Awarded

Last night was the awards night at school. I got two certificates and a medallion for taking the National French Test and getting 6th in the state and 8th in the nation.

Music?

I asked Madame if I could borrow her french cds because I can't find anything good at Borders she said to call her over the summer and I could come over and she'd make me copies. Sounds good to moi.

The poem in the last post is the one from the french text book. I'm not going to translate it though actually I think it would be okay translated (not like the other one I posted which definitely isn't as good translated) but I'm too lazy to do it. It would be good practice if I'm going to be a french translator but like I said, I'm too lazy.

...I just found this site that has some different French poets who are living. It has examples of their poetry in french with the english translation next to it.

France-Poetry International Web

René Philombe "L'homme qui te ressemble"

Click Here for my English Translation


L'homme qui te ressemble
J'ai frappé à ta porte
J'ai frappé à ton coeur
pour avoir bon lit
pour avoir bon feu
pourquoi me repousser?
Ouvre-moi mon frère!...

Pourquoi me demander
si je suis d'Afrique
si je suis d'Amerique
si je suis d'Asie
si je suis d'Europe?
Ouvre-moi mon frère!...

Pourquoi me demander
la longueur de mon nez
l'épaisseur de ma bouche
la couleur de ma peau
et le nom de mes dieux?
Ouvre-moi mon frère!...

Je ne suis pas un noir
je ne suis pas un reouge
je ne suis pas un blanc
mais je ne suis qu'un homme
Ouvre-moi mon frère!...

Ouvre-moi ta porte
OUvre-moi ton coeur
car je suis un homme
l'homme de tous les temps
l'homme de tous les cieux
l'homme qui te ressemble!...

Hooray!

Okay so I got a letter from Kent State today. I kept it folded and looked at like the first three words it said "we are pleased..." so I know I'd been accepted. This means that I get to take Russian next year!! I have to sign up for my class, but first I have to go back up to Kent and get my ID card. School's almost done. It's a good thing because I'm ready to be done. It's a bad thing though because that means no more French or Spanish for a few months. Oh that reminds me, We had to do projects in French class. Everyone had to study four things. My four things were: Le Sénégal, La Fête des Rois, Grasse et l'industrie de parfum, and Jean Lafitte. I was kind of nervous though I don't know why. Then I misspronounced the famous perfume, Channel No. 5. It's definitely not pronounced like T.V. "Channel" number 5. I felt really retarded but there was nothing I could do but laugh. My mom always says that no one ever died of embarrassment. Anyway. I've got some cool links that go along with what I had to talk about some are in English, some are in French. I also found this nifty poem in the back of my French book but I didn't bring it home so I can't post it yet. Okay, Enough distraction. On to THE LINKS!

Crime Library-Jean Lafitte This site has a complete biography on the lovable pirate.

FAQ du protestantismeA little about La Fête des Rois (also called Epiphanie) The coolest thing about this site is the excerpt about the three kings from the gospel of Matthew In french!

Virtual Visit to Gorée Island Gorée is an island in Sénégal where slaves were kept before being shipped off. This site has a nifty virtual tour of a slave house. They have a photo tour and a ten minute video tour(cool). (you need realplayer for the movie)

Enchanted Learning-French This site has nothing to do with my French Project but it's neat. It has different pages that you can print out and color and practice your french with (and I mean a bunch of pages) Even if your older (like sixteen *cough cough*) It's worthwile to color if it's for a good cause like learning french! :-P

That's all I've got for now and when I bring my French book home for the weekend, I'll post that cool poem from it here.

Post Secondary

I'm hoping to be accepted at Kent State for Postsecondary which is where I take a couple of college classes and get both college and high school credit for it. If I do get accepted, I want to take a language class but I don't know which one to take, Kent has like ten or fifteen languages!!

On the national French test, I got sixth in the state.Shana, another girl who took it got first. She only missed two!

Russian stopped. It was rather discouraging. we only had three showing up regularly and it felt like we weren't learning anything.

