odile

My niece is very shy and wouldn't try to speak French when staying with us in Switzerland. As she loves animals, we told her our 2 cats and 1 dog don;t understand English at all, so she would have to try with them. the next morning I came downstairs and could here talking in the kitchen. I stopped and listened. She was chatting away with Gatsby, our dog, best she could. I didn;t comment - after breakfast she bombarded me with questions in English :how do you say 'sit', how do you say 'roll over', and so on. For 2 weeks she got more and more confident talking to the animals, and acquired quite a lot of vocab. so maybe a good idea to adopt a French stray dog and try this method? We hope that next time she comes she will start talking to us too!

Thanks Katie -it's been an anus horribilis so far!

piles Pierre! or batteries-    One French student on exchange with my school went to a shop to buy batteries for his camera and asked in his best English, perfect pronunciation 'have you got any piles' couldn;t understand why the shop owner wasn't very pleased!

avec de la confiture de MA bonne maman, pas l'autre. Actually it wasn't that bad.

forgot to stay he has already got a 'p'tite nana' at nursery- one year older than him, who kisses him constantly. He doesn;t complain!

I love being a grannie! and I don't care about being called 'grannie'. Some of my friends hate it and want to be called by their first name, or some modern new invented name. My daughters always called my parents 'grand-papa + grand maman' (still do..) And of course my little grandson, 2 + 3 months, is the best, loveliest, brightest++++ (not that I am biaised or anything. By the way I'm in my late 50s (sp error), not my large 50s!!

why has this thread been locked?

If you say about a man 'il est de mauvaise humeur- il doit etre en manque'!     it means he is grumpy because he ins't getting any!

chessfou, you should read 'comme un roman' by Daniel Pennac (1992) - it's a beautiful book which illustrates how force feeding reading and 'education' to children, especially a la Frecnh style (=lots of rote learning without thinking or analysing) can be the best way to put them off both! it's the story of a teacher children love and who makes children dream, have fun and learn. the teacher is slated by the 'inspectrice' for not sticking to the French style curriculum. A fantastic read.

wow, what dedication! But htat's a sure way to make quick progress. Bravo.

wish us luck - my dad has just gone into an old peoples home (aged 96 next week) - so we have to empty his house (cellar, attic, and all, and he is a hoarder!), and possibly move from UK to Franche-Comte at the same time. Fortunately we have a huge empty barn there to store things!

Frenchie, it's great being a nana! I was a nana in France in the 60s, and now I am a nana in the UK in my lage 50s!

my daughter came from London to Leics a few days after baby was born, so I could look after them. Stopped on motorway service station where babyfeeding area was advertised. this turned out to be a toilet with a changing station. So we went to cafe area, where another babyfeeding station was advertised- it was a microwave! We found a little corner for her to feed- but the childrens area was next to smoking area. No screen, no nothing. I wrote to the chain- no reply! Shame. If there was a drug which could strengthen a babys immunity and help fight disease, and that would help young mums lose weight at the same time - everybody would want it on the NHS. We really need to support mums more.

Nicos,  in France yes! In my experience people just love it when you try, and love you even better when you make them laugh.

how did it go Nectarine? Where are those boxes now? I bet you won;t have time to reply to tell us how you are settling down. some of us are still trying to sell our houses in the UK .... so wish us luck. At least you got there, hopefully! By the way, do you know the Southern French word for nectarine?  Un brugnon.  Salutations

meuf is verlan for femme-   verlan being backward slang, where words are said (obviously) backwards. O riginally used by young people in 'difficult' areas, sometime around the 70s (?). Since words used are often slang the right way round, it makes it even more difficult to 'get'! une gnolba  une bagnole  une voiture! Once you have got a good grasp of a language - the hardest thing is to sort out the 'register', what is suitable when and where - and slang, popular, regional, normal and formal. I had to do it 'tother' way round, and it took me ages, and a few very embarrasing situations along the way! |Very posh black tie dinner at the Grand, and somebody asked me how I was. As I was trying to do degree + bring up kids, decorate house, do up garden. etc, etc - I replied 'fine but I am totally knackered' - It was in the early 80s, and it certainly got a few looks until somebody explained 'it's OK, she if Swiss you know!.

start taking Vitamin B complex about 5 days before you go - somehow they all hate the smell (it might make your pee smell a bit weird- so don't worry if you notice that!)

