Que Sera Sera

The first thoughts that came to mind upon learning that sera is the third-person singular future tense of être were the lines of the song “Que Sera Sera” from the Hitchcock movie seen a long time ago.

I was quite sure that the words “que sera sera” was in French till a Facebook friend put the song on her wall. Just to confirm I checked up the Wikipedia and to my surprise I found that nobody is quite sure which language this is in. Spanish? Italian? Nah!

Given the confusion, I shall stick to my version that que sera sera is in French. Que = what; sera = will be. So, this becomes, “what will be, will be.” I think the confusion comes from the line of the song that follows que sera sera, which goes: “whatever will be, will be.” I like to think that the “ever” in “whatever” is there to get the rhyme properly. The last line of each stanza gets it right though: “what will be, will be.”

Here enjoy the song:

The only problem with my version of que sera sera? The pronunciation of the word 'que' is French is not 'kay'. Oh well, Hollywood might have got it wrong!

Learning From Copyright Statements

Apparently one cannot use the material contained within the Tintin comics even for a blog like mine. Not that I intended to scan and reproduce the whole story in my blog.

But you know what? There is always something to learn even if it is a copyright statement, as long as it is written in French (I have highlighted words or phrases that are learning points):

Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. Il est strictement interdit, sauf accord préalable et ecrit de l'editeur, de reproduire (notamment par photocopie ou numérisation) partiellement ou totalement le présent ouvrage de le stocker dans une banque de donnée ou de le communiquer au public, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit.

This translates word for word into:

All rights reserved for all countries. It is strictly prohibited, except agreement prior and written of the editor, to reproduce (especially by photocopy or scanning) partially or totally the present work to store it in database or to communicate to public, under any form and manner whatsoever.

I wonder what they will do to prevent me from quoting extracts from a book that I paid for, especially when torrents of the scanned copies of Asterix and Tintin float all around the Internet - a cease and desist order, followed by a lawsuit?

Useful French Vocabulary

Here are some of the vocabulary that I needed during my recent trip to Belgium and France. These are not readily available in any phrase book, but can be easily constructed using your existing vocabulary.

Où est la pizza que j'ai commandé? – where is the pizza I ordered?
Quel est le nom de la station suivante? – what is the name of the next station?
La prochaine station est Liège? – Is the next station Liège?
Le train aller à Liège? – Does this train go to Liège?
Quand est le prochain train pour Liège? – When is the next train for Liège?
Le ticket est valable pour ICE aussi? – Is the ticket valid for ICE also?

Quand vous allez devenir un docteur? – When will you become a doctor?

The query regarding Pizza was needed in a small but very comfortable hotel in a tiny town in France. This hotel did not have its own restaurant, but placed an order to a nearby Pizzeria on request. I needed the rest of the language during my frequent train trips within Belgium.
The last question was addressed to a young girl who was reading probability and Statistics, and claimed that she was studying to become a doctor.
"10 years," was the answer.
10 years???
I think there was some miscommunication here.

Trust and Mutual Respect

This cold, wet morning I saw notice on the train to Liege, the last line of which should be made the standard for all humanity to imbibe. And it goes like this:

Ne vous asseyez pas sur la courtoisie. Laissez votre place à ceux qui ont le plus besoin. Le respect mutuel, c’est classe.

What do you think?

At the bottom of 'mutual respect' lies trust. I witnessed this first hand the evening. Yesterday, I went to the world famous Belgian Comic Strip Centre in Brussels. Apart from the small figurines of Tintin, Capt. Haddock, Asterix and Obelix, I also picked up two Tintin comic book in French. This evening, after a rather tiring day, when I turned to read them, I discovered - to my utter horror - that only one, Le Secret de La Lircorne (The Secret of the Unicorn, in English) was in French. The sequel I picked up without much thought turned out to be in Spanish. I almost ran to the Comic Strip Centre (I was not sure when it would close) and explained to the lady at the caisse that I wanted the book in French. She did not bat an eyelid, nor did she demand to see the receipt. She smiled; she went to the racks and got me the one I wanted. And what's more, it turned out that Le Tresor de Rackham Le Rouge (The Red Rackham Treasure, in English) is cheaper in French. She returned me the change and bade me farewell. What a pleasant experience.

Now that is trust and mutual respect in action.

Your French Is Very Good

I just finished having one of the most delicious lunches of my life in a small French restaurant called Fleur de Sel. And I ended up impressing my host.
As our waitress struggled to explain the menu to me, I wanted to make it very clear that I can have everything except beef (nothing religious, I just don’t like the smell – the same way I cannot stand fish because of its smell.) So all I said was “sans viande”. And in all the chatter to decide the menu (French take food very seriously), the head of the department picked up what I said. After the waitress retreated, he turned to me and said, “Your French is very good!”

Sometimes all you need are a few well timed words.

First Genuine French Conversation

Finally I got my chance to have a complete, not a bit artificial, French conversation.
That’s the advantage of visiting tiny towns in France. You are unlikely to bump into many English-speaking people. My taxi driver who drove me from Lorraine TGV to Hambach did not know a word of English, and this is how the conversation went …
Amitabh: Je voudrais aller à Hambach.
Taxi Driver: Bon!
A: Ce sera combien?
T: … (could not catch) … cent vingt.
A: 120! Hmmm… C’est loin d’ici?
T: … (could not catch) … quatre-vingts kilometres
A: Combien dur le trajet?
T: … (could not catch) … une heure.
After that I left him undisturbed for about an hour, after which he discovered that he had overshot the exit. Then he switched on the navigator and found his way back.
T: Pas facile… pas facile … pas facile …
He went on and on and on.
The bill came to about 150 Euros, but he took only 130 Euros, because it was his fault.He should have switched on the navigator before.
A: J’ai besoin d'un reçu.
T: ok.
A: Merci. Bonne soiree.
T: Au revoir. Bon soir.
Just then a strong gust of wind blew the proof of hotel reservation from my hands and I had to run some 10 metres after it before I could retrieve it.

Breakfast Newspaper

There is no end to innovation. As I was entering the breakfast room of my hotel in Belgium, I chanced upon something called Good Morning News. It is a one A4 size paper with summary of international and national news. Just ideal for reading something while you are having your breakfast.

How is it possible to summarize international and national news in one A4 size paper, you might wonder. Well, it is like this. The newspapers (newssheets?) are country specific. The one shown below is called Good Morning News France. There are others, that go by similar names: Good Morning News United Kingdom, Good Morning News Italia, etc.

I, obviously, picked up Good Morning News France. And to show how news is covered I reproduce one news item:

AFRIQUE DU SUD: Les négociations marathon de Durban sur le climat ont débouché, dimanche à l’aube, sur une feuille de route vers un accord en 2015 englobant pour la premiere fois tous les pays pour lutter contre le réchauffement.


