Month: May 2010

Just a few sound clips … to show you how easy it is to pronounce and spell these homonyms!

We all know “one way street …” ((sens unique dans tous ses sens)) [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18171d1.mp3|titles=one way street] and we know that there’s more than “one way” : Which way? Oh dear … No way! ((impossible!))[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex18064a1.mp3|titles=no way]

Talking pounds and kilos … How much does it weigh?

weigh <pronunciation> way [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18171.mp3|titles=way]

Oh dear I just realized … the noun form of weigh is … weight. Which is pronounced just like wait.  “Heaven can wait” wasn’t that the name of a movie?

weight <pronunciation> wait [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/mf18165.mp3|titles=wait/weight]

surely there are others … any suggestions?

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Take just about any word or group of words and test them: What does “you” mean? In fact, it all depends on the intonation, doesn’t it? Intonation is in the voice;  punctuation is in writing. We “hear” punctuation when we read…don’t we?

I do.

You do?

You!

There are full stops. Also know in the USA as periods.

There are question marks, too, aren’t there?

Exclamation marks, too!

And of course, commas, so that we can breathe easier.

and “quotation marks,” traditonal and modern.

Until words are punctuated, they can’t really mean anything … For instance … what sense can you give these words in this order?

Woman without her man is nothing

?? !! “.” , : ;  (and there are more on your keyboard … I wonder where they came from!)

and as for intonation …

Enjoy! More to come …

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Where else is the audience invited for a drink and snack at intermission? Where else does the audience vote on the best short film (court-metrage) shown that evening? Only at the Escurial. Bd. Port Royal, Paris 13. M° Gobelins.

Once a month, a dozen shorts are shown on a given theme.

L’Escurial Panorama est la seule et dernière salle indépendante classée Art et Essai du 13ème Arrondissement et aussi l’une des plus anciennes (création en 1911).

Ce lieu est né sous une bonne étoile : dans les années 1980, après avoir longtemps été la propriété du cinéaste Jean Gourguet, il est sauvé de la transformation en supermarché grâce à la volonté de jeunes fous de cinéma. Cette équipe, qui ne connaît rien à l’exploitation mais tout sur les films, fait de cette salle le lieu du cinéma à la carte avec vingt films par semaine et des nuits entières consacrées aux stars que sont Brigitte Bardot ou Marlon Brando. La fréquentation est multipliée par trois et le succès est si rapide qu’une deuxième salle est construite dans l’ancien balcon.

La programmation de l’Escurial permet de faire découvrir au public un cinéma de qualité soutenu par une politique d’animation très forte. Depuis 2002, ” les soirées courts-métrages ” de l’Escurial vous permettent de voir des chefs d’œuvre au format court, dans une ambiance bon enfant et décontractée, le dernier mardi de chaque mois. Deux fois par mois sont également organisées des projections de documentaires le dimanche matin, suivies de débats.

Ce cinéma au destin étonnant incarne la persistance des salles de quartier à la programmation exigeante. Pour ceux qui ne le connaissent pas, l’essayer, c’est l’adopter !

Link to the Escurial.

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The “Greening of America: An Opportunity for Europe” conference held on Monday, April 12th was hosted by Microsoft at their new Parisian Campus in Issy les Moulineaux. Discussion centered around one major theme: Public and Private Partnerships, local and trans-Atlantic.

US policy is to export know-how and to welcome job creating innovative green projects.

I think French policy is about the same. So … maybe there’s some business to be done.

Most of the conference was in English and I was struck by the vivacity of the language used. I’d say I could understand upwards of 90% of the speeches.  There were a few accents and some unusal pronunciations my ear had to get used to. But they were all informative, rich and intelligent.

Here are a few of the most frequently used terms:

green, sustainable and sustainability, partnerships, cloud (as in cloud computing);

There were lots of comparatives used and especially this one: cleaner. More efficient came out frequently as did the word “new” often as an adjective with both a prefix (re-) and a suffix (able):  renewable.

These conferences are always good for scrabble players : renewability was used about every 15 minutes .

The prefix re- and the sound re- was heard in these words: reward … re-energize.. and recovery….  and responsible.

Innovation was a key word as was the subject: energy. And of course: energy efficient…which is, I learnt,  what the Empire State Building will soon be!

Self-funding is a neat concept. I don’t recall if that came from a “public” or a “private” institution. Of course, investment was used over and over again but I have no recall of the word ‘cost’ … except in the phrase “low-cost.”

“Paperless” “Paper-free” : Someone in the audience translated these as “sans-papiers.”

More than one speaker used a very clear and easy to pronounce expression:

“At the end of the day …” This expression,  which means … the end result …. is roughly synonomous with

“When all is said and done” or “The bottom line”

and in French … maybe something like … Tous comptes faits … En fin de compte … and I will say that today, at the end of the day, there was a lot of goodwill, lots of business cards exchanged and promises made!

I couldn’t help but note that one other word, a word which immigrated into American English from Europe,  was used: Chutzpah!

Bravo to all the participants and thanks to the hosts and sponsors. This is a step in the right direction.

