Tag: French

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Sandra Boynton, cat chanteuse

Two days of close-to-normal activity levels have left me feeling pretty wiped out. I’ll definitely be taking it easy tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile…since I don’t have much bandwidth, I’m going to share another Sandra Boynton video. I’m loving these so much; I feel like I’ve stumbled onto a real treasure trove!

From the video description:
A world-weary yet passionate cat chanteuse sings from the heart (in French, of course). A soulful cello offers exquisite support. Semi-helpful subtitles are included. Song written, animated, and performed by Sandra Boynton, cello played by Yo-Yo Ma, piano played by Michael Ford. Plus there’s a surprise accordion cameo.

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Within me

The last time I read anything by Albert Camus was in my high school French class, but this quote really grabbed me.

Now I want to know more about him; I would also like to understand the context of the quote. Of course this is not the time to start searching the internet for more info, because I’m determined to be in bed before midnight!

It can wait until tomorrow…

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Fun with languages

One of the first things one has to get used to in Switzerland is constantly sorting through multiple languages in order to do almost anything.

I already had a fair amount of Italian when Ramesha and I first got together, but it was amazing how much high school French came back to me — and how much German I learned — while grocery shopping or figuring out the bus schedule!

There are four national languages in Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), with most every product description appearing in the three “official” languages of German, French, and Italian. A few products will also have information in English, but not that many.

Less than 0.5% of the population of Switzerland speaks Romansh, which I recently learned is a legacy of the Roman conquest of Rhaetia (now the Swiss canton of Graubünden) in 15 B.C.  Fascinating stuff!