Okay, now I *really really want* to take French Immersion...

[Sunspace]

Yesterday I made a quick visit to Ottawa.

I drove there east from Bancroft, through rugged, beautiful country that was very hilly, almost mountainous, and covered in new white snow. It was incredibly beautiful. Just before the junction of Highway 41 and Highway 132, I passed a sign that said, "Welcome to the Bonnechere Valley", the road went down a hill, and suddenly I was out of the snow and into something like late fall. I got to the town of Renfrew, where I stopped for food and fuel before getting onto Highway 17 for the run into Ottawa. I was due at my friends' place at noon, then I would go to my building-code exam at 1PM.

The exam was held at a room rented for the afternoon by the Ontario Ministry of Housing, a room at Université St Paul University--that's they way they tend to write things bilingully in Ottawa, even on maps. St Paul is a bilingual institution, apparently Catholic. I'd never heard of it before. I arrived in the exam room, finding it by seeing all the other people with thick building-code binders.

There is an elaborate testing protocol developed by the Ministry. The person hired by the Ministry, who oversees the test, handing out and collecting the material and making sure no-one cheats, is called an "invigilator". I'd been to another test previously in another city, and everything had been on time, but this time, 1PM came and there was no invigilator. 1:15 came. A lady--cool, elegant, and French--arrived in the room to inform us that the invigilator had had car trouble and would be another 45 minutes. Some people left; others including me decided to stick around.

We went down to the cafeteria to get a snack. I chatted with two of the other examinees. One was an engineer getting one of his building-code qualifications; the other was from a municipality.

These courses and tests appeal to three classes of people: municipal building inspectors and officlals, contractors and construction people, and designers (such as me). Actual architects and engineers have their own qualifications. The courses are intended to familiarize people with the requirements of the Ontario Building Code. It helps if you have other experiece in building, which I have. It also helps of you are designing simple structures, which I am also doing. In my case, passing a set of courses and exams and getting certain insurance allows me to sell house drawings in Ontario, even though I am neither an engineer or an architect. This is what I have been doing since I was laid off a year ago April Fools Day (really).

I finished my snack and went back upstairs. On the stairs, I encountered a lady who asked me something in French. I frantically dug the words "Pardonnez-moi, je ne parle pas français bon" out of some deep recess of my memory, and continued up the stairs. I got back to the exam room and the invigilator arrived shortly thereafter. The exam began.

Ottawa is a bilingual city. It's the jewel in the Bilingual Belt on the border between French-speaking Québec and English-speaking Ontario.

Directional road signs say things like "Ch. Hazeldean Rd." (Ch. = Chemain, French for Road) to get the common bilingual construction where the French noun comes before the name and the English noun afterwards. It's a way of packing "Chemain Hazeldean" and "Hazeldean Road" onto the same sign in a minimum of space. Other signs have full wording in both French and English, and there is a great usage of symbols instead of words. Symbols are often more compact and it doesn't matter what language you're reading it in--though there are some concepts that are hard to symbolize.

Ontario is not officially bilingual, but provincially-maintained highways have limited bilingual signage. Municipalities, such as Ottawa, can be officially bilingual however. Outside bilingual locations like Ottawa, the road signs treat words like "Road" as part of the street name, not to be translated. Thus on the 427 in Toronto you might see a sign that says "Rutherford Road East/Est ->" instead of "Ch. Rutherford Rd East/Est ->"

Originally, after graduating, I had wanted to get a job in Ottawa, but I couldn't find one, and I ended up back in the Greater Toronto Area. My sister moved to Ottawa, however, and it remains one of my favourite cities. Parks, museums, the National Gallery, the canal, and of course the Parliament Buildings. And Québec is just across the river. One of the scenic parkways along the canal is named "The Queen Elizabeth II Driveway", which always sounded to me like something Jeeves would use to being the Rolls up to the gates of Buckingham Palace.

So after the exam, I was waiting for my friends to collect me. We would be going back to their place for dinner with the family. I stood under the portico of the university, listening to passing students chattering in English and French, often both in the same conversation. I want to be able to do that. I want to be able to speak to the 20% of my countrymen who do not speak English. I want to hear new music, new ideas, new jokes.

I want to take this six-week French immersion course next summer. My experience with that Japanese immersion course last year was so encouraging that I think I could do it. Six weeks in an exclusively French-speaking environment? With courses and teachers and all? I was doing well in Japanese with 2.5 hours per week!

