Today with the Discord group « Spoonful of Language », we did a Lecture Club with some french learners where we read the first chapter of Harry Potter et la Pierre Philosophale (in french obviously!). It was a great experience, even for me who was the only french native (we were 4, it was cool). I wrote down the words learners did struggle with, or didn’t understand to make a note with it. We did read the 5 first pages at this session. Here are the notes !
« que Dudley se mette à fréquenter ce garçon » ; se mettre = to begin to do something ; to start something. Ex. Je dois me mettre au travail = I’ve got to start working ; Il s’est mis à fumer = He started to smoke
« potins » ; un potin = une rumeur = un ragot = a local gossip.
« Dudley qui braillait de toute la force de ses poumons » ; brailler = to yell, to bawl.
« un olibrius » = une personne excentrique, ridicule, démodée = oddball, eccentric, crank
« voler à tire d’aile » = a bird who fly really fast, using vigorously, strongly his wings, like a bird who wants to flee a hunter.
« (être) Bouche bée » = when someone has his mouth wide open, stunned/speechless in front of something. = to stand gaping.
« la voix courroucée » ; courroucé = wrathful, irate. ; le courroux = the wrath
When « un fils » = a son, you don’t pronounce the « l », you pronounce it « fiss », but when it’s « les fils » = wires (un fil = a wire), you pronounce the « l » but not the « s » so you pronounce it « fil »
« un moldu » = someone who is not a wizard (only in Harry Potter’s world) = a muggle
« est ≠ Est » est is from the verb « être », and Est is the cap East. In french : North = Nord ; South = Sud ; West = Ouest ; East = Est. Sometimes peoples forget to put the E in caps to differentiate them. In Est, you pronounce all the letters ; for est, you just pronounce « é »
« elle répondit avec raideur » ; raideur = stiffness.
« ils ne pourraient être mêlés à ces histoires » ; être mêlé = to be involved
« jaillir » = something that appear from something, like the water that flows out a fountain = to fly/spurt/spray out = to gush forth
« ses yeux se rétrécirent » ; rétrécir = when a cat’s pupil gets thinner, when a cloth is smaller after a wash = to contract, to shrink.
« J’aurais dû m’en douter » = when you should have known something. Ex. « J’étais avec une copine. » « J’aurais dû m’en douter ! » = « I was with a friend. » « I should have known ! »
Since I got stuck into reading in my teens I have taken huge pleasure as my interests have shifted over the years in working through various genres of English literature. One of the most rewarding being reading the classics albeit that every now and again it was more like hard work. More recently I set about the French classics and surprisingly met with an unexpected early reward for my time invested.
“Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend“
- Albert Camus
The latest Astérix book is as topical as ever - the theme being road potholes known in French as ‘nids de poule’.
I didn't get on with French at all at school and learnt only through submersion and necessity when I spent my gap year working on a farm in south-west France which was owned by the daughter of a 'pied noir'. It was either learn to speak French or sink. So I did acquire the basics with plenty of help from my hosts and by the time I left I was proud to be able to read and understand the most part of an Astérix the Gaul comic book or ‘band dessinée’ as they are known in France.
Over the years I gradually got better and better at speaking French largely as a result of working in the tourist industry specialising in France though I still relied quite a lot on expert French speakers for assistance. Things evolved and I got better at reading and writing when I started working directly with a French company and even more so ten years ago when I met my better half who is French and with whom I have lived fulltime in Grasse for over four years now.
Lying around our apartment here I came across contemporary novels by the likes of Guillaume Musso and Marc Levy and I decided to try reading them. To my pleasant surprise, I could. So as is my bent I read a whole heap of their very enjoyable books until I had just about had enough.
So what next? Chance had it that we stayed in Normandy with the sister of my French wife. She has a huge selection of books including full collections of most of the French classics. Jules Verne caught my eye and I spent the next year merrily cruising through many of his best works.
The following year I asked for suggestions on what would be the best French classics for an Englishman to read in French given that I had already read some in English such as Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables' and Alain Fournier's 'Le Grand Meaulnes'. I came away with an old box containing twelve classic French books.
This is the ultimate book of words by Sartre
It seemed appropriate to start with 'Les Mots' by Jean-Paul Sartre as one of my key aims is to grow my vocabulary. An inspired choice that proved to be as it gives a wonderful insight into the mind of the writer and how one as gifted as he fell into complex storytelling at such an early precocious age so much so that it became a handicap before proving a blessing. What a rich selection of words it threw up too, it certainly had me reaching for my google translate on a regular basis.
This was followed by interesting forays into works by Maupassant and an intriguing book by Camus called L'Etranger. I discovered from my French family that Camus was a 'Pied Noir' too and by chance shortly after I found a film based on his life on NETFLIX so I watched it. The French are pretty good at documentary-style films about their painters and writers so it was fairly inevitable that I found it enjoyable and also it gave me a bit more insight into what these 'Pied Noir' people who lived in Algeria from around 1830 to 1962 went through in the latter years.
The strangely simplistic yet very revealing L’etranger by Camus
Then last week for work I went to visit a villa which was recently added to the VDM range in Provence. It is unusual because it has a mini cinema which seats ten in proper cinema style rows with staggered heights and actual cinema seats as well as full surround sound and a big screen along with over 1500 DVD's, the likes of which I had never seen before (and I have seen some).
The home cinema
I always like to know something about the owners of the villas as it allows me to evaluate if they are reliable and on a human level it is interesting too. So I popped the question on this visit. Turns out the owner is a film director for French television. "Would I know his work?" "Depends what you watch" he responded perhaps thinking it unlikely that this tall very English looking old fellow would watch French TV at all. "Well, what genre?" "Period documentary films." "Ah sounds interesting".
To my surprise, it turned out that he directed the Camus film.
So next time you wonder if it's worth reading a book in French I say go on, you never know where it might lead you and if nothing else you will acquire words maybe friends too.
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I'm learning French, and I wanna read a novel set in modern times in French to get used to reading French, learn a few words, get used to grammar and all that jazz, but I don't know what to read. Help?