That’s it. Short and sweet. Now, chances are that if you have just started learning French, your mind will go blank and you would have skipped the text as you read this blog. But, if you are serious in your attempt to learn the language, you will revisit the news item and notice that there are familiar words in the text. I have reproduced the text below, but this time some common words highlighted in Blue.

AFRIQUE DU SUD: Les négociations marathon de Durban sur le climat ont débouché, dimanche à l’aube, sur une feuille de route vers un accord en 2015 englobant pour la premiere fois tous les pays pour lutter contre le réchauffement.

And if you are aware that Climate Negotiations were on in Durban, then you know exactly what the news item is about.

Learning a new language needs perseverance.

Here, read a sample of the Good Morning News France and increase your French Knowledge.

Creamy Cheese

Breakfast?
Try Crème de Brie.
This is a soft white creamy cheese that takes its name from Brie, a region in northern France.

Reading Multi-Language Signs in Hotels

While travelling abroad most hotels have notices in multiple languages. Since the context is clear, this, then gives you an opportunity to learn new words and test your existing knowledge. The trick, however, is to *not* read the information in English first. Rather block everything off and focus on French. Here is an example …

I actually learnt a few new words here:
Geste - gesture
Inutilement - uselessly
Veuillez - please (I saw this word in many notices and was not aware that there is another way of saying please apart from s'il vous plaît.)

Aishwarya Giving French Lessons

I believe I have discovered the perfect way to learn French - in small bites and from the lips of one of the most gorgeous women in the world, Aishwarya Rai.

Here are a couple advertisements from L’Oreal featuring Ash speaking French. See how many French words can you pick up.

Delightful way to learn French, won't you agree?

Now, you may not like Ash (many don't, I wonder why.) So, pick up your favourite personality and see if he/she has done any adverts in French and enjoy!

PS: Now I know what "You are worth it" is in French: "Vous le valez bien."

Top 10 Most Commonly Used French Verbs

I am a firm believer of the old Indian system of learning by rote - the basics must be memorized. By heart. Something like the multiplication tables. And I don’t care what the new educationists say about this. They say that intelligence is the ability to correlate disparate elements. Fine. But how would you make these connections unless they are in your head already? I am all for understanding concepts and applying them. But first memorize what is essential.

And so I decided to memorize the conjugations of the 10 most used verbs in French. Here’s the list:

être – to be
avoir – to have
faire – to do
dire – to tell
aller – to go
voir – to see
savoir – to know
pouvoir – to be able / can
falloir – to be necessary
vouloir – to want

And here’s the link to the conjugations. Go ahead and learn these, if you wish to master French.

Isn’t it amazing that every one of these most used verbs in French is irregular? Tells you a lot about how the human mind works.

Your Name in French

You think it is not possible, but it is very likely that you will not be able to make out that you are being addressed.

Especially, if you are in France.

And this is not because the French do not respect the way your name is to be pronounced. Since set of letters are pronounced in a particular way in French, your name would come out very differently from a French mouth.

So, in order to avoid embarrassment when someone is calling out to you and you look back blankly, here’s a way out. Before you travel to France or any other Francophone countries or just for fun, type your name in Google Translate, after choosing 'Translate from French', and click on the bottom right icon (“listen”). You are likely to get a good imitation of how your name would come out of a French mouth. It is the surname - if it is long - that gets distorted the most.

Enjoy!
Note: The image used here belongs to Michal Zacharzewski

Learning from Pictures

I like to think that our brains process information in the form of images. Hence the dreams. And therefore the capability to absorb information better when presented pictorially.

Here’s an example:

Now you will never forget assez means enough.
That I chose Cleopetra (Astrix and Cleopetra) - the queen of Egyptians, who developed stylized pictograph script - to make my point is sheer coincidence.

A Song, A Gem, A Learner's Delight

I discovered this song on You Tube quite by accident. I was looking for phrases that go de … en … For example, de plus en plus (more and more), de temps en temps (from time to time). When I looked for the phrase de moins en moins (less and less) I hit upon this amazing French song.

The song, de moins en moins, is brilliant by itself but what makes this particular video a learner’s delight is that this has lyrics and a good translation. Here enjoy ...

Charles Aznavour has a fantastic voice, I must say. Note: Expand the video to get a good view of the lyrics and the translation.

By the way, if you prefer Celine Dion instead (by which I mean, slow, melodious and simpler lyrics), then here's one with lyrics and translation.

Amusez-vous! Enjoy!

Strange Ways of the Brain

I just discovered a fascinating aspect of how the brain works, or, at least, how my brain works. Very disconcerting.

While working through the Les grandes fugures de l’histoire section of the Easy French Reader, I noticed that I was automatically translating the French sentences that were written in present tense into past tense in English. Let me explain with an example …

Les Gaulois ont une civilisation guerrière. Ils aiment les batailles, et ils aiment aussi bien boire et bien manger.

In my mind, I translated this as: The Gauls were a warrior culture. They loved to fight, and they loved to drink and eat, when clearly ‘ont’ and ‘aiment’ are in present tense. It is as if the brain automatically places the sentences in past tense because I am reading history. Strange!

By the way, the above example sentence also points out to the fact that Asterix comics are culturally accurate!

Context Based Language

I finally took the leap. I purchased the Easy French Reader by R. de Roussy de Sales. I will review the book at some later date. I have completed about half the book and, so far, I have enjoyed reading it immensely.

The earlier you start reading French text, the more confidence you will gain. Books that fall under the category of ‘Learn French’ tend to spoon-feed you. That element of spoon-feeding is missing in this reader. I am encouraged by my success in rapidly reading pages after pages without having to refer to the dictionary. Languages, in general, are so context dependent that one need not know every word to understand the meaning of a sentence or a paragraph or even an exchange.

In fact, in some cases, even a beginner should be able to grasp the meaning. All you need to know is a bit of English. Here’s an example from this book …

JULIE Je ne comprends pas porquoi tu es si ignorant!

MARC Je proteste! Je ne suis pas ignorant! Ce n’est pas moi, mais autre Français, Charles Cros, qui a invité le phonographe!

JULIE Ce n’est pas vrai. C’est Thomas Edison.

Even if you do not know a word of French, it is easy to see that two people are arguing about who has invented the phonograph. It is also obvious that one is from America and the other from France. See how context based a language is!

Politeness and Food

Je voudrais manger quelque chose. -- I would like to eat something.

No, no, I am not hungry right now. This was perhaps the first complete sentence I learnt in French. I do not remember the context or when exactly, but this sentence is stuck to my mind. Whenever I wish to switch my brain to ‘French mode’ all I have to do is recall this sentence.

