Category: Fluency
Photography in Paris: Eugène Atget … then and now.
From the New York Times
Photographer Ed Alcock discusses how he went about taking contemporary images of Paris by following the examples of Eugène Atget.
Here’s the video from the NYT:
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How odd … 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 … odd numbers, aren’t they?
This is a remarkable word … odd … How odd!
We often use it in the same way as the French use the word “bizarre” … How strange! How unusual! How funny! How peculiar! How unexpected … How odd it is!
What an odd thing to say …
And here’s another … obviously everyday way of using it …
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Howards End
Something you may enjoy!
A. O. Scott reviews James Ivory and Ismail Merchant’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.
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“Singin’ in the Rain”
If you need to get out of a rainy mood, or if you just happen to like movies, take a 4 minute refresher by watching this!
A. 0. Scott takes a look at the 1952 musical:
Singin’ in the rain !
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It takes a thief … to catch a thief.
It takes a thief to catch a thief …
A few years back, I needed to replace a “burglar-proof” door. There were different models: some were 3-point systems, others were 5-point… and then there were others that had even more. When I asked how long it would take a professional burglar to get through … the answer was …
“a minute a point …
Apparently the best locksmiths … like those who can put a rubik’s Cube back to its original state in a few minutes … are those who’ve cracked the code … who have learnt the secrets.
There’s an old Eastern European proverb which says:
“Old highwaymen make the best police…
but … there are not only men on the road …
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James Dyson, and building a better vacuum: newyorker.com
Bristish engineer and inventor James Dyson wasn’t so happy about his own vacuum cleaner … so he designed a better one. And opened up an entirely new market.
Knighted by the Queen … Engineer James became … Sir James!
A story worth reading:
James Dyson, and building a better vacuum: newyorker.com.
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Traitors: Les Faux Amis (in French, False Friends :)
When I first began teaching English in France, I heard an expression I had never encounterd before: False Friends. What in the world could that mean? Only a Frenchman would know … that he meant look-alikes or even worse, imposters or traitors!
There are quite a few words which, in French and in English, have the same or similar spellings, maybe the same roots but which are not used in the same ways in the two languages. As with wild mushrooms … some look-alikes … are dangerous.
If you hear a Frenchman say “actually” in English … you can be suspicious. The word slips into a sentence easily and isn’t illogical in most cases. If the Frenchman knows that the word means “in fact” and he uses it that way … that’s fine. BUT if he thinks that “actually” is the faithful translation of the French word “actuellement” … we’re mistaken and into … look-alikes: A fair translation of the idea of “actuellement” would be “now, at the present time.”
We are thus facing not just two words but two different concepts.
The French word, actuel, expresses a concept in TIME; the English word actual expresses the concept of fact, of ACCURACY.
Misunderstandings are born of … assumptions. Beware of look-alikes!
Fortunately … “false” friends aren’t the only kind … There are thousands of real ones, those you can count on, including the TV series …
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Public Speaking
Speaking to a group of people – often an audience, participants attending a seminar, a conference, a meeting;
What is the most common thing that you need to overcome?
Fear …
Gaining the essential self confidence and mastering your time in front of … one very important person or several hundred people is our objective. If some of our politicians can do it, you can, too.
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