On the other hand, I've been having fun with french. I've been going to Yahoo France and Amazon France and looking at all the interesting things. Tomorrow we have a test in french and then we're doing a unit all about culture. I can't wait!!!

Chatting

I'm having lots of french fun lately. My friend Joye and I have been speaking french like all the time the past week. It's really amusing. Today we had a conversation about boys. Cheap entertainment.

I live in...

Aleta and I had an entire conversation in French yesterday. It was about coats. We talked about how I was cold outside because I didn't have a raincoat or a regular coat. Aleta was like "I don't have a raincoat, I have a coat." It was really entertaining. Yesterday in class, We started a unit on the house. I need to go thorugh and write all the french words on duct tape and stick them on things like the 'fridge. Yeah, I know I have no life. Wanna know how much of a life I don't have? Here you go.

J'habite dans une boite

J'habite dans une boite dans le jardin.


The first one means I live in a box The second one means I live in a box in the garden. Both of these phrases will be put in the "GTUP" Which by the way there is a link at the bottom of the page on the left that says places. Under it, is a link to the Guide to Useful Phrases. I just thought I'd let you know incase you want to get there fairly easily.

In Russian yesterday, We got lists of new vocab. Lots of clothing! It's a hard language because they don't use the same alphabet we do. Grr... Aleta is thinking about dropping Russian. I don't want her to!!!

Spanish phrases that I learned the other day that are pretty interesting:

En su sueños

Puedo ir al baño?


The first means In your dreams. The second one means Can I go to the bathroom? I'm thinking I should really start a guide to useful Spanish phrases but I learn so few of them that it doesn't seem worth it. French is a different story. I learn an interesting phrase in that class almost every day! (touts les jours)

Oh and while I'm thinking of it. Last night, I had been thinking about French a lot and I started singing this song from Annie get your gun A play I was in a few years ago. What was scary about it was I was singing in English but for some reason my head was still in French Mode so every time I came to a phrase I knew in French, I would sing it in French. Rather scary, non?

Essay En Français and Two Poems

OOh I had so much fun in French on Friday. I dislike how we always have to write out sentences that are basically what the language books tell us to write. On Friday, we got to write Essays!! It was exciting. Except that I didn't get done which made me sad. It takes me a long time to write essays in French. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it's because I have to think about otherways to say what I want to say becuse I don't always know how to say it En Français. When I get it back, I'll post it.

I had a revelation on Thursday night. Why spend three or four dollars on a deck of playing cards when you can buy one for 98 cents and customize it yourself? That's what I did. I had a deck of playing cards and I took a permanent marker and wrote "Les Cartes Français" on the back of each one. On the front of each card, I'm putting a french phrase. They're rather amusing. I've also named each Jack after one of the Three Musketeers. Which by the way I'm supposed to be reading in french but I haven't actually started yet. I got distracted what with OGT and everything. (I'm very glad that's over by the way!)

The other day I wanted to post something new in my AIM profile. I wrote a random poem and I thought I'd post it here. Except be forewarned. This poem is ©2005 Abigail.

I close my eyes,
I'm far away
Another time,
Another place
Away from troubles
You have brought me
You don't exsist here
Never will

Okay so that's it. Not one of my better ones. I still think My best poem I've yet written is Rain. I haven't posted it here though. *digs through pile of old papers* Ah! here it is! I suppose that I'll post it. I mean I know this is a language blog, but English is a language and besides, poems pertain to language. If you have a problem with it, too bad. It's my blog! *evil laughter* Okay, seriously. Here you go. Rain

document.write('');Rain,
Falls.
Gently,
From the trees.
Upon,
My upturned face.
Cooling,
My anger.
Cleansing,
My hate.
Part,
Has gone with you.
Never,
Will it return.
Hearts,
Will scar over.
Wounds,
Close forever.
Though,
One piece will always be missing.
One,
Simple piece.
Tears,
Run down my cheeks.
Rain,
Falls.


