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Cargando... When in French: Love in a Second Languagepor Lauren Collins
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I read this book on vacation, and it was the perfect time for it. The book doesn't really go anywhere, it's more just the voyage of one woman's life with some musings on the ways in which language and culture inform so much of how we see our lives. It's a little meandering, but I was fine with that. ( ) A very well-written memoir about learning French and marrying a Frenchman (and languages in general). She explores the differences between languages, how there is not always a one-to-one equivalent, how a different language can even have an effect on how you think, how difficult relationships can be when you don't have a shared maternal tongue. It's a good addition to the American in Paris memoir genre. Madame Collins was an American working in London when she fell in love with a French man. They lived in Geneva for his job and as she realized how much she was missing in the present, communication with her in- laws and neighbors, and how much she would miss in the future as their children grew up speaking French, Madame Collins decided to actively learn the language. This book chronicles the personal intricacies of a relationship conducted in second languages, interspersed with a multitude of information on the study of language, the French and English languages, how languages shape us, etc. I particularly enjoyed her evolution of thought as she became fluent in French. A very enjoyable book. I really liked this book and found that a lot of the things Collins has to say about cross-cultural marriages resonated with me. (My husband and I speak the same native language, but I was raised Southern Baptist and he was raised Jewish, and I found that many of the frustrations Collins describes apply.) It's very well-written, as one would expect of a New Yorker writer. I think it could have been a little tighter, but it's a pretty short book so I suppose she felt the need to stretch. Perfect Yom Kippur afternoon reading -- interesting but light enough that it didn't tax my tired, hungry brain. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Distinciones
"A language barrier is no match for love. Lauren Collins discovered this firsthand when, in her early thirties, she moved to London and fell for a Frenchman named Olivier-- a surprising turn of events for someone who didn't have a passport until she was in college. But what does it mean to love someone in a second language? Collins wonders, as her relationship with Olivier continues to grow entirely in English. Are there things she doesn't understand about Olivier, having never spoken to him in his native tongue? Does 'I love you' even mean the same thing as 'je t'aime'? When the couple, newly married, relocates to Francophone Geneva, Collins-- fearful of one day becoming 'a Borat of a mother' who doesn't understand her own kids-- decides to answer her questions for herself by learning French. When in French is a laugh-out-loud funny and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love, as well as an exploration across culture and history into how we learn languages-- and what they say about who we are. Collins grapples with the complexities of the French language, enduring excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidentally telling her mother-in-law that she's given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French, Collins must wrestle with the very nature of French identity and society-- which, it turns out, is a far cry from life back home in North Carolina. Plumbing the mysterious depths of humanity's many forms of language, Collins describes with great style and wicked humor the frustrations, embarrassments, surprises, and, finally, joys of learning-- and living in-- French"--
"When New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins moves to Geneva, Switzerland, she decides to learn French--not just to be able to go about her day-to-day life, but in order to be closer to her French husband and his family. When in French is at once a hilarious and idiosyncratic memoir about the things we do for love, and an exploration across cultures and history into how we learn languages, and what they say about who we are"-- No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)448.0092Language French Prescriptive and applied linguistics, standard usageClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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