Grammatically, this is a difficult sentence. voudrais is first person conditional conjugation of vouloir -- to want. This is, of course, considered more polite than Je veux manger quelque chose. -- I want to eat something, for obvious reason. And in my case particularly so because the upper limit of my culinary skills is limited to pain grillé --toasted bread, and œufs brouillés – scrambled eggs. If politeness can get you good food, then why not?

Past, Present and Future Together

I dislike the way languages are taught to adults. I can understand the gradual increase in complexity when children are taught, but to an adult it makes no sense to first teach the present tense, then the future, then the past, when in most case you are likely to use all of them together.

Here’s an example:

Demain, je vais aller aux États-Unis. Je vais là après une longue période. J'ai été il y a environ huit ans.
Tomorrow, I will go to the United States (immediate future). I am going there after a long time (present). I was there about 8 years ago (past).

There! You have all the three tenses explaining a situation. However, since the teaching material is designed fr gradual elaboration, it takes longer the usual to start speaking a new language fluently. I think there is scope for improvement in adult education.

Puzzling French Numbers

You plan to visit Paris soon. The email from the hotel you plan to stay is in front of you and you are puzzled.
Well, I am not surprised.
I grew up learning to write Three Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty as 3,200.50.
In France and other countries in continental Europe, this number will be written as 3.200,50. Basically the decimal and the comma are interchanged.
Some write is as 3 200,50 -- look, no decimals!

I do not mind one way or other, but why can’t we standardize the convention for representing numbers? Numbers have been around for many years now. It’s not that difficult, or is it?

Dating Cute Girl, The French Way

What at first blush looks like the Spanish word for ‘yes’, turns out to have multiple meaning in French.
And yes, si does man ‘yes’ in French too, but in a contradictory sense. One uses si to say yes if you do not agree with the negative sentence that occurred just before.
“You didn’t do your homework?”
Si, j’ai fait. (Yes, I did.)

However, I bet that you are already familiar with the most common use of si. No? Come on! Try harder, please. S'il vous plaît (if it pleases you). There is no such thing as being too polite. The use of s'il vous plaît should fetch you handsome returns in terms of service and attention. As will si vous voulez (If you want) in response to “Do you want to shop?” Particularly, effective with women! Believe me. I am married.

And what if you are not yet married and find some special? You might want to say il / elle est si mignon. (S/he is so cute.) You could also compare. Elle n'est pas si mignon que d'elle. (She is not as cute as her). Commencer datation, sinon quelqu'un d'autre le fera. (Start dating, otherwise someone else will.)

Although sinon is used in the sense of otherwise in the above sentence, the root of sinon seems to lie in si and non (if not).

Word pairs

rire and sourire - to laugh and to smile.

pleuvoir and pleurer - to rain and to weep (as if it is raining down the cheeks)

prendre and comprendre - to take and to take it all in (meaning, to understand)

I love such pairs. Helps me improve my vocabulary and retain it too.

Bien

Bienvenue.Welcome.
Today I enter the wonderful world of bien. This must be the most flexible word in the French dictionary...

sûr (sure) and bien sûr (of course) are very similar when you respond to someone with enthusiasm, but bien sûr scores for me every time.

Nous regardons la peinture (we look at the painting) does not have the impact that Nous regardons bien la peinture has. Here bien places an emphasis on the action, regardons.

bien could be used in the sense of ‘really’: C’est bien joli. (It really is pretty). Vous avez bien dit ça? (Did you really say that?) You could easy replace this by Vous avez vraiment dit ça?, but the sentence looks more sophisticated with a bien.

Don’t get carried away with bien, however. Respond to “Is the dish good?” with a C’est bon, and respond to Comment allez vous? (How are you?) with a Je vais bien, merci

Hopefully, someone will tell me in the very near future, Vous parlez très bien le français.

Second-Hand Opportunity

Today I learnt that it is necessary to investigate a word thoroughly before moving on to the next one.
Consider this …

Je suis content que j'ai l'occasion de pratiquer le français -- I am glad I have the opportunity to practice French.

J'utilise une dictionnaire d'occasion -- no, it doesn’t mean that I use a dictionary for the opportunity. Rather it means, I use an second-hand dictionary.

As if learning language was not difficult enough!

Bringing Out the Flavour

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs … ho hum! These are the basics of any language and are as exciting as … as … plain loaves, I guess.
What gives colour to any languages are the phrases. You need to use phrases to bring out the flavour of French. Even if they are simple ones.

Here are three such …
1. Moi non plus
 Usage :
"Je ne connais pas cet homme." -- I don’t know this man.
"Moi non plus." --- Me neither.

2. Tout à coup
Usage :
Tout à coup, le diamant à disparu. --- Suddenly, the diamond disappeared.

3. Ça y est
Usage :
Ça y est ! On a fini. -- That’s it ! We have finished.

French Mother-in-Law

The French must be politically the most astute of all. Why else would they call the mother-in-law belle-mère?

Irregular Verbs and the Tower of Babel

We missed out on a golden opportunity to redress the wrongs done to us by the Gods at Babel. Different languages ensured that we were not able to build the Tower of Babel. But surely the grammar was codified long after the languages themselves evolved to a quasi-steady state.

SO WHICH IDIOT INVENTED IRREGULAR VERBS?

Or perhaps Gods introduced the irregular verbs to ensure that people may never master each others' language and make another attempt at tower.

Frustrations in learning new language apart, I think that the Tower of Babel was the noblest endeavour that (hu)man ever attempted: the tower was dedicated to the glory of human beings; what could be nobler?

Avoiding the Subjunctive in French

There are chances that you get the subjunctive wrong even in English.
No?
Ok, then … What is wrong with the sentence that follows:
I wish I was rich.

Some of you will correct it immediately to:
I wish I were rich.

Others will aver that it doesn’t matter, as long as the meaning is clear.
I prefer to be grammatically correct!

French too has its share of Subjunctive and I have been avoiding it since it is a little more involved than its English counterpart. But if you dislike it, there are ways to avoid it.

The most quoted example is, of course, is the substitution of il faut que with il faut + infinite.
Thus, Il faut que j’achète des pommes can be easily replaced by Il faut acheter des pommes without any fear.

But, as I was trying to get my head around this, I realized that there are ways to avoid subjunctive. Though the meaning might modified a bit, you can get by.

Here’s an example …
J’ai peur qu’il soit trop tard. -- I am afraid (that) it is too late.
The sky will not fall on your head if you just say …
J’ai peur. Il est trop tard. -- I am afraid. It is too late.
Or just …
Il est trop tard. -- It is too late.
You might consider adding, C’est dommage -- It’s a pity, just to bring in that personal touch.

