Chinese vs Spanish

In the quest to figure out what I want to do with my life, I fell in love with learning languages. I studied French in college, but really need to work on my grammar, so I am reading French everyday and basically loving every moment of it. But I really want to add a third language to my repertoire. So I was thinking Spanish. I already knew a few words and conjugations; it is so useful; and it is probably the most common foreign language spoken 'round these parts.

However, Latin based languages develop the more creative side or your brain, and Chinese, develops the more mathematical side. I speak a Germanic language, I have a working knowledge of a Latin one, but Chinese would open up my mind in so many different ways.

So I am out on a quest. Today I learned how to say the numbers zero through ten on an online podcast. I also learned the four different tones. And maybe, hopefully soon I will take a class, which I will probably really struggle with, but learn so much from. So who is with me? Learn Chinese??

This was one of my favorite places in France.

Recommendations and Regrets

I was at the grocery store shaking it up with Lynie, and looked over and saw those chapsticks that come in a little round ball. Let me just confess, I have always wanted one of those. All the cool girls have them, and once my friend got one, and wouldn't let me try it. And if you are anyone who is anyone, you have to have one, so I tossed it in the basket.

Number One: Who ever thought to take the convenient shape of chapstick and turn it into a bulky, awkward roundness, was cray cray. It fits quite awkwardly anywhere in my bag or my pocket, and its nicely just about nowhere. Plus, there is no graceful way to apply it. I can't glide it along my lips, I have to fumble trying to smush it against the corners of my mouth. Round chapstick should be a nogo.

Number Two: It last all about three seconds. Then I might as well reapply. In fact, I guess I could just hold it in the palm of my hand all day; that is the one place it kinda-sorta-not-really fits.

Number Three: I maybe just a little bit feel like a poser.

So if you are wondering, I wouldn't buy one.

On another note, this week I discovered the sweetest app evs. Duolingo. I am strengthening my French, learning Spanish, and I passed level one in German and Italian. This one, is worth it.

Number One: I am addicted. I just want to learn Spanish/French all night long. I love learning languages, and I love this app because it forces you to actually use what you are learning.

Number Two: I have studied in school how language is best acquired, and this app has the research in its pocket. It relies entirely on context clues, and does quite a superb job of scaffolding.

Number Three: It strengthens  listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills. Wow, that is pretty much the lot.

So if you want to learn some other language, or even if you are just bored, or even if you are as busy as superman, try the app. I am recommending it.

France Week One

Okay so I have been in France for a week now. Sorry about the blogging in French, it is for class. Here goes the English part. So far, I have loved my time here, but I am also realizing how much I love the United States.  I loved smiling at strangers and talking loud, buying cheap food and watching people be themselves in public. These types of things don't really happen in France. I do love the food here though, and the metro is so convenient.

This is me after two days on a plane. #firstfewhouseinparis

My host family consists of one person: our host mom. She is Brazilian, divorced (she was married in Vegas actually), and has two daughters that are studying abroad). She is very nice and speaks slow French, which I am so grateful for. I understand basically everything she says, or I did until I had been here for a week and started to not know how to speak in any language. After speaking and listening to French for a week, my brain is so tired! I think my French is getting worse, or at least it will get worse before it gets better. I need to build up some metal endurance.

Spending time with the members of the church is my favorite. Yesterday we spent the day with the JA (YSA). We had a devotional, ate lunch, and then went around Paris taking a picture in every district (there are 20). It was really cool to talk with them and get to know them. They have such strong testimonies and there are so few of them! Their strength definitely strengthened me. My directors told us to look for the differences in the church between home and here, but really the church is exactly the same. I love it because it feels very much like home. I talked to one girl who is eighteen, and she was very excited to turn nineteen and put in her mission papers. Everyone is going on missions here too; this mission craze isn't just happening in Utah.

Cultural differences that I love: I love how they greet people. They touch each cheek and make a kissing noise. Maybe I like it because it made us feel very welcome, or maybe because it is a good difference between hugging and and shaking hands. BYU culture has made hugging hands into something strange: It gets associated with return missionaries acting weird before they break into normal society again.

I also love how they eat dinner. This is probably my favorite French tradition. Dinners are very long and slow and lots of time is spent just sitting around and talking. First they bring out the salad. The first few times they did this, I thought that was what we were having for dinner and I was worried that I was going to starve. Then, after the salad, they bring out the main course, then dessert, then coffee or tea. We drink herbal tea of course. I love ending dinner just sitting around the table talking and drinking tea. I think I am going to try to implement this tradition in my future family for Sunday dinners. There is no way this would work on every day of the week in the United States. People are too rushed and too busy.

Commercialism and advertisements are interesting. There are so many American flags hanging around and so many English words everywhere. It reminds me of Anthropology (and other stores) where there are lots of French words embroidered on notebooks or shirts.

Mont-Saint-Michel

When we first got here, we got up the next day and took a bus to Normandy and Brittany. It was really cool to see the different regions in France. Each region is very proud of their food and whatever makes them unique. France is a very unified country politically (and culturally even), but it is a compilation of a bunch of different regions that revel in their uniqueness. We spent some times on the Normandy beaches learning about World War II, and in some little towns to experience their regionalisms. One thing I noticed was that people are extremely friendly in Brittany. They just come up and talk to you and are all so nice. My favorite Normandy beach was Pointe du Hoc, which was where the US soldiers had to climb up the cliffs. There were all these huge craters left from bombs and there were old abandoned bunkers you could walk through. In Brittany, we stayed in a beautiful walled town called Saint-Malo. I can't even imagine how much fun a hot summer day would be in Saint-Malo especially is you have a hotel there because all the tourists leave and the city is so peaceful.