I left Ottawa this morning to go to Toronto. On the way, I was listening to French radio in the car. I could get the sense of what many of the stories in the news were about, for example, but the details were lost on me. But the French is back there, I can feel it. I want to let it out.

And maybe I can meet a beautiful French woman...

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by Sunspace

And maybe I can meet a beautiful French woman...

That's the first thing I thought of.

Speaking of French... A video crew in New Orleans in Zombie! vs Mardi Gras is looking for someplace. The grip girl says, 'I think it's on "Rue"-something.'

[postcards]

I've been to Ottawa a few times myself. This is my favorite street sign.

[teela brown]

Ever seen any of that educational series, French in Action? It's a highly regarded immersion language show created by the French department at Princeton, IIRC.

I have it all on videotape, which I'm trying to sell. If I ever need to brush up on French, I'll just purchase or rent it on DVD.

Oh, and it stars a notoriously beautiful French girl.

[MPB in Salt Lake]

NM

[MPB in Salt Lake]

Maybe Juliette Binoche is giving private lessons?

If not, maybe Julie Delpy......

[Larry Mudd]

Originally Posted by teela brown

Ever seen any of that educational series, French in Action? It's a highly regarded immersion language show created by the French department at Princeton, IIRC.

That's the wrong sort of French for Canada, eh? (More importantly, European French women aren't quite as cute as Québécoise.)

[MichaelEmouse]

Originally Posted by Larry Mudd

That's the wrong sort of French for Canada, eh? (More importantly, European French women aren't quite as cute as Québécoise.)

I've heard that but I thought it was just nationalism.
Are there common traits/characteristics you've noticed?

Anybody else noticed that?

[detop]

Congrats on your decision to learn French. BTW, it is not written "Chemain", "Chemin" is the correct spelling, but you had the right idea, both are pronounced the same way

[mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by MichaelEmouse

I've heard that but I thought it was just nationalism.
Are there common traits/characteristics you've noticed?

Anybody else noticed that?

Noticed that the French is different, or that the women are cuter?

Speaking for myself, my husband claims that I'm the cutest woman in the world, if that counts for anything!


Sunspace if you can afford that UWO course, then I think you should do it. I think it's great that you want to learn French!

A potentially cheaper alternative, however, would be to rent a room/house/cottage somewhere in a predominantly French-speaking area and just live there for a month or two and do your best to get talking with the locals. Pretty much anywhere outside of Gatineau/Montreal/Lennoxville should do it - if you still want a reasonably sized town, Drummondville or Trois-Rivières could work.

A minor correction, for next time: "Pardonnez-moi, je ne parle pas bien le français". You have to start learning somewhere, right?

[Spoons]

Sunspace, if you apply yourself to the study of French in the same way as you did to your study of Esperanto, you will do well. Bonne chance, mon ami!

[Muffin]

Aside from the obvious benefits of being able to communicate with more people, you will have significantly better employment opportunities.

[Mr. Excellent]

Sunspace, you may find this Connecticut program interesting: http://www.middlebury.edu/ls/french

Similar to the one you linked, albeit pricier.

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by teela brown

Ever seen any of that educational series, French in Action? It's a highly regarded immersion language show created by the French department at Princeton, IIRC.

I have it all on videotape, which I'm trying to sell. If I ever need to brush up on French, I'll just purchase or rent it on DVD.

Videotape? What is this "videotape"?

Originally Posted by teela brown

Oh, and it stars a notoriously beautiful French girl.

I think I found a number of parts on YouTube. Is this one?

Originally Posted by MPB in Salt Lake

Maybe Juliette Binoche is giving private lessons?

If not, maybe Julie Delpy......

:: looks up names ::
:: breaks into sweat ::

One year there was a French intern at the company where I used to work. She sat in the next cube to me. It was exquisite pleasure and torture hearing her speak on the phone... but I never would have gotten anywhere. She was the daughter of the company president.

Originally Posted by Larry Mudd

That's the wrong sort of French for Canada, eh? (More importantly, European French women aren't quite as cute as Québécoise.)

When I was taking courses at the Alliance Française in Toronto, I was told that the differences in dialect didn't matter until we got to a more advanced level that Level 2.

Originally Posted by detop

Congrats on your decision to learn French. BTW, it is not written "Chemain", "Chemin" is the correct spelling, but you had the right idea, both are pronounced the same way

Gaah. It's been thirty years since high-school French, and thought of the "dictée"--an exercise writing down a spoken text, which is then checked for spelling errors--still makes me shudder. There are so many homonyms and silent endings. But as I always say, French is consistently misspelled; English is inconsistently misspelled.