Essential Toolset - Learn French - Free on Internet

There are many free dictionaries and translation tools available on the Internet, but I find the following invaluable for self-study:

1. Google Translate: Not only does this tool, help you translate from French to any language of your choice and vice-versa, it also allows you to pull out (that little keyboard icon at bottom left) a virtual keyboard to allow typing French accents, which is a huge plus.
However, I have noticed that the translation works better with longer sentences than with small phrases.

2. Verb Conjugator: Goes without saying that a good verb conjugator is sine qua non of self study. I find this one very neat. Great help.

3. Verb Deconjugator: The first thing I realized as I initially progressed through intermediate French is that at times it was very difficult to figure out the infinitive based on a conjugated verb, particularly when it was one of those irregular verb. I mean, how could anyone figure out (easily) that vécu is the past participle of vivre (to live).

I thought to myself, “Wow! All I need is to build an app that could give me the verb from its conjugate. This could be a killer app. I could be rolling in money.” Alas! Someone has already thought of it and has done a wonderful job of it.

I find this Verb Deconjugator excellent. Though I did find a word missing from its database: percuté (from percuter: hit or smash).

I will keep updating this toolset as I come across more useful tools.

Common Sense vs Grammar

Following rules blindly could make you look silly.

A couple of posts ago , I concluded that il y a followed by time would mean 'ago' instead of 'there is' or 'there are' (See Ago = There is Time for more details).

Well, I felt very stupid when I translated Il y a sept jours dans une semaine as ‘7 Days ago in one week” when it clearly means ‘There are seven days in a week.”

Common sense triumphs grammar every time.

Chris Evert and the French Past Participle

Even at her peak when Martina Navratilova consistently defeated Chris Evert in Wimbledon giving you a sense of Déjà vu, I still like Chris more. Her tennis was more subtle and her pin-point passing shots were a joy to watch. Her marriage, she changed her name to Chris Evert-Lloyd (I think I also saw her name mentioned in papers as Chris Lloyd née Evert), seemed to make no difference to her tennis, and she went on to win 7 grand slam titles post marriage.

There! I used two past participle vu (from voir, to see) and née (from naître, to be born), and you didn’t even notice.

It helps that such irregular French past-participles find its place in English unchanged.

By the way, I am sure you know Déjà means ‘already’ and thus, Déjà vu would mean ‘already seen’.

Ago = There is time

Just when I thought that il y a was totally under control, came a twist.

Il y a un petit magasin en face de la gare. -- There is a small shop in front of the station.
Il y a beaucoup de magasins en face de la gare. -- There are many shops in front of the station.

So far so good; « il y a » could mean ‘there is’ or ‘there are’.
But …

Je suis venu ici il y a deux ans means, ‘I came here two years ago’.

Thus, « il y a » followed by time transforms the usage to ‘ago’.

This brings « il y a » into conflict with « depuis ».
« depuis » means ‘since’.

The following sentence is helpful ...

Je suis très occupé depuis je suis venu ici il y a deux ans. -- I am very busy since I came here two years ago.

Writing French Once a Week

Bonjour tout le monde. Je m’appelle Amitabh. J’ai quarante-six ans. Je suis marié. Ma femme s’appell Pushpita. Nous avons deux fils. Ils s'appellent Arunabh et Abhinav. Arunabh a quatorze ans et Abhinav a dix ans.

Je suis né à Shillong. Shillong est une très belle ville à l'Est de l'Inde. Ma femme viens de Chandigarh. Chandigarh est situé dans le nord de l'Inde. Maintenant nous habitons à Bangalore. Nous sommes les Indiens.

Phew!

Just writing the above without any help from Google Translate made me realize how much I need to work on my French. I get the structure of the sentences alright. It is the spellings that is killing me.

The final version that I put up for publishing has the spellings corrected, of course. Those who are learning French may want to give their translation skills a shot.

"aussi bien ... que" and "ainsi que"

While going through the second lesson of the Coffee Break French Season 3 I encountered a strange phrase: aussi bien … que.
Strange because I have my English thinking cap on – no disrespect to the French language, because the French would find the English equivalent “as well as” or “both … and” equally strange.

The sentence I take from CBF is: … je vais repartir de Nice avec de très bons souvenirs, aussi bien culturels que linguistiques. (I will leave Nice with very good memories, cultural as well as linguistic.)

I think I need some practice:
1) Some things can be both good and bad. It depends. Quelques choses peuvent être aussi bien bon que mauvais. Ça dépend.
2) This chemical is used as medicine as well as poison. Ce chimique est utilisé aussi bien médicament que du poison.

However, I could easily translate the above sentences into French as …

1a) Quelques choses peuvent être bon ainsi que mauvais. Ça dépend.
2a) Ce chimique est utilisé comme médicament ainsi que du poison.

I am clearly out of my depth here. Someone better in French than I needs to tell me what the difference is between the two usages?

French Movies with French Subtitles.

I am told watching movies in French language helps build your language skills.
That is not entirely true though.
At least not for the beginners.
If you already have some language skills then it might help, otherwise not really.

However, if French movies had French subtitles, then it would help.
Really help!
I am not sure if French movies come with French subtitles or not.
But if they do, then this is what I would suggest …

a) See the French movie first with English subtitles (or the language you are familiar with). Basically, just enjoy the movie.
b) Assuming the movie is worth watch more than one time, watch it once more but this time without any subtitles. Try and catch as many words and phrases you can.
c) Watch it the third time; but this time, keep the French subtitles on. Pause as and when required to absorb more.
d) And finally, repeat b).

I need to check out if French movies on DVD have French subtitles. I would start my search with Le dîner de cons

French is Grammatically Closer to Hindi and Bengali

I have been a fool!
Consider this sentence: Je vais vous montrer où est la nourriture.
Word to word translation in English will come out as: "I will (or going to) you show where is the food."
This sounds weird because you are apt to say: “I will show you where the food is.”
The indirect object pronoun in French (in this case, vous) is moved and that causes problem.

Having trained myself all these years to think in English, I was – till a few hours ago – blind to the fact that my mother tongue, Bengali, and the other language I know so well, Hindi, has identical grammatical construction. In Bengali and Hindi – and I suspect, most of the other Indian languages – the indirect object pronoun comes not after the verb but before the verb, just like in French.

So the above sentence in Bengali would go: আমি আপনাকে দেখাবো যেখানে খাদ্য/খাবার আছে/পাবেন. (the indirect object pronoun ‘you’ underlined).

In Hindi, it goes: मैं आपको दिखाता हूँ जहाँ खाना है/मिलेगा. (the indirect object pronoun ‘you’ underlined).

What's more, the 'you' used in Hindi and Bengali is the formal you. (I was aware of this, of course)

Hmmm… Need to explore more.

The most invaluable Language Learning Tool

Many would dispute its efficacy, but in mind, the existence of Google Translate is a boon to language learners.