(Both poems contained in this entry are © 2005, Abigail)

Post Test Report

It was hard but wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Listening was hard. There was a part where we had to figure out which picture went with the conversation, Then there was a part where I had to choose which phrase best completed the conversation. The hardest part was the listening passages. There were two passages and afterwards there were questions. HARD HARD HARD!!! The reading was fairly easy. There was a story that We had to fill in the blanks for. Grammer type stuff. Then there was a ticket, a birth announcement, and an advertisement. All with questions following. It wasn't that bad.

In Russian yesterday, we worked on counting. We also went over the greeting people vocabulary. Shields told us that maybe next time we meet, we'll start a new lesson. We aren't meeting next week because Shields has a meeting.

Ohio Graduation Test next week.

In French we've been learning how to say things like "I wash myself" Since, I can't brush my teeth without thinking: "Je me brosse les dents avec une brosse au dents et du dentifrice"

I've added more to the "Guide to Useful French Phrases." Which from here on out to save typing time will be called GUF.

TOMORROW DUN DUN DUN *scary music*

I'm taking the National French Test tomorrow. Last time I posted, I updated the Guide to Useful French Phrases and I have more to add but I can't right now because I have to get off.

Poem by Jacques Prévert

Okay so not last week at the french thing because I wasn't there, but the week before we worked on listening and reading. There was a poem in the packet that we didn't work on. I wanted to read it though and last night I dug it out and read it. It's really sad. It's by Jacques Prévert and it called Déjeuner du matin Here it is.

Déjeuner du matin
By: Jacques Prévert

Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mist le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuiller
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et it a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler
Il a allumé une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder
Il s'est levé
Il a mis son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis son manteau de pluie
Parce qu'il pleuvait
Et it est parti
Sous la pluie
Sans une parole
Sans me regarder
Et moi, J'ai pris ma tête
Dans ma main
Et j'ai pleuré.

Isn't that sad? Okay, sorry if you can't read it. Get a dictionary. Translating to English doesn't do it justice. It has to stay in FRECH!! STAY! Seriously. I'm okay. I think I should memorize this. I kind of feel for the girl.

In Russian yesterday, We learned how to say I'm in (insert place here) and I live in (insert place here) Russian is so much fun! Jon-Michael and I have been speaking it this morning.

OOh I almost forgot. On Friday (last) Madame set this whole bag of french books infront of me! I 'bout fell over!! YAYAYAYAYAyA!!!!! It made me so happy! and THEN, she let me borrow ALL of them!! WHEEEEE! I'm on my second one. I read an abridged version of Journey to the center of the earth and now I'm reading another short one called "The ghost of white lake" YAYAYAYAYA! Sorry, I'm just really excited. I'm not excited about the National French Test though. It's next week. On the 9th. I'm going to do bad on the grammer part. Grammer is not my strong suit.

Abigail's Guide to 'Useful' French Phrases

C'est ma faut-It's my fault

N'est-ce pas?- Isn't it?

Montrez-moi où sont les toilettes s'il vous plaît!-Show me where the bathrooms are please!

Ne ma touche pas!-Don't touch me!

Les fesses- In a word, butt. We've been learning body parts

Une fessée- a spanking

Excusez-moi Madame, mais ton chien a mangé mon mari!- Excuse me madam, but you dog has eaten my husband!

La foire- The fair

Je donee à manger aux chèvres-I feed the goats

Pourquoi pas?- Why not?

Ce gratte!- It itches!

J'habite dans une boite- I live in a box

J'habite dans une boite dans le jardin.-I live in a box in the garden.

Pauvre bébé!- Poor baby


*Note* This will be updated as I learn more 'useful' french pharases.

Uh...*is lost*

We didn't have Russian this week. It's been a while since I've written so I have no idea what the last thing I wrote about was.

*checks*
Ah yes. The Spanish presentation. Patricia and I did fine. We had to go first which was't fun but it was alright. We got our fifteen points. hooray! *rolls eyes*

I've got Afterschool French this week. Jon-Michael is sitting here next to me Writing on his blog in spanish. (I'm at school.) It makes me feel like maybe I should be writing in french. This is after all a language blog. Or it's supposed to be.

