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my wild and crazy plan (well, one of them)
Nov. 5th, 2010 09:28 amIn a couple of years-- when Sophia is a little bigger, but still a child-- Rich and I plan to take a tourist-y trip to Europe, and see the sights of, oh, Paris and Berlin probably.
Rich studied French in high school, but hasn't kept it up. I studied German in high school, but I suck at languages.
Now, since neither of us is fluent in either of the relevant languages, we really should bring a German phrase book and a French phrase book on the trip. Here's my wild idea: rather than bring 2 phrase books, bring 1 book that combines both: a French phrase book for German speakers, or a German phrase book for French speakers.
I figure that by the time we go on the trip, I can master recognition of all the German phrases in the book, making it perfectly useful as a French phrase book. And for looking up the German, if I have recognition memory of the needed phrase, I don't need any stinkin' English to help me find it. I'll have to brush up on my French well enough to recognize the chapter and section headings, though; oh, the hardship! :) (I'm assuming that we are more likely to get our hands on a phrase book intended for a Francophone audience, than the reverse, 'cause we could easily do a quick weekend shopping trip in Quebec sometime.)
The inspiration of this idea comes from an ex-boyfriend of my mother's, a really brilliant fellow, who decided, for efficiency, to learn French and Russian at the same time. He would generally consult his French-Russian dictionary as much as possible. That way when he learned a new meaning, it would be unmoored from his knowledge of either English or Urdu.
To-do: weekend road trip to Quebec? I have been to Montreal a couple of times, and I know what to do for fun there, but how about Quebec City? If we went to Quebec City we could stay in the hotel where, supposedly, Santol the dog lives (if you believe everything you read). Is there kid-friendly tourist fun in Quebec City? (Perhaps not immediately. This is not the time of year in which I feel particularly inclined to head north.)
Rich studied French in high school, but hasn't kept it up. I studied German in high school, but I suck at languages.
Now, since neither of us is fluent in either of the relevant languages, we really should bring a German phrase book and a French phrase book on the trip. Here's my wild idea: rather than bring 2 phrase books, bring 1 book that combines both: a French phrase book for German speakers, or a German phrase book for French speakers.
I figure that by the time we go on the trip, I can master recognition of all the German phrases in the book, making it perfectly useful as a French phrase book. And for looking up the German, if I have recognition memory of the needed phrase, I don't need any stinkin' English to help me find it. I'll have to brush up on my French well enough to recognize the chapter and section headings, though; oh, the hardship! :) (I'm assuming that we are more likely to get our hands on a phrase book intended for a Francophone audience, than the reverse, 'cause we could easily do a quick weekend shopping trip in Quebec sometime.)
The inspiration of this idea comes from an ex-boyfriend of my mother's, a really brilliant fellow, who decided, for efficiency, to learn French and Russian at the same time. He would generally consult his French-Russian dictionary as much as possible. That way when he learned a new meaning, it would be unmoored from his knowledge of either English or Urdu.
To-do: weekend road trip to Quebec? I have been to Montreal a couple of times, and I know what to do for fun there, but how about Quebec City? If we went to Quebec City we could stay in the hotel where, supposedly, Santol the dog lives (if you believe everything you read). Is there kid-friendly tourist fun in Quebec City? (Perhaps not immediately. This is not the time of year in which I feel particularly inclined to head north.)