And not just because of its more or less accurate translation from and to 63 languages, but also because it allows phonetic typing (that small, toggling keyboard icon to the bottom left) but also lets you hear the pronunciation.

Here’s how I work with it. Let’s say I am reading Asterix, in French. And I come across Il doit etre dans le feuillage en train de cueillir le gui avec sa serpe d'or. I type in this sentence in Google Translate and get “It should be in the foliage picking mistletoe with its golden sickle”, which is not the exact translation … “il” should have been “he”. I also don’t like “foliage” for “feuillage”. I prefer ‘woods’ or ‘trees’, instead. Especially, since I know that we are talking of Getafix (Panoramix, in French), the druid, who is cutting mistletoe from a tree. But that’s ok. Perhaps this is the state of the art translation. But what is of more interest to me is the pronunciation. I would like to hear the sentence pronounced, and this is something Google Translate does brilliantly. The pronunciation is fairly rapid to give you enough listening practice, and believe me, you will need to listen to the sentence again and again till you get a hang of it.

This then is the first step before you move on to seeing French movies as your next aid to French learning.

Occasional Headaches

I subscribe to Bitesized French which delivers a daily dose of a French word with its meaning and a sentence to fix it in mind with a context. Unlike a few other similar services, the sentences are short and simple.

I am thrilled since today’s sentence describes me perfectly:
A part des maux de tête je suis en bonne santé. (Apart from headaches I am in good health).

Actually I should modify it as follows:
A part des maux de tête occasionnels je suis en bonne santé. (Apart from occasional headaches I am in good health).

Pace yourself

There is this great urge to complete the entire course in one big burst of effort. And then there is a cooling off period. The urge returns again. And so on. Over a period of time the rest period is prolonged and the intense burst shrinks. This alternation between intense study and periods of rest is the greatest barrier to achieving your goals through self study.

Instead, it is better to pace yourself. Fix a time and duration for the self study. Say, at 6 p.m., five days a week, for 45 focused minutes. Works for me!

Tintin and Asterix in French Language

Even since I have taken to learning French seriously, I have this intense desire to possess Tintin and Asterix comics in French. Being an Indian and, therefore, multilingual (English, Hindi, Bangla, and a smattering of Urdu), I am aware that translations kill flavour. And since, Tintin and Asterix in English are mindblowing, I can only imagine how good they will read in French. But until I acquire these I will have to do with Tintin's official website, in French and Asterix's official website, in French

About ne que

Here’s a question for you …
what comes to your mind as the repository of knowledge on the Internet?
9/10 will respond: Wikipedia.
And yet the information available in ABOUT.COM is far superior to any I have seen on one site. The information on ‘About.com’ is very detailed and the chances that you will come away having absorbed the knowledge are substantially high.

Needless to say, ‘About.com’ is an extremely valuable resource for those who attempt to learn French (or for that matter any) language on their own. When I wanted to understand a bit more about ne … que a visit to the relevant page is all I needed.

The problem I had with ne … que is that it works exactly opposite to ne … pas, ne … plus, ne … jamais. While the other negations prevent you from doing something, ne … que allows you that one single thing follows it.
Thus, for example,
Je parle français = I speak French
Je ne parle pas français = I don’t speak French
Je ne parle plus français = I don’t speak French anymore
Je ne parle jamais français = I never speak French
but
Je ne parle que français = I speak only French

“So, what is so problematic with this,” I hear you say. The problem is not when you see it written. The problem is when you hear someone speak – as in a recorded speech. The “ne” conditions you to a negative, and people generally speak very quickly. By the time, you figure out if it is a ‘no’ or ‘only’ the next sentence has started. The second complication arises due to the spelling of ‘que’. Since it ends with an ‘e’, it takes on an apostrophe in front of vowel and therefore gets merged with the following word to form one word, and is therefore more difficult to pick in spoken French.

about.com - French explains a bit more about the use of ne … que. It is a bit more complicated than I thought. It turns out that the placement of ‘que’ changes the meaning of the sentence.
Je ne parle que français = I speak only French
Je ne parle français qu’en France = I speak French only in France.

Pneu

The French language has this reputation for silent letters. Not just letter, letters. Even simple word like vous is pronounced ‘voo’.

I am not complaining. Far from it! Now that I have overcome my initial fears, I am enjoying speaking French.

And that’s why I wonder how did the French manage to miss out on pneu (tyre). It is pronounced ‘puh-nuu’. Undoubtedly, the root for ‘pneu’ is the same as that for ‘pneumatic’, but ‘puh-nuu’??? It sounds like someone with a blocked nose trying desperately to clear the passageway. A language that has words with, at times, more than 3 silent letters forgot to make ‘p’ in ‘pneu’ silent.

Mélange

I have my own version of Walk, Talk and Learn French . I call it drive, see the hoardings and learn French. Of course, I get to learn only words, not sentences. But then what do you expect? I live in Bangalore, not Paris!

“Have breakfast at Mélange”. I see this huge hoarding every morning, displayed right at the traffic lights near my home. And with e-acute and all, except that the diacritic mark is modified into three petals.

Nice name, Mélange. Or so it seemed till I checked out what it means.
Mélange = Mixture.
Hmmm… not so nice.

Being Bilingual is an Essential Attribute

Here’s a wonderful article by someone who has a fantastic command over English and is now learning French. This article by Will Self that appeared in Guardian is definitely worth a read.

I like the way he sums it up: “being bilingual ourselves is an essential attribute for being at home in the wider world.”

An Empirical Guide to French Pronunciation

The French ‘e’ (usually pronounced as the ‘u’ in ‘duh’ and is identical to अ of the Devanagari script) also helps me pronounce French words with much effort. In my mind ‘e’ serves as a delimiter when it appears towards the end of French words.

Consider the conjugation of finir (To finish) for third person plural (they) …
In the present tense, it is finissent. Locate where the ‘e’ comes in the last few letters of the word. Stop your pronunciation just before that. Going by this rule, ‘finissent’ should be pronounced ‘feeneess’.

Let’s try another one ... for the imperfect past finir conjugates to finissaient. Where do you think you need to stop? Just before ‘e’. Right. So this will be pronounced ‘feenee-say’. Same goes with student for French: étudiant (pronounced ay-too-dee-yaN – since there is no ‘e’ towards the end just drop the last letter and try) and étudiante (pronounced ay-too-dee-yaNt).

Ok, what about this? Italien and italienne (male and female Italian, respectively). Since italienne has a ‘e’ right at the end, all the letters need to be considered. So, this will be pronounced ‘eetalee-en’ (soft ‘t’ and ‘l’, please), while italien is pronounced ‘eetalee-aN’ (the ‘n’ modifies the pronunciation and makes it nasal).

