Learning to make noise.

Today was the first full day of school. It started off with another group phonetics session, which led to another French tongue twister:

Un ministre lugubre rumine sa solitude.

Un archiduc russe siffle une musique turque.

Un suisse richissime manipule ses chiffres.

Un type ivre titube, abruti, ahuri.

Un m’as-tu vu reluque l’unique fille du bus.

La fille du bus s’offusque, mais le muffle s’en fiche.

Un timide imagine mille rimes sublimes

pour Elise sa muse qui s’amuse à Ivry.

1,2,3,4,5,6, ils sont six et la fille, dans le bus vers Issy,

dans le bus vers Ivry.

I’m afraid of what they decide to give me next.

After the group phonetics session, I had a one-on-one phonetics sessions with another French teacher. She asked me if I had any problems, and I told her I had a problem with my ‘R’s. I can’t seem to get the awesome  “hhhhhrrrr” sound in any of my words. She gave me examples of what position my tongue should be in my mouth (by drawing pictures for all of you dirty minds). Finally she tried to get me pronouncing the “AR” sound, which I just couldn’t get. We both got very frustrated, because I could make the right “R” sound by itself, but not with the “A” sound preceding it. As it turns out, it’s that damn “A” that gives me problems, because when she gave me an “R” preceded by an “O”, “E”, “OI”, or “OU”, I made it just fine. “A” is now my least favorite letter.

I went to my French literature class after that. It was pretty intimidating, because it’s entirely in French, and literature classes are hard enough without a language barrier. I understood more than I expected to, but some of it is still kind of fuzzy. I’m most excited about that class though because we will spend three weeks on literature of the middle ages, which is a little unexpected. Right now I’ve got Le Chanson de Roland to read excerpts from, which makes me happy because I was so looking forward to reading it in French. We will also read a little from Chrétien de Troyes, who wrote many of the Arthurian legends, and Tristan et Iseult, which is basically an earlier version of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare also somehow makes it onto the reading list, with the Tempest on the syllabus for some reason.

I went looking through the local market for dinner, but ended up not buying any food today. I did find something called “American Sauce,” which I think I might have to try at some point. But my dinner tonight was basically just three tomatoes and a bag of chips. Yes, I was that lazy. It’s hard to decide what to make when your kitchen consists of a hot-plate and a sink. Most things I’m used to making require an oven at least. Oh well. Tomorrow I’ve got Art History, which will hopefully be a breeze compared to Literature. Until then, mes amis!