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

Noticed that the French is different, or that the women are cuter?

Speaking for myself, my husband claims that I'm the cutest woman in the world, if that counts for anything!

:: breaks into sweat ::

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

Sunspace if you can afford that UWO course, then I think you should do it. I think it's great that you want to learn French!

A potentially cheaper alternative, however, would be to rent a room/house/cottage somewhere in a predominantly French-speaking area and just live there for a month or two and do your best to get talking with the locals. Pretty much anywhere outside of Gatineau/Montreal/Lennoxville should do it - if you still want a reasonably sized town, Drummondville or Trois-Rivières could work.

Not a bad idea, but I need the teaching as well, and would appreciate the structure. My vocabulary has dried up and gone the way of autumn leaves...

On the other hand, I've been listening to French radio on my travels across Southern Ontario this weekend, and I was picking up a surprising amount. I am certain that in a discussion of Twitter, Wikileaks, and other online phenomena, I actually heard someone say, "J'ai a twité (someone)"...

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

A minor correction, for next time: "Pardonnez-moi, je ne parle pas bien le français". You have to start learning somewhere, right?

I knew that. Just not at the moment...

Originally Posted by Spoons

Sunspace, if you apply yourself to the study of French in the same way as you did to your study of Esperanto, you will do well. Bonne chance, mon ami!

Thanks. I'm looking forward to upgrading my Very Bad Restaurant French.

Originally Posted by Muffin

Aside from the obvious benefits of being able to communicate with more people, you will have significantly better employment opportunities.

I was told that in order to write in French as a job, as for technical documentation, I'd have to be fluent. And that would not happen for years. Just using French in the course of other tasks would not need the same level of polish, of course.

I was in Lee Valley Tools in Toronto yesterday, and they have a number of French woodworking and construction books. Another Front to advance upon: learning the French for fields you already do.

Originally Posted by Mr. Excellent

Sunspace, you may find this Connecticut program interesting: http://www.middlebury.edu/ls/french

Similar to the one you linked, albeit pricier.

Looks like they have a much more international teaching staff.

[Spoons]

Originally Posted by Sunspace

Thanks. I'm looking forward to upgrading my Very Bad Restaurant French.

"Monsieur, you may wish to reconsider your entree selection, as you have just ordered an oven-baked tractor."

I was told that in order to write in French as a job, as for technical documentation, I'd have to be fluent. And that would not happen for years. Just using French in the course of other tasks would not need the same level of polish, of course.

When I was technical writing in the Toronto area, I got to know a few French-language technical writers/translators. If you want to look into this branch of writing in French, even further down the road, let me know and I'll shoot you their names via PM. You could probably track them down through the STC.

[detop]

Originally Posted by MPB in Salt Lake

Maybe Juliette Binoche is giving private lessons?

If not, maybe Julie Delpy......

Actually, he would be most likely to encounter one of these ladies : http://celebrites-quebecoises.com/?_=3&page=1

[Larry Mudd]

Originally Posted by MichaelEmouse

I've heard that but I thought it was just nationalism.

I would take this assertion with a grain of salt - it may contain a certain amount of chauvinism. I will defend it to death, just not to the point of actually framing an argument which contains any premises apart from "A) My wife is Quebecoise."

[MoodIndigo1]

Trois-Pistoles is a good choice. There are lots of cultural activities during the summer, the village is charming, the accent is prettier than the Montreal one, and very few people are bilingual there.
If you are at liberty of choosing either session, choose the second because there are more activities at that time, including a fine "Théâtre d'été".

[Sunspace]

So I walked into Day One of my plumbing/building code class today, and a number of the participants were building officials from places in Eastern Ontario. Seems they get quite a number of people submitting plans and requesting building permits in French, both near the border, and in various places up north. (There's lots of French in Northern Ontario as well.) I think learning a little French could be justified.

I'm also going to order a glossary of construction terms in French, the CMHC's guide to wood-frame construction, and a general guide to construction. I have the English version of the second book, which is excellent.

Originally Posted by MoodIndigo1

Trois-Pistoles is a good choice. There are lots of cultural activities during the summer, the village is charming, the accent is prettier than the Montreal one, and very few people are bilingual there.
If you are at liberty of choosing either session, choose the second because there are more activities at that time, including a fine "Théâtre d'été".

I wonder whether there are any cartoons (sorry, I mean, bandes dessinées)... France is of course one of the three great fonts of cartooning in the world, and I expect they're freely available in Québec.

I was thinking about the second session anyways, if only because it's warmer.