So how exactly does this empirical rule go:
a) Check for ‘e’ in the last few letters of the word.
b) The moment you encounter your first ‘e’, try using only those words for pronouncing that appear on the left of the ‘e’.
c) Take into account the ‘z’, ‘n’, and ‘r’ especially if they appear at the end of the word. The delimiter in those cases would be ‘ez’ (pronounced ‘ay’), ‘en’ (brings out the nasal part of you) and ‘er’ (generally with the infinitive and is pronounced ‘ay’).
d) If you do not encounter any ‘e’ towards the end, just drop the last letter and give it a go.

Simple rule, isn’t it? Strictly speaking it is not a rule. It just helps me to read the French words correctly. Remember nothing can replace hearing the actual word in French.

French is easier to speak than to write

It is relatively easier to speak French than write.

Why do I say that?

'This’ in French can be ce, cette, or cet depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or masculine starting with a vowel. But since ‘cette’ and ‘cet’ are pronounced identically and assuming 50% of all nouns are feminine, more than half nouns will take similar demonstrative pronouns. So, if in doubt say ‘sette’ (soft ‘t’ please).

Let’s consider ‘my’. It is mon for masculine, ma for feminine and mon for anything you own that starts with a vowel. Following similar logic, ‘moN’ (nasal N) is the default usage.

Of course, the best bet is to learn the gender of the noun as you learn it, but initially this helps build confidence. As long as it doesn’t become a habit.

Let’s now think of the verbs. Verbs take different endings depending on who is the noun/pronoun.
For example,
Je suis allé (If I am male)
Je suis allée (If I am female)

For vous it could be more complicated.

Vous êtes arrivé (You, formal, singular, male)
Vous êtes arrivés (You – group of males, group of males and females)
Vous êtes arrivée (You, formal, singular, female)
Vous êtes arrivées (You – group of females only)

Now before you give up, consider this: in all cases, irrespective of gender or number, the verb is pronounced identically – ‘arrivay’.

Alors, c’est facile. N'est pas?

Les Portes Tordues

I finally have Les Portes Tordues (The Twisted Doors) in my hands. Thanks to Flipkart

I will be writing a review on this book once I complete it. All I can say is that I am already enjoying the style. The first few lessons that I read and heard are very simple, though. Most of these lessons are from 4-8 lines long and deal only with the present tense. I flipped through the book and I can see that the later chapters are longer and have more complex constructions.
The book is bilingual and chapters are arranged such that a line of French corresponds to a line of English. The translation, so far, is top notch. The story telling is also excellent. But we’ll see.

The preface of the book recommends listening and reading. But I will write down the chapters too. I prefer it that way.

And now if you excuse me, I need to dive right into the book.

Literature. Littérature.

A singularly remarkable feature of all online ‘for-profit’ courses is the absence of literature. It is as if the purpose of learning a language is to somehow manage to converse in that language when you visit the country for a fortnight, if that. C’est dommage! That’s a pity!

Perhaps I am being too harsh. After all, most of the courses are aimed at beginners. Introducing literature at a very early stage may actually turn away potential learners. But on the other hand, what prevents these courses from introducing small, simple stories at an early stage? These stories can support the language elements taught in the courses. The stories need not start from chapter one. They can start from the 10th chapter if that makes sense. What is needed is imagination.

Just to clarify, I am not talking of courses that are woven around situations. Almost all courses do that in one way or another. If I were to design a French course it would teach language elements and finish it off with a easy-read story. Perhaps, some day I will.

And small, simple stories need not always be children’s stories! With a little imagination good short, simple stories can be written for adult learners too, don’t you think? Ne pensez-vous? If the French course designers do not wish to exert too much, all they need to do is take appropriate extracts from numerous short stories written by Balzac or Maupassant.

Home. Chez Nous.

The builders in Bangalore have been bitten by the French bug. Or else they think having a French name as an address makes their buildings more saleable. French name in India? Saleable? Whatever!

Chez Nous is the name of a building apartment in Bangalore. I wonder how the residents of the building dictate their address to the local public. Do they actually pronounce it correctly and then tell the spelling and then explain that this is a French word?

The conversation between a resident and a plumber would go something like this:

“Hello, this is P the Plumber.”
“Hello, P. The pipe has burst open and I want you to come as soon as possible.”
“Ok! What is the address.”
“Shay Noo. Richmond Road.”
“Where???”
“Shayz noos. On Richmond Road.”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place. Ok. Will be there in one hour – traffic permitting.”

Ain't I being snooty today.

Anchovy. Anchois.

3 Americans and one India eating Italian in a French restaurant. Weird! But wait it gets weirder.
We chose to go à la carte. I wanted to eat Pizza. The first was a Margarita. Hmm… I would prefer something better; not some plain Pizza Margarita. They were paying anyways. But what was Pizza aux anchois?
“Anchovies”.
I had no idea what anchovy was. But I could not appear dumb before my American hosts! So I ordered Pizza aux Anchois. I don’t remember what my hosts ordered.
“Great choice!”
The pizza arrived. On it were 6 fishes arranged. I didn’t realize that anchovies are fishes and I don’t even eat fish!
I must have stared at the dish for a long time since one of my hosts asked me what the matter was. I told him that I do not eat fish.
“Then why did you order anchovies?”
No answer.
Another recommended that I scrape the fishes off and dig into the pizza. And I did. I almost puked. The taste of the fishes had permeated straight into the bread! My hosts almost fell off the chair laughing. The maître d'hôtel came anxiously to ask what the matter was.
I finally got a Margarita to eat.
Of all fishes, I am told, anchovies are the smelliest; even among fish eaters it is an acquired taste.
Guess which is the first word I learnt in French when I started learning the language?
Yeah! You got that right: Anchovy = Anchois.

Ralentissez! Slow Down!

Consider this: You are listening to a pre-recorded French conversation on your ipod. You have the transcript open in front of you. You follow every word of what is being said. But the moment you turn off the ipod and close the transcript, the whole conversation sort of disappears from your brain. You are not able to even recollect one full sentence. And this is happening even after listening to the recording many times.
Familiar!

Time to slow down! Time to fall back upon age old method of learning. Writing. Write down the conversation on a piece of paper, paying attention to each word written down. Once you have done that, read it aloud, slow….ly. Now see the difference.

I find this very effective. Hopefully you will find it too.

J'ai fait des progrès

When do you know you are making progress in learning a new language? ...
When you suddenly find you are not making progress. When you find that you have hit a wall and to proceed to the next level you need to push harder. And when you start questioning yourself if it was a good idea in the first place.

You see, picking up the first few words like bonjour, comment allez vous, il est, ils sont, is easy. The first few words come almost effortlessly. If that were not the case, you wouldn’t even pursue it far. But as you dig deeper you find things getting tougher. That’s when the real test begins. That’s when you start questioning your wisdom. And paradoxically, that shows that you have made progress.

