Monthly Archives: January 2009

Définissons d’amitié

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I’ve been meaning to post stuff in French, but I’ve lacked easy topics. In previous classes, all or most homework was done in workbooks, but in this class (mais en cet classe) we will be doing more work in notebooks and on word processors.

The textbook for the class (first semester of second year French) is Controverses by Larbi Oukada, Didier Bertrand, and Janet Solberg. It’s probably not a coincidence that Oukada and Bertrand are faculty at the university. Anyway, the stuff below is an exercise from the textbook.

The chapter starts out with friends and friendship, including cultural differences in American and French views. They give a list of qualities that a person might look for in a friend, and we are supposed to select five or come up with our own. My list below is a mix of sorts.

Définissons

  • Un ami est quelqu’un qui me comprends.
  • Un ami est quelqu’un en qui je peux confier.
  • Un ami est quelqu’un sur qui je peux compter.
  • Un ami est quelqu’un en qui j’ai confiance.
  • Un ami est quelqu’un avec qui je veux boire.

Since my French is still pretty shaky, what I meant to write is…

  • A friend is someone who understands me.
  • A friend is someone in whom I can confide.
  • A friend is someone on whom I can count.
  • A friend is someone in whom I have confidence.
  • A friend is someone with whom I want to drink.

We’ll be going over this in class rather than turning it in. However, now I have to work on the stuff I do have to turn in.

Pragmatism

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In these days prior to the inauguration, it’s not surprising there are tons of articles about him. There are two articles worth noting, however.

Obama dominates ‘King Sunday’ at black churches – Monday the 19th is Martin Luther King Day and Tuesday, January 20th is Inauguration Day. In predominantly black churches, the article states, Sunday the 18th was as much a celebration of Barack Obama as it was of Martin Luther King, Jr. Four decades after MLK’s assassination we will witness a partial fulfillment of his dream. It seems poignant that the United States of America will swear in Pres. Obama a day after we celebrate the Rev. King.

As challenges mount, ardor for Obama cools abroad – The title is a little misleading, since the article isn’t about people disliking him. In the face of number of challenges facing the incoming President, people are becoming more realistic in their expectations. While many things written about Obama over the past year have bordered on hagiography, people are beginning to realize he won’t be able to fix everything. Put another way, the expectations were too many and too large. “The idealism has diminished,” said Samuel Solvit, who heads an Obama support network in France. “Everyone was dreaming a little. Now people are more realistic.”

In general, I’m optimistic about the future of our country, yet mindful that we have some serious challenges ahead that will take years to solve.

Rainy day food

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When grocery shopping, I have this concept of “rainy day food”. It’s not a very original idea, but I hadn’t seen anyone describe it as a formal strategy, so I gave the concept a name to make it easier to understand.

Basically, “rainy day food” is non-perishable food like pasta, macaroni and cheese, instant potatoes, etc, that I can make and eat when I’m broke or when the weather is too bad for me to want to trek to the grocery store. I try to keep about a week worth of “rainy day food” in the cabinets, just in case. Since the temperatures have warmed up from the sub-zero temps we had earlier this week, I went to the grocery store today to replenish.

Pasta and canned sauces are good. Not only are the canned sauces cheaper, but they won’t break if you drop them. They ought to keep me going for awhile – at least until payday.