I thought it would be a good idea to get library card and take out some children’s books to help me learn French. I discovered that my level of French is probably about the same, if not worse, than a 3 year olds. But look on the bright side, even just the first book I … Continue reading
Category Archives: Language aquisition
Learning French / Apprendre le francais
Coming soon
My new years resolution was to be better. I told this to my flatmate and said I would be a new and improved me, a new Chris. One evening when I got home from work I found this note attached to the novelty corkscrew that he had won in a pub quiz. Christopher GJ Cooley … Continue reading
Inventing the Popins: an umbrella holder for bikes
As summer slipped quietly into Autumn, light rains began to leave the pavements of Bordeaux freckled like rustic eggs. Besides making me feel a bit homesick, these rains also brought something strange to my attention. Numerous citizens cycling around in the rain and keeping dry thanks to a little gizmo that attached their umbrellas to … Continue reading
French lesson number 1 – Sauf vélos
I believe the only way I would ever learn a language is the full immersive experience. Hence why I moved to France. Being surrounded by the language means new words crop up everywhere. In Bordeaux this sign is very commonplace… … and being a cyclist I am happy about that. ‘Sauf’ means ‘except’ and is … Continue reading
J’ai l’esprit de l’escalier
Everybody must have been in this situation; you are having a conversation (or argument) with somebody and only once the conversation is over do you realise what you should have said. Here is an example of what I’m talking about: This is how I feel after almost every interaction that I have in … Continue reading
French test number 1 – Buying a bike from Leboncoin
Once I’d found a job and a place to live the next thing I wanted to cross off my list was getting a bike. I had seen some nice simple singlespeed vélos in a shop called GoSport, but they were a bit pricey. So I looked on the French equivalent of Gumtree; a site called … Continue reading