I must learn French quicker, I mustlearn French quicker,I...

Latest Articles

I must learn French quicker, I mustlearn French quicker,I...
Page Previous 1, 2

Downsizer Forum Index -> Downsizing abroad

Author

Message

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 07 8:02 pm Post subject:
Sorry. That last post of mine was to Anders. See above.

Anders

Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 317

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 07 5:19 pm Post subject:
Simon ... Yup, we are running round in London getting stressed. Hmmmm, I know where I'd like to be ....... though we are now close to getting an allotment here. At last. We had a good August in France though and it was great meeting up with some downsizers. We'll have to do it again. Let us know about any meets etc. Cheers Anders

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 07 6:43 am Post subject: Re: I must learn French quicker, I mustlearn French quicker,

madmonk wrote:

Wedding anniversary yesterday ,so went out for a nice meal, understood most of the menu but unsure of other bits, so went for the pork, the dish was called "croustillant de pied de porc" served with pureed potatoes, taste very nice, texture tender but unusual, anyway cleared my plate, got home and decided to do a quick translation, Oops I had apparently eaten "crusty foot of pig"

and yes I would eat it again, but still wondering what I will get next time if my French doesn't improve.

We were in a restuarant last week-end with non french speaking friends and what was on the menu - yep, "croustillant de pied de porc" - they were dead impressed that I could translate it although I am not sure thay actually believed me. As for trying it I have to say I chickened out because it was also served with "Langue". I do not do tongue!! In retrospect maybe I should have been more brave (but I did have a fantastic fish dinner

) And the puddigs - they were to die for..........

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 07 4:32 pm Post subject:

One obvious suggestion for the true beginner is indeed to start with menus.

However, unless one is into restaurants in a big way, it might be more practical, and more often practiced to start with one's own shopping.
Discovering, and using and learning, the right words for the specific things you want. Sure supermarkets breed laziness here, but how nice to be able to ask "Where is the honey?" for example.
Armed with a few phrases (where is, do you have, how much is, etc) and the words for the things you use {plus an understanding of likely simple answers - up, down, left, right, in front, behind, numbers, days of the week, months, etc} you have a framework to build on ...

Here's a question: do your locals (particularly the more senior ones) still talk about money/prices in terms of old francs (not the ones replaced by the Euro, but the ones that deGaulle rationalised into non-existence)?
Vingt mille 'balles' is 20 new francs, so about �2, say �3 ... confuses the hell out of me!

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Downsizing abroad	All times are GMT Page Previous 1, 2
Page 2 of 2

View Latest Posts