Our group loved any movie with John Cusack in it. One we watched more than once was called Better Off Dead. It's probably been 20 years since I last watched it. It definitely didn't win any Oscars. In a quick nutshell it's about a high school boy who gets dumped by his girlfriend and he thinks his life is over. He ends up falling for a French exchange student who just moved to town.
The guy's mom is a bit out of touch with the real world. They have the exchange student over one night for supper and the mom wants to make an authentic French meal. It consisted of french bread, french fries and french dressing. Classic.
What in the world would cause me to think of that and share that here? It was brought to my memory yesterday. Why?
What in the world would cause me to think of that and share that here? It was brought to my memory yesterday. Why?
Bronwyn had her first French class yesterday afternoon. Why take French? Because they speak French in Rwanda. Not as the primary, but as a secondary language. The primary language is Kinyarwanda. She started reading a Kinyarwanda book for beginners online because she thought she might be able to pick up a few things before she arrived in Rwanda. The first couple of paragraphs talked of the importance of learning the language with an African. A native speaker. Not on your on or with someone who can speak it, but is not African. This book said variations of pitch of voice as well as length of syllables will completely change the meaning of a word.
Since we did not have a native speaker of Kinyarwanda on hand, she is taking an intensive French language course this month to hopefully get some general basics down so that she can possibly understand some things or be able to briefly converse when she gets to Rwanda. She will then try to pick up as much of Kinyarwanda after she gets there.
Her language teacher only speaks in French. No introductions in Portuguese. No directions in Portuguese, nothing. Only French. Bronwyn loved it.
Almost two hours into her class we got a text message on our cell phone from Bronwyn.
It said, "I'm at the bathroom. One says elle and one says lui. Which one do I go in?"
We laughed. You are probably laughing.
She didn't have any help and had to make a decision.
We took a guess and got it right.
Care to take a guess? (without cheating on google)
6 comments:
In her defense, those bathrooms are very weird and it's hard to know!
God bless you,
Grace.
"lui". i better get this right or my dad is going to have a fit!
As a French speaker, the whole ele vs. elle thing was really hard for me to keep straight when I first learned Portuguese.
We just had the missionary conference. Wish you guys could have come! It'll be in Belo Horizonte next year.
Let me just say that I did cheat on google (and would have used my phone to do so if I'd been in Bronwyn's situation), and, on the translator I used (first one that came up), both words translated as "it." So much for cheating.
But I would've guessed elle - based solely on the fact that I hope Elle Macpherson's parents wouldn't have given her a name that means boy.
Grace.....since you go to the same school and didn't warn Bronwyn, does that mean you went into the boys bathroom?
Sascha.....Your dad is going to have a fit.
Valerie.....Even though I don't know French, I thought the same thing with the ele when Bronwyn sent us the message. Kind of confusing.
Callie.....Benay had the same mindset as you but she thought of Elle magazine. Thanks, by the way, for confessing that you cheated.......you are forgiven but disqualified from the grand prize drawing.
Post a Comment