Long Weekend

[inulro]

The non-UKers among you may not be aware that this has been our "late summer bank holiday".

I've wasted it by doing very little, but the whole country traditionally becomes a mess of traffic jams, maintenance on roads & train lines, and chaos of biblical proportions at airports on this holiday, so I tend to do the bunker mentality thing. It's at times like this I especially wish I had a job where I could work bank holidays & take the day off when nobody else is travelling at another date.

At some point I was bored & decided to check out "craigslist", which I've seen referenced all over the place. To my agony, I discovered a 2-bedroom apartment on Pearson Ave (right of Roncesvalles at Queen, ie exactly where I want to live) for rent. Also a good proportion of the local admin jobs posted were bilingual ones.

So, instead of making unrealistic plans to learn obscure languages for the hell of it, I'm thinking that if my long term plans involve returning to Canada, I should probably expend that energy on improving my French. (Also, going to France frequently to practice is in no way a hardship). I know that I probably don't have to worry about jobs, but a bilingual job would be neat, and something I've not done before.

I also had time to examine my finances, and confirmed that my savings account is looking rather small and pathetic & I made a rather paltry contribution this month. I really need to concentrate on saving more.

Oh, and most importantly - one more day left at the evil job!

Comments

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

You already speak French, so this is probably no good to you, but I've just bought the Spanish book and CD in the 'Teach Yourself' range and it's really good. The Husband speaks Spanish, and he says it's a really good course, and I'm picking stuff up fairly quickly. I don't know if the French one would be as useful for you.

That said, I'm on the beginner's course, whereas I know TY also do books of business Spanish, Spanish grammar and so on, so they may well do the same for French.

[rjshook.livejournal.com]

I was somewhat surprised by the rail engineering works when I was in England at Easter. I guess it does make sense though.

It is funny you mention that apartment on Queen street. I am trying to remember which street is Roncesvalles but a friend of mine lived around there for a while. Right on Queen above a shop. I am pretty sure she checks out Craigslist from time to time too. Small world.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Jason used that one to learn French before we went last year, and I had a look through & it looked really good. I therefore bought the same one for Portuguese and although it's set up well, I just don't get along with Portuguese.

My French used to be quite fluent but now I have no idea what level I'm at. Probably reading French children's/young people's books would help.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

There's a shop in Bath that sells French magazines and newspapers, so if you can force yourself to face French Marie Claire or Elle, I can get one for you and bung it in the post.

I occasionally buy German papers to keep my Deutsch ticking over :)

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I don't think I understand half of Marie Claire or Elle in english.

I did just realize that "Le Monde" must have a web site. I bought a copy while we were in France, and while it's not easy, it's written in such proper textbook French that I found it relatively easy to read.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Cosmo's easy in German - all the articles are about 'orgasmus', so even if you don't speak German, you know exactly what is being said...

The BBC also does foreign-language stuff, both for learners and as translations of their main site. Although, bizarrely, for News In 43 Languages 'Francais' is under Africa. And 'Espanol' isn't there at all, despite being one of the most widely-spoken on the planet. Odd.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. I remember looking for Portuguese resources at the bbc and not finding any, but that was as far as I got. I suspect there's a lot more French resources out there in general.