So, what are the options?

The first and the easiest option is, of course, to lower your goals. You wanted to speak fluently. Now suddenly you just want to ‘manage’ your way through. (“after all I am not going to live in France”).

Other options:
a) Step back, give it a small break (not too much though), build up your enthusiasm and give it another go.

b) Avoid the tendency to restart all over – the tendency to perfect what you have already learnt is actually an escape mechanism to stay in the comfort zone.

c) Mix it up. Start looking for new sources of learning French. Internet is full of them.

d) Try some online quizzes. Here try BBC Quiz in French.

e) Try showing off your skills. Showing off puts pressure on you to sustain the image.

Still Struggling with French Phrases

You know you are still struggling when you encounter a phrase heard before in a new context and still do not get it.
An example:
I came across this expression in Rocket French: “Ça a l’air genial“ (It sounds great). This was some time ago. And I promised to myself that I would never forget this and use it every time I get a chance.
And today I came across this expression in Coffee Break French: Ça a l’air délicieux (It sounds delicious) in a restaurant context. And it just washed past me.
Ah well! One step at a time.

Importance of Grammar

Let’s work this backwards.
1. The main aim of language is to communicate.
2. To communicate you need to be able to form sentences.
3. Sentences are made of words and phrases.
4. However, words and phrases placed randomly do not make sense and hence no communication is possible.
5. Grammar gives structure to a sentence. Grammar tells you where the words and phrases should go in a sentence.
6. I, therefore, do not understand the reluctance to learn grammar early on.

Communication does not merely mean conveying needs or asking for directions or saying how many children you have. The goal is to convey thoughts and ideas.
This obviously takes time. But that is no excuse to eschew grammar.

Because humans pick up basic patterns naturally and without much effort. These patterns are generally sufficient for simple to intermediate level of activities. However, for more advanced tasks a better understanding of patterns is required. And that means more effort. Hence, study of patterns is considered difficult. And since there is a common tendency to achieve without effort, study of patterns such as, mathematics and grammar, is presented as something that is esoteric and not essential for normal routine.

Incroyable! C'est ridicule.

Fear of French

Fear of French

Everyone has a favourite French fear that needs to be overcome before learning French becomes a reality. To many it is the nasal pronunciation, to others it is the silent letters that all French words seem to be made of. These were never my concern. Since, Hindi has special symbols for nasal sound, I knew I will overcome this bit – sooner or later. I did hesitate over silent letters but soon realized that there is a pattern in this apparent madness. So, no! I was not afraid of the usual.
What terrified me was the liaison. Funny, but true. I actually gave up learning French at least 2-3 times because of this. How on earth could someone predict if the next word starts with a vowel?
Nous avons (we have) is pronounced “noozaavoN” (the capital N is nasal). While, nous faisons (we do) is pronounced “noo fayezoN”. So, essentially I needed to know beforehand when ‘nous’ will be followed by ‘avons’ and I needed to know that ‘avons’ starts with an ‘a’. Now that was difficult.
But as I persisted, I noticed something strange. And this is what I believe. I may be wrong, but this helped me.
Actually, nous avons is not pronounced “noozaavoN”. It is actually “noo zaavoN”. So even the French do not know what is coming. Once the French brain knows that the next word starts with a vowel, it then adds the liaison. Once I was convinced that this was the case, I started learning French with all gusto.
So, you see. It is all in the mind. The trick is to: step back and introspect, and then proceed. Now, isn’t this true for all endeavours in life?

Learning a language in 3 months

In my search for language blogs I have come across a very interesting one: Fluent in 3 Months. And I certainly envy Benny Lewis. But I do not agree with him.
Why?
Since you are reading this blog I will assume you know English. If English is not your mother tongue, how much time did it take for you to become fluent in it? 3 months? 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?
So, what makes you think you will become fluent in a new language in 3 months? Remember the key word here is “fluent”, not communicating in broken language.
One might argue that if you had applied unconventional methods, you might have learnt English in 3 months. Perhaps, you are right. That’s why I gave you the link. Try Benny’s method and let me know if you succeeded. Personally, I am not in a hurry.

Indians saying no to English

I have never been able to understand why people of India did not take up French as their second language with a vengeance. Hindsight tells us pursuing English as the language of choice has helped India become the software power it claims to be. But given the fact that the English ruled us for over 190 years one would think that Indians as a whole would reject their language for their cultural rival – French. (This of course never happens; colonies almost always adopt their former masters’ cultural norms.)
But assuming Indians had decided to take up French, I can only imagine how much easy it would have been for us to speak the language. And it is not just because of the advantage of speaking the language since childhood. It is also because Devanagri script is very precise and more advanced than Roman script.
Let me take a few examples:
How do you think you should pronounce ‘Le’? Unless someone tells you how, you are unlikely to know exactly. Even after being told, I have heard people saying it incorrectly. But tell an Indian ‘Le’ => ल, and see them speaking effortlessly. Or tell them ‘les’ => ले and you get that perfect French pronunciation. Let’s take something a bit more difficult: ‘venez’. In Hindi, it would be written वने and you have an exact pronunciation key in your hand.

Who and Whom - qui et que

23-Sep-2011

The use of qui and que could be puzzling. Especially since English speakers tend to mix up ‘who’ and ‘whom’ without regret. In addition there are words like ‘which’ and ‘that’ that have similar role as ‘who’ and ‘whom’.

Mercifully, French has only two and the usage is deterministic. However, given the similarity in the two words, it takes time to figure out when to use ‘qui’ and when to use ‘que’.

From what I have learnt, ‘qui’ comes before a verb, and ‘que’ comes before a pronoun.

C’est elle qui conduit. (It is she who drives).
C’est elle que j’aime. (It is she whom I love).

Qui before verb and que before pronoun. You might as well memorize this.

Alternatively you may use this mnemonic: Since ‘qui’ already has an ‘i’ (and I is a pronoun) it cannot come before a pronoun. I find this easy to remember.

Update: 02-Nov-2011

One lives and learns.

Turns out that qui could also come in front of a pronoun. So, I need to change the rule ("Qui before verb and que before pronoun.") a bit.

1. Que before pronoun.
2. Qui before verb. (note: Que never comes before a verb).
3. Qui before a pronoun, if and only if, the pronoun is a person and appears after a proposition.

Example:
He is the person with whom I plan to travel.
Il est la personne avec qui j'ai l'intention de voyager.

She is the person to whom I go with all my problems.
Elle est la personne à qui je vais avec tous mes problèmes.

By the way, if you notice, the original explanation of 'who = qui' and 'whom = que' still stands.

