du Jour est GAB. It's an abbreviation for Guichet Automatique de Banque. It means ATM/cash dispenser.

The sample sentence french.about.com give is:

• Les GAB sont trés commode. ATM's are very convenient.

Le GAB is also related to the word un guichet which means store window, counter, box office. It is also related to the world un guichetier which means counter clerk. 

Can I just say that this word is going to be so useful when I go abroad?!

Le Mot du Jour: Parier

Today's word of the day is parier.

It means to bet/to wager

Here are the sample sentences french.about.com gave:

1. Je te parie qu'il sera en retard. I bet he'll be late. 
2. As-tu jamais parié sur un cheval? Have you ever bet on a horse? 
3. Elles sont fatiguées, je parie. I bet they're tired; They're tired, I'd wager.

On a side note, today I was talking to my friend who is learning Japanese and he has this app on his iPad called Skritter. It looked really cool because it gave him sentences in Japanese to read in Kanji and then he had to answer it in Kanji by writing the characters on the screen. You can create your dictionary as well because you can put in vocabulary words you don't know and do vocabulary drills.

He told me he was basically obsessed with it and that he studied at least an hour a day with it. It looked like it really worked too. This will be really great when I begin to learn Japanese next year. I want to apply for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (J.E.T.) program, but even if I don't get accepted into the program, I would still love to learn Japanese. It's such an intense and rewarding language.

For those who want to work in the business/economic industry, knowing some Japanese (even French) is very beneficial because they are one of the top countries in the business field (among other things).

I tried to find out if they had a French version. So far, no luck. I am in the search of trying to find an app equivalent to it for the iPod/iPhone since I don't have an iPad (although I really, really want one). 

Hopefully, I'll find something!

Until next time!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!! YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Mot du Jour

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a website that was willing to give me all the French practice in the world. Actually, Monsieur recommended it a few weeks ago, but I never really checked it out until now.

The website is called french.about.com and it has endless lists of resources. From proficiency tests to French slang vocabularies. You can even sign up for a newsletter where Laura K. Lawless (a writer for the page) gives you daily exercises to improve your French.

I, obviously, have signed up for it and I get the mot du jour (word of the day) link along with other tips and exercises.

My mot du jour is klaxonner and it means to honk/beep/toot one's horn

It also comes with sample sentences so you can see how it is used. I am going to write daily words here along with their sample sentences and at the end of the week a list of all the vocabulary words that I learned. Hopefully, that will help me remember the words. 

I think I am also going to buy a pocket notebook to put them in, just so I can look back on them whenever I want. It will be a great way to write sentences along with their definitions, so I don't forget how to use them.

Before I forget the sample sentences they gave me were:

1. Quand vous arriverez, ne klaxonnez pas; je préfère que vous sonniez à la porte. When you arrive, don't beep your horn; I'd prefer it if you rang the doorbell.
2. Pourquoi les gens doivent-ils klaxonner quand ils voient bien c'est impossible de bouger? Why do people have to honk when they can see that it's impossible to move?

Hopefully this will help me out. Enjoy your Monday!

Struggles: Study Abroad and Visa Problems

So I haven't said anything, but I have been approved to study abroad in France! Boo-yah!

I'm so excited. I have never left the country before. I didn't even have a passport until this week! But I am excited and nervous and anxious and I can't wait to actually get to Paris. I have been approved for the IES Abroad program and have been sending out required forms and papers to the headquarter.

Lately though, I have been stuck. I have to apply for a visa through CampusFrance and it is just plain confusing for me.

There's all these things that I have to do and the website is packed with information. Not to mention the fact that I have to, apparently, make an appointment with the closest French Embassy for me to get my visa and I'm still wondering how I'm going to do that since I have to go there in person....I think.

I have to send money and other forms to them and, to put it bluntly, I have no idea what the hell I am doing.

I think I just have to sit down and read everything before doing anything. I just want to get it done and not have to do anymore pre-departure requirements.

.....Ahh, wish me luck and hope that I don't drown.

Reflection Month: #1

It's been a while since I updated anything about my journey to learning French. Tests have been taken, compositions have been written, and articles have been read. Monsieur has definitely been keeping me on my toes and since today is November 1st, I thought it was about time I updated you on what I have been doing.

Here's a review of what I went through and their outcome for the past two months.

• Oral exam. We had our first oral exam three weeks ago and, I have to say, it wasn't too bad. Monsieur had us choose a poem and memorize it: Le Corbeau et Le Renard and La cigale et la fourmi. Both poems were fun to read, but I chose Le Corbeau et le Renard. I wanted to do both, but let's face it. Life as a college student, you sometimes don't have enough time to do all of the things you want to do in one weekend. Plus my body likes to decide to, on its own accord, to sleep as much as possible because it knows that we are not going to go to sleep during the week. But I did pretty good on my oral. That reminds me, I need to email my professor and ask him what my grade was....Hopefully it was an A....or at least a B+! 

