Do I wake or sleep?

Since returning from Italy (full pictures and rundown later), I've been inspired to pick up my French studies again. I took French for 8 years--7th grade through sophomore year in college, and although I was pretty bored by it by then, I'd achieved a certain level of competence. I tried to learn what Italian I could before I went over there, and found it easier than expected, no doubt because they're both Romance languages (I had the same ease of access with Spanish). I think a working fluency in French would be very useful.

So I've been attacking this from several angles--downloading exercises and transcripts from About.com, refreshing myself on basic grammar from a workbook I bought at Barnes & Noble, and rereading Le Petit Prince. The About.com stuff is interesting, although all over the map. I've been getting random exercises (i.e., the lessons appear to be in no particular order) from their "Intermediate/Advanced" section--the first one was a two-part article on Tourism in Paris. The first half was a standard paragraph on the subject; the second half was an interview with some guy who's a Parisian official. The idea is to listen to the sound clip to improve listening comprehension, download the transcript to read and translate, then do the quiz to see what you retained and understood. The first part was easy enough, but the interview KICKED MY ASS. Very idiommatic French, not intermediate at all. But it's great to listen to this, it's helping my pronunciation. I have a decent Parisian accent but I have trouble with some Rs. I do the Rs in words like trop and prince (i.e., the fricative R) well, but I have more trouble with the Rs in words like Americaine or Parisienne (i.e., the liquid R).

The workbook is VERY basic so far and not challenging but it's useful to remind myself of the rules of definite articles and things like that. (I'm hoping it'll get to regular and irregular verbs soon--I need a refresher on conjugations.) But what I'm enjoying the most is rereading Le Petit Prince, which I LOVED as a child. I read it as a teenager in my French classes, so I know the English translation better. The language is simple enough and knowing roughly where the story is going is helping the comprehension. In reading it aloud (as well as with the About.com articles), I'm trying not just to pronounce the words correctly, but to grasp the arc of the sentence, and make my voice rise and fill where it should. So far I sound like I'm reading to a bunch of 6 year olds ("S'il vous PLAIT, DESSINE moi un MOUTON!") but at least my real-time comprehension is improving, as long as I don't read too quickly!

I had a rather sweet moment on the train the other day. I was riding to rehearsal and a kid, about 9 years old, and his mother came on. She stayed standing, and he sat next to me and was just openly reading over my shoulder. I was reading one of the About.com articles and since he seemed interested, I explained to him that it was in French. He jumped at the conversational gambit and was all "yes, I know!" and trying to read it. I said "this is pretty difficult--you might like this better" and pulled out Le Petit Prince. I showed him the cover with "Avec les dessins par l'auteur" and pointed to the last word. I said "what English word does this look like? Author, right? So l'auteur means the author." I translated the whole phrase for him, and then started flipping through the book, showing him the illustrations. He was so cute, commenting on the Prince's planet ("it's like the size of a HOUSE!") and the other tiny planets in the Prince's neck of the galaxy. I pointed out cognates where I spotted them (planete, rose, etc.) and showed him the numbers (in the scene where the businessman is counting). His mother apologized for him but I said he wasn't a bother at all.

Another thing I'd like to do, is find some kind of social gathering where they speak in French. I did a couple of searches and found a weekly hangout in Union Square at a bar--they go there every Sunday and practice all kinds of languages, similar to the "language tables" in college. Lori speaks French fairly fluently (she minored in French) and she and I are going to go there togather. Right now I can understand conversations (until a certain level--in the elevator the other day I was riding down with a family who'd just come from the Rainbow Room. They were speaking in French and I understood a decent amount) but I'm a little shy about just jumping in myself.

It's breezy and cold again today. Still, I stubbornly insist upon wearing a sleeveless outfit--it is June, dammit, I will wear skimpy clothes. Last night I tried out Duncan's Blue Blower--it's a bit noisy but it seems to cool down the loft nicely. It was nice sleeping on a mattress again.

Last night another rehearsal for Aria da Capo, the one act play by Edna St. Vincent Millay that Duncan is directing. Jason and I play Pierrot and Columbine, commedia dell'arte characters who perform comedy improv and are kicked off the stage for a tragedy improv--that turns out to be real. The play is quite interesting. Apparently Millay wrote it about World War I, and wanted to make the statement that comedy is used to distract "the people" from tragedy. I hope Duncan includes notes in the program about that--I love context before seeing an abstract play like this.

I love working with Jason and Duncan. Jason is enormously talented (of course I knew that) and respectful to his fellow actors. And fun and funny, as well. Duncan provides a lot of scholarship which is very helpful with this play, especially. I came in a bit before nine and came upon the other two actors, who play the tragic actors, who end up actually killing each other during their "game." I was daydreaming a bit and didn't catch the notes he gave to them--but as a director, I wanted to tell them to make it more stylized, less natural. I felt they were acting a bit too much like regular, everyday guys--the language is heightened, it's in blank verse, and it's okay to play that. The trick is to stylize it, without losing a sense of the "real" emotions underneath. But I'm not sure what level of experience these two have--they seem pretty good as instinctive, basic actors, and maybe they just have no experience with that kind of style.