If I were you, I would take it back to where I bought it, with a big smile, and explain my mistake - you never know they might take pity on you! Soggy semolina, nope!

Polremy - currently reading 'The story of French' by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow/  Portico  ISBN 978-1-905798-19-3 Chapter 3, the birth of Purism, explains how malherbe in th early 1600 got rid of regionalisms, archaisms, synonyms and duplicates- and foreign words, which virtually disappeared. This never happened to such an extent in the UK - and I agree with you that it makes English a very rich language.

hi Petra - glad to hear the hospital in Pontarlier is OK. we have bought an old ferme Comtoise nearby  (I wass born and bread in area, but have been living in UK for 37 years, married to Brit) and are waiting for the move (OH retired last year)- but I must say every time we drive by it we think it looks awful - so thanks for reassuring us. Perhaps we will meet in Pontus one day. I was at the station there a couple of years ago very early am, waiting for TGV- nobody else there- then suddenly I heard Sybill, and there they were: Timothey West and Prunella Scales. I was dying to say something, but held my tongue (that makes a change!) to respect their privacy.

la Leche league, who give support to mothers with breastfeeding, is also represented in france, with some reps being British. Bonne chance

I love that book on 'la grammaire' - you will need a good graps of French and grammar to really enjoy it though. it is a must for anybody really interested in French. I am currently reading 'the story of French' by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. i have read many good books on the histroy of English (Bragg and Bryson in recent years) - but never one on French. so far very good. Published by Portico  ISBN 978-1-905798-19-3 Describes the progression of langues d'Oc and D'Oil, anglo-norman, etc.  Never had any idea that   foreign comes from forain     pedigree from pied-de-grue budget from bougette (purse).

totally agree with Frenchie. I have loads of copains et copines but fewer ami/amies, as they are much closer. Touche pas a mon pote   is the slogan was one of the main antiracism org. in France. The word copain/copine is a pain though, as if you introduce somebody as 'voici mon copain Pierre'. it's ambiguous. English is much better in this instance.

when we adopted Gadsby from friends in Switzerland who couldn't keep her (to come and live in UK until we can make final move back to the Jura)- the vet advised that the microchip she had was an old fashioned one, and may be impossible for all modern international machines to read. So before they brought her over to Calais to be picked up by moi, they fitted her with a new international chip. She has been coming back and forth with us no prob. On our last visit to the vet in Calais  - there was a young couple and 2 kids with a long haired dachshund, all in tears (I think the dog too) - they explained that they had gone to pick the dog up from her mum in Poland, as she was too ill to keep her. they had gone through all the vaccination, passport, etc, and had waited patiently for the dates. but when they got to the vet in Calais, her machine couldn't read the chip, so couldn't sign the passport. the young couple who live in Manchester said they didn;t have the money to replace chip, so we offered to pay. the vet refused, saying she couldn't prove the dog was indeed the dog from the passport. The  vet gave them 2 choices:  get in touch with vet in Poland and ask him to send machine for reading chip asap, whilst they wait in a hotel. Or drive back to Poland to pick up machine, or get chip changed for modern international version. They left in floods of tears with little dog Sonia. We still wonder which options they took, or chose  3/ hide Sonia for the crossing and return to Mancheter asap, ..or 4/ leave her by the roadside in Calais (although they were so devastated that I am sure they didn;t do that.)  Very sad, I think about them often. so if you do adopt a dog from abroad, beware, many older microchips are not internationally readable.

So sorry David and Janet, but I found it in a local Lane in UK. It didn't have a charger, but our local photography shop (wher OH has spent all our fortune! in the last 20+ years) sold us one.    Bonne chance et salutations   odile