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Ensoleillée
| Open Poetry #48 |
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Ensoleillée |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa 
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ENSOLEILLÉE 11 April 2012 Aujourd’hui, en automne dans une pièce ensoleillée, j’avais parlé avec une dame de quatre-vingt ans qui porte un esprit ensoleillé comme la pièce, et je suis rentrée à la maison avec la joie de l’été dans mon esprit ensoleillé. WARMED BY THE SUN Today, in autumn in a room glowing with sunlight, I spoke to a lady of 80 years who wears a spirit as sunny as the room and I returned home with the joy of summer in my spirit lit up by the sun. Owl |
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| © Copyright 2012 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Diana, this is lovely! |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Karilea. The lady I visited is in a wheelchair. I went to visit her to cheer her up and discovered that she didn't need cheering up at all, and she cheered me up (not that I needed it either, lol!) though she made it very clear that she enjoyed my visit. It was absolutely lovely to have the opportunity to speak French to her, even though she is Mauritian and Mauritians speak a different French from e.g. Parisian French to which I am more accustomed. Mauritians swallow their r's and sometimes more, so it is more difficult to understand. Also they have some strange and fascinating ways of putting things. Many years ago, I had a Mauritian boy friend and learned to understand Mauritian French better. But hey! French is French is French, and one of the most beautiful languages in my humble opinion. Owl [This message has been edited by OwlSA (08-06-2012 08:14 PM).] |
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secondhanddreampoet Member Ascendant
since 2006-11-07
Posts 6394a 'Universalist' ! |
EXCELLENT 'write' !! |
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Amaryllis Senior Member
since 2010-05-20
Posts 1306Mi now |
Absolutely beautiful!!! Oh I love this. Best, Amaryllis |
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Startime1955 Senior Member
since 2012-04-22
Posts 1072Alberta, Canada |
Wonderful...I lived just outside of Quebec City in Canada for 6 years and although they don't speak French Parisian as I had been taught in school...I loved hearing them talk and sing...it touches something in the soul...You have a very tender heart...thank you for sharing it with us...*BIG HUGS* *may our dreams ever be magical* |
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latearrival Member Ascendant
since 2003-03-21
Posts 5499Florida |
"j’avais parlé avec une dame", Lovely, as only you can do it. This sentence is the only one I could realy translate from my ninth grade introduction to French.I am so sorry I never took up a language.I tried French and German but only know a few words, and a few words of Italian from the neighborhood friends. LOL Languages need to be started in the lower grades as by the time we are in high school our timidity detains our ability. best to you, jo |
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ebonygirl Member Elite
since 2011-07-14
Posts 2000California U.S.A |
Enjoyed your "warmth by the sun", Smiles, Ms. E |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
A pleasure to read this slice of life...wish I could read more Frence...I took one semester of French in college and lived in France for one year but I'm not very good at languages...James |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Bruce, smiles at the uppercase! Thank you, Amaryllis for enjoying this - and for the kind email. Thank you, Startime, for your comment on my poetry and for your warm kindness about me and your news. Yes, Canadian French is different, but it is much easier to understand than Mauritian French, as beautiful as they all are. Thank you, Martyjo, I’m glad there was a little bit that you could translate! Yes, languages are magical and such fun – I am enraptured and excited by them - and I know the thrill of being able to translate something from a language I don’t know much about. Many years ago, I taught myself a few hours of Russian from a book - just the pronunciation (which I probably got all wrong, lol!) and practised on some reading passages. It is the alphabet that drew me in like a tornado - sort of like a secret code - I found it so satisfying and exciting too, that some of the letters were a bit like the Attic Greek that I studied as part of my degree. Wish I had time to go on with teaching myself Russian from that book - I still have it and can hone in on it amongst my approximate 2000 books in my bookcases. There are so many languages that I would love to throw myself into, but time and trying to survive financially throws a bit of a damper on that, lol! I agree, that the lower down in school languages are taught, the better. However, if you have a good teacher, you can learn any language at any age. Also, it is no good doing that without good teachers. Here in South Africa, in English schools, Afrikaans is taught from the third year onwards, but most pupils still can't speak it by the time they leave school and Afrikaans is probably the easiest language in the world to learn, having had its birth (though its roots go much further back) only a few hundred years ago. Boast, boast (at least I am blushing for my arrogance - metaphorically if not literally), when I taught French or Afrikaans or English as a second or third language (even as a first language, lol!), or Beginner Zulu, my victims could speak (and sing far better than I, because frogs run away when I sing – although I think frogs sing beautifully – perhaps that says a lot about my singing, lol!) the language with excellent pronunciation, although most of them usually with less correct grammar, than they wrote it. I think that I was always so passionate about teaching and languages that my victims felt, “if you can’t beat her, join her”, lol! Thanks eg. Thanks, James. No, nobody is bad at languages (if you can speak your first language, you can speak any language), but many people just don’t have the right teachers – and, as Martyjo says above, one really benefits most if one is taught languages from an earlier age than college. Aso, I think at college the intention is more to give you an insight and introduction into a language, rather than teach you to live it. Even with living in France for a year, though a wonderful opportunity, you still need to be given or create for yourself the right environment for learning the language and you probably had many other things on your plate at the time. No matter at what stage you start, you need a good teacher for a language. If you have a bad History teacher, you can read up about it. If you have a bad Mathematics teacher, one friend can teach you one concept and another friend, another concept. But languages need to be taught and inspired holistically with passion and system and purpose and goals – and if you don’t have a good teacher, it is an extremely difficult hurdle to overcome, although it can be done with enough time and determination. Over my 66½ years, I have been appalled by the level of language teaching (even first language, no matter the language) in South Africa, and I would guess it is probably an accurate assessment worldwide. I just don’t get it. I don’t know how people can make any excuse at all for not teaching a language so that one’s pupils/students – or learners, as they are currently called in South Africa – can speak, read and write the language fluently, right from the beginning and at every level of their progress. Owl |
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Prasad Nataraj Senior Member
since 2008-05-29
Posts 1149Bangalore,India |
fine writing! "The secret behind survival of mankind is kindness and love within our hearts" |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you very much, Prasad. Owl |
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