*Merci! Je suis arrivé à l’auberge à jeunesse au Vieux-Québec. *
Thanks! I have arrived at the youth hostel in Old Quebec City. The train crossed the Quebec Bridge on its way here; something I’ve always wanted to do.
Crap, I’m nervous.
Survived my first major French conversation: the roommates at the hostel. One Guillaume, was from Tolouse and visiting Canada; the other, whose name I don’t remember, is on a trip around the world! I spoke about 50% simple French with them, the rest in English. A little later, I went downstairs to the bar in the hostel basement and had sesame noodles. Pretty good too. I ordered in French. The woman behind the counter turned out to be from Toronto… She was bilingual though. The conversation around me rapidly accelerated until I couldn’t understand anything…
“French immersion,” and no one makes the obvious comment about being a French dip? :dubious:
Bonne chance, Sunspace!
Perhaps you can slip in a little Esperanto while you’re there. 
Terrific news, Sunspace.
Y va falloir ke t’apprennes à comprendre le québecois et jouale autant ke le français! On parle vite, on saute des mots, et on utilise des contractions bizarres parfois! Le mot “tu” se trouve un peu partout, exemple “Y fait-tu beau à Jonquière?” Au féminin, c’est “a”, exemple “es qu’a veut v’nir chez nous?” Le mot “il” est souvent simplement dit “y”, comme la lettre “e” est prononcé en anglais.
Franchement, chu ben poche pour écrire en français phonétique/québecois/slang, mais c’est le genre de chose que tu vas entendre qui n’est pas tout à fait “correcte” mais qu’on dit tout le temps. Ça va t’aider d’apprendre ces trucs là pour suivre une vrai conversation. Bonne chance!
(Do we really have to translate everything in English? Is that a rule or a guideline?)
I think it’s cheating for Sunspace!
(the above was written somewhat in slang)
You’ll need to learn to understand québecois and jouale as well as French! We speak quickly, we skip words, we use weird contractions sometimes! The word “tu” shows up everywhere, like “Y fait-tu-beau à Jonquière” (Is the weather nice in Jonquière?). In the feminin, we use “a” , example “es qu’a veut v’nir chez nous?” (“does she want to come to our place?”). The word “il” often becomes “y”, similar to how the letter “e” is pronounced in English.
Frankly, I’m terrible at writing in phonetic french/québecois/slang, but it’s the type of stuff you’ll hear that’s not quite “correct” but we say all the time. It’ll help you to learn these tricks in order to follow a real converstation. Good luck!"
My girlfriend is from Trois-Rivieres, so for me French immersion means going swimming or taking a bath together.
:: head explodes ::
Merci, mnemosyne!
I’m there. I’ve met my host family and conversed in shaky and very basic French. Class starts tomorrow at 8:30.
Have fun!
Bonne chance! Moi, j’ai trouvé que je parle mieux après une bière. C’est un peu difficile en matin, mais la soirée, ça marche bien!
Translation:
“Good luck! After finding myself sweet-talking and having a beer with you, it would be difficult the next morning, but that night with you would go whoo-hoo!.”
Ah. Vous pouvez parler anglais. C’est nous qui devons parler français.
Not sure about that conjugation (thought Google likes it). I’m working with elementary school French, here. It’s supposed to say “Ah. You can speak English. It is we who must speak French.” If I knew more French, I would add “I didn’t know that you were allowed to still speak English in French Immersion.”
Wait, what? I don’t think that was in the lesson…
One learns so much more than just the language on immersion courses…
Day three…
They put me into Intermediate II, which may be a bit of a stretch for me, at least as far as vocals go. The grammar… Given time and a dictionary, I can figure it out. It’s the conversation that I’m much weaker on. On the other hand, on the second day, I understood maybe 50% of what the teacher said, as opposed to the first day, when I understood maybe 20%.
Yesterday I had homework: responding to some phrases in the negative. This was used today. We had gotten an exercise book yesterday, and it has exercises and everything, including lots of subjunctive, which is precisely where my training left off.
Yesterday night I had nightmares of not fitting in and not being able to find anything (wandering lost around a subway station in Toronto…); somehow today I was able to relax a bit.
Today, the third day, I understood more of the professor. She’s a very enthusiastic lady who actually reminds me of one of the excellent people at the job-search agency in Stouffville. I think she slowed down a little, today.
In the morning was the class. We did a discussion, and today the discussion was about recycling. People ended up describing the different recycling and composting programs (or lack thereof) in their areas. One of the other students actually knew about the type of solar-powered houses I worked on, so I had to jump in and talk about them a bit.
The class has to do a short presentation for a kermesse, or fun fair. This afternoon we came up with an idea: performing part of the Cup Song by Pitch Perfect. Most of us will be manipulating cups and providing rhythm; four will be singing (in French).
Jonquière itself reminds me a little of Sault Ste Marie. Both cities are ‘northern’; both are somewhat isolated; both are historically based on refining (steel in Sault Ste Marie; aluminum in Jonquiere); and judging from the architecture, both had a suburban boom in the sixties. However, Jonquière is also deep in the heart of Québec, while Sault Ste Marie is smack-dab on the US border. Jonquière is also part of a larger region: the Chicoutimi region, which sits and the end of a great fjord that extends to the St Lawrence estuary.
The college itself also looks like it was built starting in the sixties: it has the classic sculptural-concrete architecture, for example. It is a CÉGEP, a Collège d’eseignment général et professional (lit., “College of General and Professional Education”). I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but I believe that high school in Québec only goes to grade 11, and the CÉGEPs teach the the equivalent of grade 12, plus the first year of university. They also teach community-college programs. I’m sure actual Quebeckers will be along to clarify this.
So today is going a lot better than yesterday was.
“Yesterday night,” eh? Je pense que vous êtes déjà en train de perdre votre anglais.
Je suis en train de quelque chose…
I remember the day I first immersed a friend in a Frechman.
It sure was cold, & he was freezing to death.
I said: *This may smell bad, kid, but it’ll keep you warm until I get the shelter up… Ugh. And I thought they smelled bad on the outside. *
How did you cut your Frenchman open?
I’ve never been to Jonquière. Sounds like fun.
Sunspace, vous êtes toujours en train d’écrire en anglais!