Bonne année!

Bonne année // Happy New Year

Well, this :) and Bonne santé :)

Pictures related to cats and New Year @ Shutterstock.

Il s’est déguisé en pirate pour le Carnaval

Il s’est déguisé en pirate pour le Carnaval // He was disguised as a pirate for Carnival

Once again, “French Word of the Day” to the rescue.

Nothing to add (it is perfect as is).

Pictures of carnival @ Shutterstock.

Nous faisons des crêpes pour Mardi Gras

Nous faisons des crêpes pour Mardi Gras // We make pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

There are no lessons till the second week of January, but I my "French Word of the Day" emails keep arriving.

So here is a hand lettering exercise with today's example phrase. I did it with my black Koi pen-brush, but it felt wrong - too sober. So I colored it more carnivaly in Photoshop.

Que faites-vous pendant les vacances de Noël?

Que faites-vous pendant les vacances de Noël? Le chat, par exemple, est allé à Tenerife. //
What are you doing during the Christmas holidays? The cat, for example, went to Tenerife.

There are no classes now (well, obviously), but our teacher sent us another audio file today. It is titled “Que faites-vous pendant les fêtes?” (What are you doing during the holidays?).

Well, I figure it is a perfect pretext (as if I need any) to show you the pic above.

We went to Tenerife for a few days. There, we visited a pretty university town of La Laguna (full name San Cristóbal de La Laguna). That is, its central historical part is pretty; the outskirts are most certainly not, plus it is now merged with Santa Cruz de Tenefire into one (generally unappealing) conglomerate.

But the center indeed is cute. It has many historic buildings, one of them housing the tourist information office.

This time, we saw an open wooden door which we didn’t notice before. We went in and found ourselves inside a small museum. The entrance was free and the building looks interesting enough in itself, but apart from that, upstairs there is the permanent collection of Cristino de Vera, contemporary Canarian painter I’ve never heard of. His style is very minimalist; the choice of subject matter also seems to be quite limited. One of the rooms was entirely dedicated to black and white windowsill still-lives, mostly consisting of a few (maximum three) bowls and one skull.

Mind you, I do not wish to sound disparaging — we liked it a lot.

So. The pic above is a sort of tribute, based on his Ventana, dos tazas y Teide II.

Pictures related to cats, Christmas and Tenerife @ Shutterstock.

J'aime bien cuisiner

J'aime bien cuisiner, expérimenter une nouvelle recette ou un plat exotique. // I like cooking, experimenting with a new recipe or an exotic dish.

Today, in our last lesson before the winter break, we listened to an audio about people's interests and passions and how they can express them. The following expressions came up:

J'aime bien - I like
Je m'intéresse à ... - I'm interested in....
Je suis une passionnée ... - I am passionate ...
Moi, ma passion, c'est ... - My passion is ...
Mon plus grand plaisir, c'est ... - My greatest pleasure is ...

As usual, the idea was that we listen and try to figure out exactly what was said. 
  
The very first guy in the audio liked cooking, that much was clear. Another couple of understandable phrases followed; then he said something about what he is cooking today. The last words were "c'est marocain" (it's Moroccan); that was all I caught. When it was time to discuss this bit it turned out that the majority of people didn't catch much either. So I went out on a limb and said that he was making a Tajine. Mind you, this is literally the only word I can come up with in connection with Moroccan cuisine. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was correct. 

I rather think that whoever it was who wrote the script for the audio also didn't know much about Moroccan cuisine.

Reminds me, although in reverse, of my oh-so-long-time-ago pharmacology exam. I was not doing well at all, because of a strange stupor which overcame me (and is probably familiar to most exam-takers). The examiner, who obviously didn't want to fail me, asked the last question - "Name the most important antipsychotics". Suddenly, the fog lifted, the things went crystal clear in my head and I inhaled deeply in order to launch into my recitation. The examiner took the pause as a sign that I didn't know the answer and hurriedly offered a way out: "Name ONE antipsychotic!". And with all the pre-gathered air I happily said "Aminazine!" (it was the first on the list). He, in is turn, happily wrote "pass" in the register. Happy end all round and hurray to that.

il a débuté sa carrière

En 2017, il a débuté sa carrière dans ce blog // In 2017, he began his career in this blog

We are nearly at the end of the academic year - tomorrow is the last lesson.

We continue working with  Passé composé (a débuté in the sentence above) but you can tell that the year is almost gone by the number of people who attend. Basically, the class is almost gone also.

I really need to work on the lights. I will do it on my winter break.

Un flocon

Tu as un flocon sur le bout du nez ! // You have a snowflake on your nose!

