Montreal...

[fajrdrako]

I went to Montreal yesterday, with maaseru and Catherine. We had lunch with Yolande at an Italian restuarant - why don't I remember the name? How soon I forget! It was delicious, though. I had veal - the first time I've ordered veal in a restaurant since the early 1980s - and spaghetti bolognese. (Or 'spaghetti à la bolognaise'.)

Then Catherine and Yolande went for a sightseeing walk in Old Montreal, while maaseru and I shared a smoothie in Jacques Cartier square, watching a magician do some uninteresting tricks and crowds of tourists walking by.

Just being in Montreal made me enjoy using and hearing French - rusty though my French is. (Must watch more French Torchwood.)

So today I borrowed "Cours Moyen de Français" from maaseru. This was the high school French text used in Ontario when we were both high school students.

Actually, I'm in the mood to do languages today. At the hospital waiting for physiotherapy, I was reading a book I borrowed from luncay_gal, Our Latin Legacy. I was impressed to see that they teach the supine in chapter 2, and not just to mention it - they actually have translation exercises in which you have to understand its use. This is pretty cool, when it hasn't even got to the past tense yet.

So now I'm trying to memorize the Lord's Prayer. Why not?

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

According to The brain that changes itself : stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science by Norman Doidge, it is very good for one's brain to learn (or improve your knowledge of) another language. It's like intelligence isometrics.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Intelligence isometrics! I like the idea. Does it still count if it's languages I used to know fairly well, but have half-forgotten?

That sounds like an interesting book.

Pater Noster, qui es in caelis...

I tend to find the racier poems of Catullus easier to memorize than bits of the Bible. Funny, that.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

So that's why you had so little presence online yesterday! Good for you.

I've never been to Montreal. What would you recommend to a monolingual (Latin does not count!) Pennsylvanian who'd love to see this historic and delightfully charming city...? And eat there?

So fun -- mini-immersion in French. Hee.

And, um, I'd love to see a copy of Our Latin Legacy. My Latin is soooo rusty.

Congratlations on walking across the room, as I've already said! And hope your Doctor Who evening was wonderful. Wish I could have been there too. Hi to everyone!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So that's why you had so little presence online yesterday! Good for you.

Yeah. I didn't even post.

What would you recommend to a monolingual (Latin does not count!) Pennsylvanian who'd love to see this historic and delightfully charming city...?

I'm sure the Montrealers are happy to talk English to an American visitor. As for recommendations - no idea! I don't know the city well at all.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

History. I'm interested in history. Of the "colonies," not just of the US version of things.

It was one of my biggest history-geek thrills the day I stood next to the astrolabe at the museum in Hull. Holy --! I'd read about this thing! Here it was!!

It was just as amazing as seeing the type specimen Styracosaurus at the Natural History museum, whoo.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in history.

Montreal has some excellent museums. I'm sure you'd love the botanical gardens. And Old Montreal, generally, which has old French-style buildings adjacent to ultra-modern post-1967 stuff.

It was one of my biggest history-geek thrills the day I stood next to the astrolabe at the museum in Hull. Holy --! I'd read about this thing! Here it was!!

That artifact always makes me a little wibbly. It's amazing. It's so cool. It really is a bit of history just... sitting there, in front of us. Add to that, it's physically and conceptually beautiful. It's one thing to see a mechanism used for navigation in c. 1600, and all the more exciting to see one with a personal history - we know who it belonged to, we know what happened to it.

Here's a nice picture of it:



And the story (http://www.civilization.ca/tresors/treasure/222eng.html).

...gee!...

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Wow. What a nice post. You made my day smooth and happy. And I'm not being sarcastic.

You love the astrolabe, too? How did I never know that? When Iw as standing there staring at it that day, I rmember that you'd gone onward in the museum, and I was worrying that you were annoyed at me for falling behind, or that maybe I'd lose sight of you and then have to go hunt, and that would be embarrassing... things like that having happened to me too many times to count, when Iw as a kid and doing such things with my family. To the point where I never looked at things in museums when we visited, for sheer fear of getting caught up and then punished later for "wandering away" or whatever my dad always wanted to call it.

Yeah, so much for making the day smooth and happy! Fie on me. Blame the pain in my shoulder, which is addling my mind.

We can talk about the astrolabe someday in person... that would be nice.

Re: ...gee!...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My mother used to get upset when I wandered away, too. That's a parental thing.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I love Montreal. I really should re-visit soon.

And I miss using French. :( I was never fluent but I always loved learning it. When I'm out of this grad school thing, I liked to look into it again.

Or just watch Le Roi Danse a whole lot. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love Montreal. I really should re-visit soon.

It's a delightful city, and I've friends there I'd like to visit.

Watching Le Roi Danse at any opportunity is not a bad thing.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

OKay now I am stuck on Jack speaking *french* or more precisely speaking English with a french accent... (that should be wrong shouldn't it??)


And please to be ignoring spellings:
Pater Noster qui es in caelis, sanctificatur nomen tua, adveniat regnum tuum.. er SOMETHING.. sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum coti(something)de nobis hodie.
[complicated twiddly bits that you have to sing really fast to make them fit the (plain chant type) tune...and then it slows down just in time for the end and]
sed libera nos a malo,
Amen

hmm I used to be better at that...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

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<i.OKay now I am stuck on Jack speaking *french* or more precisely speaking English with a french accent... </i>

Hee - I've seen Jack speak French a lot, because I have been watching <i>Torchwod</i> in French. Trust me... he's sexy in French.

You're doing better on Pater Noster than I am, I think, but then, I just started yesterday. Not that I haven't read it before.

Pater Noster qui es in caelis,
Sanctificatur nomen tuum,
Advenuat regnum tuum,
Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra,
Et dimitte something something

which is where I get lost - and I have trouble remembering 'dimitte'.

We'll see if I have it down pat in another few days.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I just started yesterday
I can't do it at all unless I sing it but that's what sitting in the organ loft with the choir from your infancy (my brother was the organist) during the Latin Mass (until it went out of favour) will do to you...


Trust me... he's sexy in French.
Does he sound like JB? OMG *random thought* JB doesn't do it himself does he???

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

OMG *random thought* JB doesn't do it himself does he???

No, but I think the voice is very good.

[filkferengi]

You could always give the Aunt Dimity mysteries by Nancy Atherton a try. That'd be a fun mnemonic!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aunt Dimity has something to do with Pater Noster?

[filkferengi]

No, it has to do with remembering dimitte. Although she is a bit of deus ex libris sometimes.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah. I see.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

OKay now I am stuck on Jack speaking *french* or more precisely speaking English with a french accent...

Hee - I've seen Jack speak French a lot, because I have been watching Torchwod in French. Trust me... he's sexy in French.

You're doing better on Pater Noster than I am, I think, but then, I just started yesterday. Not that I haven't read it before.

Pater Noster qui es in caelis,
Sanctificatur nomen tuum,
Advenuat regnum tuum,
Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra,
Et dimitte something something

which is where I get lost - and I have trouble remembering 'dimitte'.

We'll see if I have it down pat in another few days.