In spanish today I learned about conjugating the verb juegar. Juego con tu hermano I play with your brother. Tu hermano es guapo! Your brother is good looking... *wink wink* No. I'm not really like that. *sigh* I'm really just sitting here killing time. My English project won't print out.

We had to create a brochure about a career that we'd like to go into. Mine was on Anthropology. I wrote a bit of information and used a bunch of pictures. Okay since I'm not doing anything else I could make that 'useful' french phrase guide I've been meaning to do... *ponders*

Spanish Performance

So on Friday in Spanish class, we have to give a performance thingy. We have to recite a telephone conversation. (we had to write it too.) My partener is named Patricia. Here's our performance:

Abigail: Hola?
Patricia: Hola, Quien es?
Abigail: Soy Elena
Patricia: Como estas?
Abigail: Estory enferma
Patricia: Que Lastima!
Abigail: Como estas?
Patricia: Estoy emocionada
Abigail: Pour qué?
Patricia: porque voy al concierto
Abigail: Que chevere!
Patricia: Te gustaria ir al concierto?
Abigail: Claro que si! Cuando?
Patricia: Manana a las cuatro
Abigail: Bien!
Patricia: Adios!
Abigail: Hasta manana!

I should really work on memorizing it. But at the moment I really don't feel like it! My grandma's in the hospital.

Jon-Michael and I practiced our Russian all during homeroom. It was fun to actually be able to say a few things like "straasveetsya" which is the best I can do phonetically. It means hello. We also practiced asking each other what our names were and how we were. It was rather amusing actually, not at all boring. Yay! it's fun to speak Russian because it sounds so cool. Hello is my favorite word to say other than Yabloko (apple) because it sounds the most Russian. Jon-Michael and I also got to learn how to write our names in Russian. YAY!

I really do need to post my list of "useful" French phrases. It seems like I get more and more everyday. Maybe I'll do that here in a minute. Sounds like something good. Though I really should work on chemistry...Nah!

Russian Wednesday(yay), Catching Up, and HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

ick ick ick! Okay so My grandma's been having problem's and I haven't been able to get online much so the blog is seriously behind. I still havn't gotten into the template and added Mrs. McLaughlin to the people section.

6 in Russian today. We began to learn such useful (I'm being serious about this useful) phrases as: hello, good-bye, what's your name? and How are you? I would type them here because 1. I don't have a Russian font and 2. I don't want anyone making fun of me writing them phonetically in english. So sorry. Maybe in the future I'll work with it but for now, you just have to hear about it in English.

I've begun to collect a list of "Useful" French Phrases. When I get a chance which may be tomorrow because I don't have to stay afterschool for once, I'll be posting them. I'll periodically add to them either in the same entry or I'll just make separate entries. I'm not sure yet.

"Useful" Spanish Phrase of the Day: Deje un mensaje despues del tono Leave a message after the tone.

Estoy Enferma

Estoy enferma

Finally I learned how to say something cool in Spanish class. I actually learned it Thursday but forgot to post it in the blog! It means "I'm sick" I was happy to learn it because I've had a cold for the past couple of weeks.

I have to write a persuasive essay for McLaughlin. I have no idea what my topic is going to be either. We had to write a thesis statement so I made up a really bad one that's not going to be what I actually use.

The Spanish news is that Friday I freaked everyone out again (or was it thursday?... No, friday) we always have to make flashcards with our new vocabulary after we take a test so thursday night I did but I also had to type them up and IM them to a friend who had forgotten his book. Therefore, I actually wrote the words twice. Usually I can remember quite a few words just by doing the flashcards but Friday I was remembering them really well and of course all the people in the *cough cough*LD*cough cough* spanish class started freaking out they were all like "what did you do go and study 'till four in the morining." Well obviously they think I don't have a life. For their information I do and I can't help it that Language is my gift. So yeah I'm telling them "no I don't" and the whole time I'm thinking "Just shut up you idiots.." It's not that I was embarrassed I actually kind of enjoyed the attention. Yet in a way it's kind of annoying... ah well. I've got to get off and let my mom on so g'night all....