Today’s picture is straight from my “French word of the day” email. ’Tis the season to be jolly, etc. You know. “Jolly, with mistletoe and holly and other things ending in ’olly” (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather).

We are are nearly done with our pre-Christmas exams, and Thursday is the last day of classes before the break. We have already got about a hectare-of-amazonian-forest worth of papers each to study over Christmas, which I fully intend to do, of course.

The cat, as it happens, doesn’t have a visible nose. So this is probably your only chance to find out where his nose is supposed to be.

Pictures of snowflakes @ Shutterstock.

Un homme sans poil, c’est comme un jardin sans fleur

Un homme sans poil, c’est comme un jardin sans fleur. //
A man without body hair is like a garden without flowers.

Today, let’s take another delightfully silly phrase from Duolingo. “Poil” can be much more decently translated to simply “hair”, and in fact this is the version Google Translate insists on. But, apparently, it is a “saying” and it’s not the head hair what we are talking about here.

Duolingo discussion currently have another cute example of a similar (sort of) phrase in Turkish — “A man without belly, is like a house without balcony” :)

The cat is not so very sure about validity of this statement though. I mean, flowers he likes, but that furry patch... he needs to think about it just a bit more.

Pictures related to gardens and flowers @ Shutterstock.

Aimez-vous les fleurs bleues autant que moi?

Aimez-vous les fleurs bleues autant que moi? // Do you like blue flowers as much as i do?

Today, Kirill bought me yet another Koi penbrush. It is summer-sky-bue. So I decided to make a picture with something blue in it.

So here is the cat admiring his new hydrangea plant. This one must have been growing in acidic soil to be as blue as this.

"Autant" is a  new word for me. It means "(as) much" and looks suspiciously similar to Spanish "tanto". People native in Romance languages are so lucky.

By the way, I used to be quite annoyed by the lack of distinction between "голубой" and "синий" in English. Using "ultramarine" for "синий" seems very artificial - it is too long a word for something so simple, while "azure" is too poetic for something as basic as "голубой". And another btw - I don't get what something as sombre as "indigo" is doing in the rainbow at all. It might well be imprinting, but Russian rainbow seems more logical to me.

Il mange des tonnes de sashimi

Il mange des tonnes de sashimi. Il est un chat heureux. // He eats tons of sashimi. He is a happy cat.

After finishing two pieces of homework (yes, I know, I shouldn't leave it till the very last moment) I feel like doing something simple.

So, here is a simple cat being simply happy.

Les fleurs de cerisier, cherry blossoms

J'ai envie de voyager au Japon pendant la Semain d'Or. Je veux voir les fleurs de sakura //
I want to travel to Japan during the Golden Week. I want to see the flowers of sakura

Today, an expression “avoir envie de” — “to want to do something, to feel like doing something” was introduced. We were asked to make a sentence with it, and I had an opportunity to voice my long-standing wish, in French this time: I want to go to Japan in spring, around the Golden Week time, to see the cherry blossoms. More specifically, in April, before the madness of the holiday week starts.

I wish to do hanami.

The cat has been there already, here is his selfie as a proof.

Some observations:

Since “envie” on its own is “desire”, first suggestions you get from google AI when you start your research are, predictably, to do with sex.

I originally assumed that the expression “avoir envie” meant “I envy”, which was completely logical yet incorrect. That being said, “envie” and “envy” are etymologically related. To me, it is easier to see the connection via the semantic element of “coveting”* which is present in both words.

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* As in “Thou shalt not covet”

Pictures of cherry blossom @ Shutterstock.

La neige me manque

Le froid ne me manque pas, ça c’est sûr. L'obscurité ne me manque pas. Mais la neige me manque. Esthétiquement.
// I do not miss the cold, that’s for sure. I do not miss darkness. But I miss the snow. Aesthetically.

This.

Pictures of snow @ Shutterstock.

Dormir à poings fermés

Le chat peut dormir comme une souche. Il peut dormir comme un loir. Mais il ne peut pas dormir à poings fermés. Cette situation le dérange.
// The cat can sleep like a log. He can sleep like a dormouse. But he can’t sleep like a baby. This situation bothers him.

We are going through “your daily routine" theme. One expression came up while talking about sleep — “dormir à poings fermés” — “sleep soundly”, “sleep like a baby”, but literally something like “to sleep with clenched fists". (Although it doesn’t sound very relaxed, babies really do sleep like that).

Now, the cat, due to his configuration, can’t clench his fists. He feel rater bothered by it, since he always thought himself an expert sleeper.

I used this site to look up sleep-related French idioms. “Dormir comme une marmotte”, “to sleep as a marmot” is my favorite because we have exact same expression in Russian — «дрыхнуть как сурок».

Pictures related to cats and sleep @ Shutterstock.