Update: 08-Nov-2011


An interesting usage of qui came to my notice. I picked up the following sentence from Les Portes Tordues: Mais c'est surtout le vent qui nous fait perdre courage ... (But it is especially the wind that causes us to lose heart ...).

Immediately you can see that the pronoun nous follows qui. Now, this goes against the rule number 2 above which states, "Qui before verb", and nous is a pronoun.
Actually there is no conflict here. nous is an indirect object pronoun in this case, and in French, as you know the when a pronoun replaces an indirect object it moves to the front. That's what has happened in this case. And so, qui is still in front of a verb, but in an oblique way.

Will keep updating this post till mastery is achieved.

Primary French Learning Resources

I took some time (J’ai pris du temps), but I eventually have homed on to the following two resources for my daily French learning.
1) Coffee Break French - I listen to the podcasts (J'écoute les podcasts) as I drive up and down my work place in the mornings and the evenings. It helps me maintain my cool while driving (you need to drive in Bangalore to understand what I mean) and I drive slowly when I listen to my iPod.
2) Complete French (Teach Yourself series) – I spend (Je passe) about 45 minutes (quarante-cinq minutes) to 1 hour (une heure) working on each page diligently.
3) I make an attempt to read and understand something from www.francegazette.com.

The above resources may or may not work for you. There are many other really good resources out there. But there are a few things I have learnt in my attempts to self study French. These are:
a) There are too many resources out there. It is easy to get distracted. There are no perfect resources. So decide quickly which suits you the best and get on with it. Jumping from one resource to another does not help.
b) The most expensive course is not necessarily the best one.
c) It is difficult to depend on internet for information on which course suits you best. There are far too many affiliates trying to sell you the best course that is. Most of the times it is difficult to separate a genuine review from an affiliate sales pitch.
(By the way, all links on this blog are, and will be, non-affiliate ones, I promise you that)
d) Self-study needs discipline. You need to promise to yourself a fixed amount of time everyday dedicated to self study. Otherwise it is a waste of time.
e) Experiment with different styles of studying and determine which works best for you. I find I retain more when I write. The pages of my copy of Complete French are peppered with notes and comments. In addition, I will not proceed to the next page unless I know every word of the page I am working on then.
Bonne chance!

French is making my English better

Le français est faire mon l'anglais mieux.
And no, it is not because English has borrowed many words from French.
I try and repeat the last sentence I spoke in French - often in my mind, and sometimes in front of friends. In order to ensure I can do this, I try to keep the last sentence short and simple. And I find that this helps me with my English language skills too.
You see, if communication is the main purpose of a language, then keeping it short and simple should be the goal. That's it. C'est ça.

Revisiting Hercule Poirot - Revister Hercule Poirot

You know what?
All those Hercule Poirot books … all those skipped French expressions --- I feel like rereading all Agatha Christie books just to understand what dear Poirot exclaimed.
I picked this from Wikipedia:
The plane dropped slightly. "Mon estomac," thought Hercule Poirot, and closed his eyes determinedly
I know now what this means: My stomach.
I now also know that even if estomac were female noun, it still would have “mon estomac” and not “ma estimac”. Isn’t that wonderful? N'est-ce pas merveilleux?

Small Moments of Joy - Petits moments de joie

We language learners live on tiny spikes of happiness. So it was when I came across and, more importantly, understood: “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” (This is a famous quote by Voltaire and is a favourite quote of software domain; no wonder software are so buggy; but I am digressing).
I was reading the article “Beta-Think” by Michael Bungay Stanier included in the brilliant initiative to End Malaria (p. 55). (For more details go to http://endmalariaday.com/; by the way, I am very proud that $20 of my money will go to buy two mosquito nets that will help eradicate malaria.)
“Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien”.
Le mieux => the best. “Mieux” means better. C’est mieux => It is better. But with the pronoun “Le”, Le mieux means the best.
L’ennemi even looks like distorted “enemy”.
Le bien. Bien generally means well, as in bienvenue (well-come => welcome). But in this context it means the good.
To translate: The best is the enemy of the good.

Unfulfilled Desire to Learn French

I can still remember the first time I had the desire to learn French. It is was way back in 1986. I was browsing at the Sapna Book Shop in Bangalore. And on the top shelf were this huge letters staring back at me: Linguaphone's Learn French. This was before the days of CD and podcasts. I could not afford it, of course. But the desire stayed.
I am now 47. I am not sure there are many at my age who start learning a new language. And that too for no reason other than to address an unfulfilled desire that is 25 years old.
My friends and family ask me if there is anything to gain from this.
Any thing to gain???
I guess no.
Or perhaps this is part of my retirement plan - when I am done with my day job, I will teach young children French. Or perhaps, I will freelance as a translator. Now that is not a bad idea. No?

My first visit to France

The year is 2002. This is my first trip to a non-English speaking country. I am going to France.
I land at the Toulouse airport via Milan. Upon landing I search for immigration. To my surprise, I cannot find it. Funny! How do I enter the country?
I approach a person who seemed to be wearing a police uniform. I ask him about immigration. He rattles off something in French pointing to doors marked "Sortie".
Hmmm... Sortie. When I was small I was an avid Commando comics fan. RAF used to fly sorties. Why is this person pointing to sortie? And why doesn't he speak English? This is an airport and if he is a policeman, shouldn't he be there to help?
I stare at him for some time trying to catch some words that I read in a French phrase book that I had purchased some days ago. Nothing!
I move away. Traces of panic appear. If I am delayed here, my baggage will be taken off carousal and who knows how to find them. In desperation I look around. There is a young man standing near a desk. All others are moving around. Perhaps, he can help. I go to him. As I walk towards him, I am trying to remember what I learnt in the phrase book.
"Parlez vous anglais?: I stammer out.
"Yeah, a little".
Relief.
I ask him about the immigration.
He looks at me strangely and says, "collect yous baggage and walk out." and points towards "sortie".
"But if I enter France without an immigration stamp, I will have trouble going back."
"Hmm... How did you come here?" he asks.
"From Bangalore to Bombay via Milan."
"Did they stamp your passport at Milan?"
"Yes they did."
"Then you have nothing to worry. Since we are all part of European Union, you can enter anywhere into Europe."
"Oh I see!"
I thank that person immensely, find out where my luggage could be (it was more than half an hour since I have landed) and exit.

Phew!

I have since visited many other non-English speaking countries - Germany, Belgium, Switzerland - but that first trip is frozen in my mind.

Lessons learnt:
a) No matter how much information you have about a place or about related events, nothing will prepare you when you reach that place (I knew about the formation of EU.)
b) There is no substitute for local language. Your customers may speak English well, the person on the street will not.

All memories came flooding back when I created this web page on Free Online French Learning Resources. If you are planning to visit France in future, or wish to learn a language that will exercise your brain cells, this is the place to start.