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My dear friend M. came for tea – Ho Chi Cha,  Japanese grilled tea which infuses for 1 minute only in water heated to 95° .

Remember. Olive trees don’t bear fruit the first seasons. But afterwards, unless there’s a deep freeze, they will continue to produce year after year.

After all, isn’t the olive branch a sign of peace precisely because it must grow slowly, steadily season after season?

Not quite the same as kiwis and flaming passion fruit.

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To fully understand this phenomenon, you must understand the psychology of the English verb can and the auxilliary verb indicating the future: will.

“Can,” in the affirmative, tends to mean:  ability, possibility, potential. Stop. Nothing more, Nothing further. Pure hypothesis. Pure abstraction. Nothing concretely visible is happening here. We’re in the pre- stage so to speak. Before. The “not yet.”

“‘Will,” on the other hand, is a belief in the future. It will rain … As the lady says … There’s no doubt about it.  Meteorologists.

“What can happen will happen.” … Not exactly … but what Murphy’s law states is the fatalistic truth of a belief in the  inevitable:

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

What we need to remember is that, like the chances of always winning at roulette, the chances of always “going wrong” are infintesimal.  That’s the common ground between disasters and miracles:  Surprise. Unpredictability. Or is it just good or bad … luck?

More on Murphy’s law (probably) here.

(Have a good day!)

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I hope yesterday’s pix and story about incomprehensible signs didn’t offend anyone. Everyone knows that Parisians don’t pay any attention to those signs anyway and tourists and foreigners don’t bother as there are so many of them … that in the end, well, the bottom line, so to speak, is … just watch where you’re going. Follow the old 3: Stop. Look. Listen.

I’ve been thinking about a few of the recent  NATURAL disasters: Katrina, the Icelandic Volcano eruption, eathquakes, tornados, hurricanes and tidal waves. All of these lead me to suggest to my daughter L. that she go for an “S” (Sciences) diploma because there’s probably a real future in figuring out how the earth works … and then there are all the environmental issues and questions of sustainability.

But natural disasters are only half of the equation. The other half are miracles. Why do I say this? What do they have in common?

They do have one thing in common: their unpredictability.

Despite Murphy’s law and a general tendency toward narrow-mindedness … you’ll find a little natural optimism in …  The Paris Savannah Connection.

Hope you enjoy it … and even if we can’t do anything about natural disasters … maybe it’s about time we ought to stop shooting ourselves in the feet …

Keep smiling,

And thank you for reading … The Paris Savannah Connection.

Mark

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Now let’s be polite … preferably sincerely … !

1. Excuse me. [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079e1.mp3|titles=Excuse me.]

2. Will you excuse us, please? [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079c1.mp3|titles=Will you excuse us please?]

3. Would you excuse me?  [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex17079d1.mp3|titles=Would you excuse me?]

If you’re interested in real English … it’s time to subscribe to The Paris Savannah Connection.

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This sign has intrigued me for quite a while. It’s posted, as you can see, in the middle of the Boulevard Montparnasse.  Not exactly in the midde. A third of the way across.  What’s curious is that there are several but none are “signed” so we don’t know who put them there. The city? The police? The RATP? An NGO? A neighborhood association?

Here’s a close-up. As it isn’t legible at a distance equal to the width of the two traffic lanes separating the pedestrian on the sidewalk from the sign, I had to stand in the middle of the street to read it.

It could be translated into English as “Careful Pedestrians.” Though, I suspect it’s to be interpreted as : “Pedestrians: Be Careful!” Or maybe it’s to warn pedestrians to be wary of other pedestrians. The small print explains it clearly. If you turn your head to a 90° angle, you can read “BUS.” Then you’d have to do another 180° from there to read the other side … Anyway, the idea comes across that a bus lane (singular) runs in dual directions on either side … of a thin black line. …  Or does “double sens” really mean “double meaning” ? I had to stop reading because the 91 was approaching. Too bad, because I was just about to decipher what the other arrows meant…

It was driving slowly in case there were bicycles. Bikes have the right of way in bus lanes. We encourage ecological solutions to the world’s problems. That’s why we group bus transportation and no-pollution bicycling in the same lane.

It was following the rules.. The arrow was pointing the direction in case the driver was distracted

and though I didn’t realize it at the time, bus drivers are multi-tasking folk.

Once the bus had passed … this couple decided to cross … They must have read the sign because they are looking out for buses.  Even if they are looking in the wrong direction. Fortunately, there were none. What they missed were the red lights.

But they weren’t the only ones …

people of all ages cross at the crossings …

and most manage to get to the other side.

It must be thanks to “Maréchal Ney” who directs traffic at the intersection.

He cautiously stands in a safe, protected place.

Understandably.

You’d think that all of this might be a little risky. In fact, if you do successfully cross, there is a reward.  Because if you do, you can just sit back and relax in one of the most beautiful places man has created: Le Jardin de Luxembourg … or “Le Luco” as it’s known in the neighborhood …

(post dedicated to Henrik, Anne, Rasmus and Johann)

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