A bombed bunker

In Paris, we have visited le Notre Dame and the Cluny Museum which is a museum of the middle ages. It was cool to see their combs and toys, bowls and art. We also went to Versailles  which is so ridiculously gaudy that it kind of makes me sick that Louis the 14th would build such a place. It was interesting though because he forced all the nobles to move there so he could try to unify France. So basically it was a prison for the nobles right? But it is also such a place of political peace. At the end, I watched a quick video that showed a bunch of different presidents from other countries visiting Versailles, and it showed the signings of the treaty of Versailles as well.

Trying to get back home from Versailles was not the easiest thing in the world. My roommate and I live in Neuilly sur Seine, which is a suburb right outside of Paris. We just take the metro everyday, but our Versaille is out of metro bounds, so we have to take the RER, which is basically a bigger underground train system. So we had to jumble in with everyone else in the world speaking French who wanted to come back from their day at Versailles. We were all at the train station trying to buy tickets from these machines that half the time don't work. No one was happy, and neither were we. We were there for about three hours trying to figure it out, just my roommate and I. Finally, we were able to buy tickets, but them mine wouldn't work! I was so frustrated. Then, I think I got it to work without realizing it, but wasn't able to go through, which used up the ticket. Now my roommate, Lauren, was on one side, and I was stuck on the other. There was no one to help us and we didn't know what to do. In a split second, I just squeezed up right behind someone and slipped through when the doors opened for them. They didn't even notice, and I don't even feel bad because I payed for the ticket at this crazy station. It was quite an adventure.

That was week one. Today we went to church, and I just want all foreign speaking missionaries out there to know that I have a new respect for you. Learning a language is so hard! At church, I always knew what we were talking about, but I would miss phrases or explanations or comments, which was so frustrating because I wanted to know what people were talking about! They actually have all of church translated into English, but I am trying to learn French here!

I am learning a lot of French! Like seriously a lot. But I am also realizing there is so much I don't know. Sometimes, I love the experience I am having, and sometimes I miss my family, friends, all the people I love back home, and being able to actually communicate with people. France is pretty great, but then again, I also really love the USA.

So mimes have grammar? I seriously love seeing mimes!
so interesting!

A comb from the Middle Ages.

Statues without heads from the Middle Ages.

The beach around Pont-Sant-Michel was so muddy.
There was actually sinking sand everywhere too!

Candles at Notre Dame

Our group!

Hidden staircase between two shops.

The water is so blue and clear!

Summer en France

J’étais très surpris par toutes les choses américaines en France. Il y a beaucoup et plus que j’ai pensé. J’ai vu une fille qui porte une écharpe qui était le drapeau américain. De plus, je voyais beaucoup d’affiches avec les mots anglais. Parfois, il y a un astérisque et  les mots sont traduits en français. Aux États-Unis, beaucoup de gens ont les mots français dans leurs maisons, comme un paillasson qui dit « Bienvenue. » Mais, ma mère d’accueil a un paillasson qui dit « Welcome. » Je pense qu’il est plus intéressant quand il y a un mot anglais dans une phrase française. Il se peut que ce soit pour mettre l’accent sur ce mot. C’est une technique de publicité. Aux États-Unis,  beaucoup de filles aiment acheter les vêtements avec les mots français ou même avec une marque les mots français même si la marque n’est pas une marque de France. Il y a le même ici dans cette photo. Le français aime les vêtements avec les mots anglais.

More Poetry for Annasophia

Today in English 7, those kidlets were supposed to write poems using literary devices - simile, metaphor, symbolism, personification, alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia - are the ones they learned. So I decided while they were writing, I would model for them and write under the doc cam. Herez it is:

My sister's smile caught me for a moment;
Just at the park on any other nippy November afternoon,
We'd been tossing our wishes and secrets in the air
like bumbling a beach ball around at the park.
That smile could have lit the whole neighborhood,
the whole city, the whole entire Clark County.
That smile was talking to me:
Saying something as beautiful as the sunset that painters try to paint
or as gentle as the movement when light touches a wet pond.
Her smile said: I am Sophie,
your sister and best friend
for as long as the mountains snow
and the sea waves crash
on the beach we always go to in April.

Runisms

Wet Sports Bra Syndrome: The fact that you will freeze from your sweaty wet sports bra until you finally change. This often occurs when lifting weights or eating immediately after running and before changing into more modest attire.

Track Wind Phenomenon: During track season, no matter which direction you are running around the track, the wind always seems like it is blowing against you - in your face pulling tears out of your eyes.

And we had yet to come up with this one here ------->

This happens when you are so tired on a run, and the grass looks so inviting. You just wish you could lie down and take a nap, but instead, you just keep running, running right along side that grass, just wishing you could lie down. Okay, so did it once. And so has this girly. Too tired to run on, she takes a small rest before dragging her running shoes back home. Ya, so she is posing, but it is actually a real thing. Sometimes running makes you really tired.

If it wasn't for Stacy

Right now Stacy is mushing dogs around my apartment. I am looking over at the girl who has eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke. The pseudo-oreo cookies my roommate brought home are dancing around the kitchen. The air outside is breaking. My picnic basket is trying to talk about last summer, but I put my hand over its mouth. The painting on my easel tells me its waiting. And the dryer is monching on my clothes or it's laughing. And the keys on this key board say oh please, stop your pushing, it's time for bed, so go to sleeeppp!