• Composition. Monsieur gave us a prompt to write about the first time Obama ran for President. Needless to say, I got an A. You know, after I gave my first draft to Tutor. I need to buy a gift for him for the all the trouble he's going through reading my "Me Jane....you Tarzon" speech.

• Presentation. We are currently reading Le Dieu du Carnage and my partner and I had to speak about the pages we were assigned on, in French. The presentation wasn't too bad. I just wish I was able to articulate my answers better than: Elle était fâché avec lui (I wonder if that's even grammatically correct. We're currently reviewing personal pronouns and I still get confused). I kind of like this book, plus I always feel proud of myself when I understand what I'm reading.

• Written exam. I did good on my first exam, but I could have done better (got an 80%). The tense worksheet I created really helped. I talked about it in my previous post: Study Habits Improved: # 1. A tip for all you language learners, if you're doing drills on spelling, make sure that you spell it the first time. My mistake was spelling the word wrong the first time in my worksheet and then using that as a template to continue my drills. So when I got the exam, I spelled the words correctly from my worksheet, but because I never noticed that I spelled it wrong, Monsieur, of course, marked them wrong. I lost a lot of points because of that. Struggles, I tell you. My second exam, I did much better (I got an 88%). I studied with one of my classmates and that definitely helped. I think I need to review more on my own before just to make sure I don't forget any material to go over. 

As you can see, Monsieur has given a lot of assignments to enhance our French skills (bless that man).

Au revoir!

Study Habits Improved: # 1

It's been a while since I've been able to update this blog. With school starting and everything, I have just been trying to stay on top of things. And one of those things that has been taking up most of my time is my French class.

I can absolutely say that the summer has made me a bit rusty. I forgot many of the verbs and how to conjugate them. Monsieur was definitely not happy with my class. This was an intermediate class and every time we looked at him, I'm pretty sure we had blank faces....well, I had it. I'm sure you can understand his frustration with us.

With that being said, I had to sit myself down in my room and study. But I will be honest with you all, that did not happen until I had to study for my test. My first French test was today and from what I learned studying for this test is that you should definitely study something from your language everyday, especially if you want to get even remotely fluent.

Cramming is not a good way for you to become fluent. Sure, you may know the words for the test, but you may not be retaining them for future use. But in my cramming, I did have a stroke of genius. I created a worksheet for each tense.

Here is how it looks. I designed it through Microsoft Excel and printed out one sheet for each tense.

Here's how it looks filled out. This one is for the present tense. It definitely made it easier for me to see how one -er verb can be spelled from another -er verb, especially if that -er verb is irregular. Plus because all the verbs that I needed to study for were there, I didn't have to worry about forgetting one.

This really helped me in organizing the different tenses in my head. I think that is what my problem was last year, plus I wasn't really organized for that class; which I should have been. If I was, it could have saved me a lot of stress, especially since French was brand new to me at that time and the verbs just looked the same to me.

But the real verdict will be when I get my test back. 

If you decide to use this, let me know. It would love to see if this is actually ideal to study a language. I can improve my studying habits if I get feedback from you guys!

That is all for now. Until next time.

Say What Again?

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the semester at my school and, what do you know, my first class was Intermediate French. As soon as I stepped into the classroom and saw Monsieur (who I haven't had since first semester of last year), I knew this was going to be a class where I would be forced to speak in French.

I have to admit though, after a whole summer of not studying French (I should have, but didn't), I was proud to form together a coherent sentence in French to Monsieur. The last time I saw him, I didn't know squat (You hear that, Monsieur? I deserve a gold star!!).

It was a rough start, I have to say. Many of my classmates were intimidated and you could literally hear the lights buzzing above us because of how quiet it was. Monsieur had us also start reading a page from the new textbook and then asked us questions about what we read.

All that was going through my mind as he asked us questions in French was: Say what again?

Image received from google.com

It was a struggle. A long, painful struggle, but we survived. Monsieur isn't a bad guy. It's just that when he starts talking to us in French is when we want to run and hide. But if it's something I learned as I researched tips on how to make learning a language easier, is to at least try. Trying will result in mistakes, but that's how you will learn. It's like when you first learned to ride a bike. When the training wheels came off, I'm pretty sure you fell, ran into trees and possibly your friends, but you got better, didn't you?

Without trying, you won't get better. But don't worry, if you're still scared about doing this alone, don't be because I'm right there with you.

I'm pretty sure I'll be saying those three words again...and again...and again. Say what again? (Yeah, that).

Till next time...