PossumGirl

I hope you find someone for her, Christine. She sounds like a nice girl! PG

[quote user="Malcpreston"]Hello PossumGirl, Unfurtunatly I will have to try and get my money back from Yahoo as it will not connect to any number in the UK or let me talk to my Son in Egypt where as with SKYPE I have no problems, just using  standard speakers and microphone  or a standard headset with mike.  [/quote] Have you written them to ask for help?  I wonder why it won't let you call?  It's supposed to be international. PG

[quote user="Teamedup"]. I was just wondering how you knew that your accent and french was good IH . I have had people tell me that their accents were good and that their french is good and it has been worse than mine. I have also had people tell me that they muddled through, and their accents, I just know, are far far better than mine as is their french. And there have been those who 'know' too. So how do you 'know', please tell.   [/quote] I think you know if your French is good by how much you understand and how much others understand you. As to accent, I don't think we can really tell much about our own accents and have to rely on what others say.  It's like hearing your voice on a tape recording or seeing yourself on television; it's always a horrible shock! PG

Gay, this works in Firefox as well. PG

There's self-publishing and self-publishing. Doing it yourself with a company like Lightning Source which does POD (print on demand) is not the same as those vanity press companies that try to get you to pay for them to publish your books. However, you then become an actual publishing company and have to deal with publicity, selling, marketing, etc. PG

I suppose I should have made it clearer to begin with, Misseybut, however, I detest long links, and even using TinyURL, they still wind up looking ugly if the site doesn't have a nice name! PG

I've actually just done one, Kevin.  I'd be happy to talk to you about it if you email me or PM me.  I don't want to do anything that might be construed as advertising on the forum! PG

Hi Rich. I would try contacting the French-American Chamber of Commerce (I'm sure they have a branch in SF, I know they have one in L.A.) and asking if they have any suggestions. Why not contact the American University itself and ask them if they know of any scholarships, etc.? There's a great book called CULTURAL MISUNDERSTNDINGS by Raymonde Carroll that I highly recommend.  It should be available on Amazon.  It was written a few years ago, but I don't think the things it talks about have changed greatly. Good luck! PG

[quote user="missyesbut"]Would be nice if we could have the link to it for us to have a giggle too!...[/quote] The word "site" in my post contained the live link, Missyesbut.  Here it is again, though: http://tinyurl.com/7rq7 PG

[quote user="Bassman"]   Our neighbour rattles away to me in French(or is it Breton[:-))]) and I'm totally lost but when she's speaking to MOH (whose French is waay better than mine) I can understand quite a bit of it [:)] I'm improving but it seems when I learn something new it pushes something old out [8-)] [/quote] That's because you have to click on the little icon in your brain that empties out the "trash" folder!  Use it to get rid of the stuff you would MUCH rather forget! PG

[quote user="Suninfrance"]I have also now tried 3 times to purchase the full version of AVG but it appears their automated shopping system can't cope with it being paid for with an English bank card and being sent to France, so I arranged to have it sent to my sister-in-law in England, but I got the same message that they couldn't process my order.   [/quote] I had this same problem with PC-Cillin and finally gave up.  I think it's a security measure and the system gets confused because you're using a UK card with a French ISP, so it "assumes" that the card is stolen! PG

A friend sent me this site, and it was too good not to share! PG

Rats.  The image I tried to send didn't come through. There's a collier Lune available at French Animo that I really like.  Unlike the usual "cone" collar, this is an inflatable, pvc collar that fixes around the dogs neck and doesn't interfere in their vision or ability to walk through doors, etc.  It's a bit pricey though, 65€, which is why I haven't bought one yet.  But, I think it's a good idea if you've got the cash. PG

This doesn't surprise me in the least, as I've always felt that people who are more musically oriented seem to have an easier time perfecting their accents in a second or third language than those who are not. My husband lived in Los Angeles for 27 years, and although he speaks and writes English more than fluently, he has never lost a very pronounced French accent.  Most people tell me that although I have a small accent of "some kind," it is relatively minimal and not clearly an American accent.  JM is not particularly musical, can't carry a tune and sometimes can't tell two pieces of music apart.  I've always loved music and used to sing in a choir. Over the years, I've noticed distinct differences in the abilities of people pronounce things well, even when they don't have a great deal of vocabulary.  It's always the more "musical" ones who have the best accent, all other knowledge being equal. PG

James!  You are my hero! PG

Thanks, James.  I think I'll have to do that, because my feeble attempts are not working at all!!!  PG

I just took the other email address out completely and when I went to save, didn't get an error message.  So, maybe that has resolved things.  I'll post this and see. Thanks, Cathy! PG

That may be it, Cathy.  I was using a different email address in the "private email address" box than the one with which I registered on the site. I tried to change it back so that the two are the same, but it won't let me do that either.  So, maybe I've really messed things up? PG

I agree with Tresco.  My husband is French, but had lived in the U.S for 26 years before we moved back.  We moved from Los Angeles, so as you can see, it would have been pretty darned difficult to go back if we'd forgotten something! But, it all worked out fine.  As a returning French citizen, you will find that it's not that difficult to get back "into the system." Just try to relax and let it happen, the stress is far worse for you than anything that you might forget. PG

I've been trying to upload an avatar (and change a few settings in my user profile) for quite a while, but when I try to save the changes I get the following error page: Server Error in '/cs' Application. Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'UserId', table 'LCommunityServer.dbo.aspnet_Profile'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails. The statement has been terminated. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'UserId', table 'LCommunityServer.dbo.aspnet_Profile'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails. The statement has been terminated. Source Error: An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. At any rate, is it something I am doing wrong?  Although it seems pretty straightforward to me! Thanks. PG

You'll love Aix, Boxie. We're in the Aude and went into Carcassonne this morning where the temperature was around 17 at 11 am.  Granted, I'm cheap, but we haven't had our central heat on for the last two weeks, just a little bit of electric radiator in our bedroom for an hour before bed! PG

Could people stop posting pictures of the Shrub (George Bush), as it puts me off my food. Thank you. PG

John, I must admit it's been a long time since I read the first books in the series, so I don't have a clear view of the prose style in those.  Don't "tais toi" on my account!  It's rare to discuss books with folks these days. PG

Oh, good.  I have something to which I can aspire! PG

I'm always converting things from one country to another, so the currency converter is a must have link! PG