language learning

That does it.
Do you think this might justify a trip home?
Please say yes, please say yes!?!
Ok, here is the deal. the cleaning lady doesn’t understand me. Arg!
Mom, dad, don’t throw any of my books away. I promise, they will be out of there in no time. There is no excuse that I cannot tell the lady that my round office table is greasy! Bring out the language books, I need some restroom reading anyway.

I love languages! Seems language learning is the big subject at the moment for new Education reforms in France at the moment too. I tend to agree with the measures, I mean, hello world, welcome to 2005! What is there left to discuss? I mean, just take a look at the language-related frustrations felt by reading my blog. :)
(Hey SC, how’s it going? :) )

Language skills are essential. Ron would remind me: “Euphonies, no wonder, that is your sticking horse*!” And I would have to argue: “anyone can learn! Only those with a hair in their hand** don’t. Yeah, I love language, find code-switching fascinating and have to smile when translating some expressions literally such as the ones above. Check this one out: please kill ants with me is an expression my brother is using in Africa to convey the need to stay and chat for a while. If only I could master English expressions better. That is one thing I am absolutely hopeless at. Just in the nick of the clock*** hardly sounds foreign to my ears. I mean, I am really really bad. :)
There is no doubt plenty of literature on the subject too.
Time to hit the books.

In the meantime, I really had a blast testing a candidate’s German over the course of an interview on the telephone this afternoon. The tools do come in handy. I would never have expected to do that so early in my employment. But hey, standard procedure requires language skills on the CV to be validated. And by now, most of colleagues know I am super happy when I can speak German. So I got the job, and that kept me quiet for the next ten minutes. Poor candidate - I think I scared him.

I wish I could just keep learning languages in most of my spare time, but my free time is limited. Today I was invited by a few hotels out to lunch to test the facilities of five stars for ‘quality’ clients ... which is not exactly that strenuous, very true, DW. But I assure you, the eleven hours working today was not just spent in tanning shops.
Promise. :)


* Steckenpferd: your hobby and battleship
** Avoir un poil dans la main: to be lazy
*** Just in the nick of time: just in time