languages & sight-seeing
Jun. 18th, 2006 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyLanguages - I had a number of opportunities to think about various language related things on the trip. On the train, you could tell what country we were in by the languages that the announcements were in. In the Netherlands, it went Dutch - French - English. In Belgium on the way there, it was Dutch - French - German - English, and on the way back it was French - Dutch - German - English. In France, it was French - Dutch - English. What I found curious was that I was half-way through the first announcement in Dutch before I realized a) realized it wasn't English and b) that I understood most of it. Given how little time I've spent with people who are speaking Dutch, it is remarkable how much I've absorbed through osmosis.
Given that, it was curious how utterly baffling the French was. My only knowledge of spoken French comes from 15 years of dance lessons (not exactly relevant for every day life.) I can generally muddle my way through written French well enough to pick out the proper names, and tell whether those names have been normalized or not. Oh, and I can read dates. If I need to understand the text, I can sort of with a dictionary. But listening to it? I haven't a clue. Even the first day we were in Amsterdam, when we went to the grocery store, I could sort of tell what the numbers were when we paid. When I went to the fruit market and bought the cherries, I simply had no idea what amount I was quoted.
The other interesting thing was that whenever I was faced with interacting with a French-speaker (such as buying metro tickets), I kept wanting to say "Dank u well" instead of "merci". It's funny how the brain responds to people speaking a foreign language. It immediately takes recourse in the most familiar foreign language you know. When we first arrived, I kept wanting to respond to people who spoke to me in Dutch with my very rudimentary German. By now I'd say that Dutch is closer to hand (or to lips) than German, and so when faced with people speaking to me in French, I kept wanting to respond in Dutch. I find this sort of cause and response action fascinating.
Sight-seeing - Given that I was there for a conference (which was scheduled for 10 hours a day!), and that I'd been in Paris before and seen the big tourist attractions, I didn't do much sight-seeing. We were situated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, which turns out to be just a few blocks from the Pantheon. I hadn't been there before (hadn't even known Paris had a Pantheon), and so during one of the lunch breaks one day I went up and sat on the steps to read and eat my lunch. We had gorgeous weather for most of the conference - Tuesday was horribly hot and muggy, but it rained the next day and was cool on Thursday, though it warmed up nicely on Friday and was hot again on Saturday. So Friday while I was there it was just sunny and lovely. Thursday I had walked up to the Pantheon, and then happened to turn and look down a side street and it was "Oh! There's the Eiffel Tower". It was off in the distance, but nicely framed by the street sides. I wandered down that way, thinking I might get a bit closer, get a bit of a better view, and at the end of the street I saw a sign for the Notre Dame, so I figured it couldn't be that far away (it had a little walking person next to it, so I knew it was a directional sign for people on foot.) So I walked up there, and enjoyed wandering through the cathedral at my own pace and my own time. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the heraldry painted along the alter pieces (I think) that were carved in the 14th C. They had to have been there when I was there the last time, but I missed them somehow! It was very pleasant to be back there. But I have to admit, when it first came in to view, my first thought was "It's so small!" Both inside and out, it was far smaller than I remembered. I guess since then I've seen quite a few other cathedrals in Europe, and some are just immense and awe-inspiring and dominating (the cathedral in Glasgow comes to mind). This just seemed diminutive in comparison, but that shouldn't be taken as a statement detracting its beauty.
I didn't stay too long, because I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get back to the Ecole, and I took a somewhat different route back, which led me right past the church of S. Severin. That building was impressive in that there is basically just a fence between it and the road, you could touch it as you walked along. I couldn't see whether it was open to the public (I never saw the main door), but even so, it's thrilling being so close to such an old building.
And that was about it for sight-seeing.
Given that, it was curious how utterly baffling the French was. My only knowledge of spoken French comes from 15 years of dance lessons (not exactly relevant for every day life.) I can generally muddle my way through written French well enough to pick out the proper names, and tell whether those names have been normalized or not. Oh, and I can read dates. If I need to understand the text, I can sort of with a dictionary. But listening to it? I haven't a clue. Even the first day we were in Amsterdam, when we went to the grocery store, I could sort of tell what the numbers were when we paid. When I went to the fruit market and bought the cherries, I simply had no idea what amount I was quoted.
The other interesting thing was that whenever I was faced with interacting with a French-speaker (such as buying metro tickets), I kept wanting to say "Dank u well" instead of "merci". It's funny how the brain responds to people speaking a foreign language. It immediately takes recourse in the most familiar foreign language you know. When we first arrived, I kept wanting to respond to people who spoke to me in Dutch with my very rudimentary German. By now I'd say that Dutch is closer to hand (or to lips) than German, and so when faced with people speaking to me in French, I kept wanting to respond in Dutch. I find this sort of cause and response action fascinating.
Sight-seeing - Given that I was there for a conference (which was scheduled for 10 hours a day!), and that I'd been in Paris before and seen the big tourist attractions, I didn't do much sight-seeing. We were situated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, which turns out to be just a few blocks from the Pantheon. I hadn't been there before (hadn't even known Paris had a Pantheon), and so during one of the lunch breaks one day I went up and sat on the steps to read and eat my lunch. We had gorgeous weather for most of the conference - Tuesday was horribly hot and muggy, but it rained the next day and was cool on Thursday, though it warmed up nicely on Friday and was hot again on Saturday. So Friday while I was there it was just sunny and lovely. Thursday I had walked up to the Pantheon, and then happened to turn and look down a side street and it was "Oh! There's the Eiffel Tower". It was off in the distance, but nicely framed by the street sides. I wandered down that way, thinking I might get a bit closer, get a bit of a better view, and at the end of the street I saw a sign for the Notre Dame, so I figured it couldn't be that far away (it had a little walking person next to it, so I knew it was a directional sign for people on foot.) So I walked up there, and enjoyed wandering through the cathedral at my own pace and my own time. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the heraldry painted along the alter pieces (I think) that were carved in the 14th C. They had to have been there when I was there the last time, but I missed them somehow! It was very pleasant to be back there. But I have to admit, when it first came in to view, my first thought was "It's so small!" Both inside and out, it was far smaller than I remembered. I guess since then I've seen quite a few other cathedrals in Europe, and some are just immense and awe-inspiring and dominating (the cathedral in Glasgow comes to mind). This just seemed diminutive in comparison, but that shouldn't be taken as a statement detracting its beauty.
I didn't stay too long, because I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get back to the Ecole, and I took a somewhat different route back, which led me right past the church of S. Severin. That building was impressive in that there is basically just a fence between it and the road, you could touch it as you walked along. I couldn't see whether it was open to the public (I never saw the main door), but even so, it's thrilling being so close to such an old building.
And that was about it for sight-seeing.
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Date: 2006-06-18 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-19 03:08 am (UTC)I consoled myself on the Latin front by thinking that I was simply a very very northern Roman.
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Date: 2006-06-19 07:38 am (UTC)My (ancient) Greek professor (he wasn't old, the language was) was Scottish, so I learned Greek with a bit of a Scottish accent. I got to go to a play in German which he was in, and German with a Scottish accent is hilarious.
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Date: 2006-06-20 03:58 pm (UTC)(That was also the trip during which I discovered my thus-far favorite church, Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona.)
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Date: 2006-06-20 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 03:34 pm (UTC)