Russian (yay) Yesterday and English Teacher

So we had Russian after school yesterday. This week there were only four people as opposed to last time's 15. Ah well. We practeced writing the letters of the alphabet and we also practiced writing words to help us with our cursive. That's about it.

I have made an executive descision. I'm including English. I can't not include it anymore. (Yes, I know that's a double negative.) Here's why... My hobbie in English class is that whenever we have a test with short answers, I always pick the short answer where I can write an opinion. That way, I can say whatever I want and get points for it just so long as I support my answer. I keep doing it for one reason... Reaction. Mrs. McLaughlin always writes some rather interesting comments on my short answer answers. Today however, I got the best one of all, and I actually wrote something halfway decent. So here it is. The question is underlined, my answer is in regular font and her comment is in italics. Enjoy!

Do you think Bradbury is too pessimistic about technology? Support your opinion with details from [The Pedestrian] and from the real world.

No because I can see his point. In the story, it talks about how everyone sits at home watching something similar to television. No one does anything else. I can definitely see where he's coming from because one thing people in the real world like to do is sit around and watch T.V. More people watch T.V. than read. It's rather scary if you think about it.
Yes! Also scary is how they're in denial about it! Scarier-the books on the best-seller list are mostly garbage!

So there you have it. Personally, I found it all quite funny and so even though this is mostly experiences with foreign language, I have to talk about English just because of this. Whenever I get a new one, I'll post it and when I find the others that I did, I will post them too! whoo hoo! Cheap entertainment!

Reviews:Movies:La Vita è Bella

La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful)
Directed By: Roberto Benigni
Staring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
Languages: Italian, English Subtitles, German (German not subtitled)


This movie is absolutly wonderful! Guido Orefice usues humor and surprise to court and eventually marry the beautiful Dora. Five years later they have a son and the Nazi's have taken power. Guido and his family are taken to a concentration camp. There, Guido tries to comfort his son by telling him they are playing a game.
Essentially this movie holds the theme of sarcifice. It does a good job of telling about the horrors of the holocaust without getting to violent. I know, I know, The Holocaust was a terrible event. I've read. But still this movie does a good job. I don't think that blood is usually neccesary. Much can be left up to the imagination. Though this story isn't really about the son, more about Guido, it tells about the Holocaust from the son's point of view.
Overall Fluency Rating: 5

Weeked

So, over the weekend I had some interesting things happen. First off, Saturday evening my Mom, Dad, and I went to my brother's house to eat, hang out, and watch movies. One of the movies we watched was one I've been wanting to see... Life is Beautiful. IT WAS REALLY GOOD! It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me feel warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how good it was. I'll be posting the review because it's in italian.

Next fall, I'm planning on doing post-secondary. Which is when I go to college for free and get both high school and college credit. I'm planning on attending Kent State. My problem however, was that I can't access the online catalog from my computer. So I went with mom to work yesterday and got on the computer there and accessed the catalog. RUSSIAN! Kent state has RUSSIAN! They also have ITALIAN!! And French, and Spanish and Japanese. I'm going to attempt to either take Russian or Italian next year! Yay!

Fun in Study Hall

During exam week, we have 3 exams a day and we have study halls during the lunch periods which are 4/5 6/7 and 8/9. the people who have lunch go to lunch and everyone who has a class one of those periods goes to the class to do nothing. 8/9 is when I usually have French. Now that you know all of that, here's the story.

Madame wants us to do something productive while we're in study hall in her room. She had some games out (in french of course) that I assume were out because AP is in there the period before us. So my friend Joye and I started looking at a game called 'fish.' "Poisson' in french. We asked Madame if we could play and she said yes just so long as we played it in french. Joye, me and two or three other girls spent the period going back and forth with "donne-moi tout les cartes de..." and then inserting the name such as "René Requin" It was actually really fun. Not only did we ask those things but we threw in other words here and there. Le salle bête when someone stole three of the four cards you needed. Zut when the same thing happened. Yup. Good times. Don't know when or if we'll be able to do it again. But it was fun!