![\"\u201cS.O.S\u2026](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/files\/2015\/12\/ABORN-photo.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cS.O.S\u2026 S.O.S\u2026. I DON\u2019T UNDERSTAND!\u201d \u201cCAN YOU PLEASE USE A RICHER VOCABULARY WITH MORE PRECISE TERMS?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n
It would be impossible to say how many new words I\u2019ve learned this semester. Some words are harder to learn, like the word for fulfilling, and others easier because of their utility, like corkscrew. Over the past four months I\u2019ve tried to learn as many new words and expressions as possible, but learning new words is more than studying a vocabulary list.<\/p>\n
A distinction between oral and written expression characterizes the French language. Writing follows the rules of formal language, but in conversation almost anything goes. Words and expressions can be oriented to a specific context or even be so familiar that they don\u2019t have an established spelling. As a French learner, these nuances provide plenty of opportunity to make mistakes. For example, I understood the meaning of the phrase \u201cc\u2019estmarrant\u201d correctly \u2013 it means that something is funny. However, a misunderstanding of the pronunciation led me to believe they were saying \u201cc\u2019estmarron\u201d which directly translates to \u00ab\u00a0it\u2019s brown\u00a0\u00bb. Another expression that I heard incorrectly is \u201c\u00e0 un moment donn\u00e9\u201d which means at a given moment or at some time. I had understood \u201c\u00e0 moment du nez\u201d which would mean at a moment of nose, a realization I came to quite abruptly when my French friend laughed at me as I tried out my new expression.<\/p>\n
While \u00ab\u00a0\u00e0 unmoment donn\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb is an established expression, I also discovered a whole slew of interesting slang words. My favorite expression I learned is \u201cchipote,\u201d a word that was spelled four different ways for me by four different French. I first heard the expression when my theater professor was talking about politicians, which in French roughly translates to \u201cpolitical men.\u201d A student offered that the professor might say instead \u201cpolitical men and women\u201d to which another student yelled \u201coh you, you chipotes\u201d. The closest expression we have to this expression would be \u201coh you\u2019re splitting hairs\u201d and has become quite useful for me.<\/p>\n
The French also borrow English expressions. For them, \u201cshotgun\u201d designates any action first come, first-served. For example, a list with limited spaces to go on a trip would say that the spaces would be \u201cdistributed by shotgun.\u201d In this case, the French understood the idea of the word shotgun when applied to a seat in a car as we use it, and they applied this meaning to other contexts.<\/p>\n
In all, despite my mistakes, I\u2019m leaving France with an enriched informal and formal vocabulary that I can pull out \u201c\u00e0 un moment donn\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
– Mariette Aborn It would be impossible to say how many new words I\u2019ve learned this semester. Some words are harder to learn, like the word for fulfilling, and others easier because of their utility, like corkscrew. Over the past four months I\u2019ve tried to learn as many new words and expressions as possible, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4847,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-la-une-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}