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I keep clawing at the bars of the cage I built for myself. But first a digression. Walter W. Skeat wrote numerous notes on English etymology, some of which he eventually put together and published in book form. Much to my regret, not too many kl-words attracted his attention. But I was amused to discover that the verb clop means not only the sound made by shoes or hoofs but also “to cling, adhere to.”

The post Sartor resartus, or some thoughts on the origin of the word “cloth” and the history of clothes appeared first on OUPblog.

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Print and online journal Dumas de Demain, The French Literary Magazine is accepting submissions for their Autumn 2016 issue. Accepts French poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, art, photography and spoken word from writers under 25. Encourages all styles and genre of French writing. Deadline: Rolling.

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There is no one more acutely aware of the damage done to his reputation in recent years than Gérard Depardieu himself. “When I travel the world” he admitted to Léa Salamé in a recent interview for France Inter radio “what people remember above all else is that I pissed in a plane, I’m Russian, and that I wrote a letter of protest to the Prime Minister.”

The post Gérard Depardieu, an unlikely poster boy for French ambitions appeared first on OUPblog.

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Oh là là! App Crêpes by Suzette (May 2015), based on the picture book of the same name by Monica Wellington, features a crêpe maker — aptly named Suzette! — peddling her wares across Paris. After first stopping at an outdoor market for the day’s ingredients, she pushes her crêpe cart through town; a map shows the spots along her route (the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, etc.). The simple story (which can be read aloud or by yourself, and in six different languages: French, English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian) incorporates at least one French word or phrase into each scene: “Outside the museum the artist wants a snack, tout de suite. Time to flip the crêpe!” Tap the characters (including, on this page, the Mona Lisa and a mouse and squirrel) to hear different voices cheerily pronounce the French phrase.

The accompanying pictures are collages of real-life photos of contemporary Paris; simply shaped drawings of Suzette and her amis; and French maps, newspapers (Le Figaro), stamps, etc. Allusions to French artwork (Dance by Matisse, The Bath by Cassatt, Three Musicians by Picasso) appear in the illustrations and are explained in an “Art” section accessible from the map icon at the top left of the screen. There’s also a “Vocabulary” tab, which shows translations of the target French phrase in all six languages, and additional photos and videos.

Unobtrusive jazzy music (beaucoup de clarinet and accordion, with some strings at the Louvre — classy!), help set the scene. When you’re good and hungry, tap the “DIY Crepes” tab on the front page for a one-minute “Crêpe Maker’s Demo,” a 4.5-minute “Cooking Lesson” (in someone’s kitchen), and an easy written recipe. Bon mangé!

Available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (requires iOS 6.0 or later) and Android devices; $1.99. Recommended for primary users.

The post Crêpes by Suzette app review appeared first on The Horn Book.

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Take around seventy students from France, Germany, Spain and Turkey, put them in a room and tell them to speak English, think English, read English and write English about Peace and Tolerance.     What happens?
"Everyone wrote, said and did something about peace, they were creative, honest and nice." Gulsah, 14 years,Turkey.
"I learn sisterhood." Fatma, 16 yrs, Turkey.
 "I enjoyed the teamwork." Sami, 18 yrs, Syria


In October, 2014, I was invited for a second time to the Lycee Maurice Genevoix in Paris  to lead workshops on Peace and Tolerance. The school is part of an EU project and this time the partner schools from Germany, Turkey and Spain were joining us.





All the students were divided into two groups and each group would have a two hour workshop with me.
 How could I make sure that this mix of students with such varied abilities in English, whom I had never met before, had a positive and meaningful experience and gained some insight into working for peace and tolerance?


I need not have worried. The students came prepared to struggle with their English, listen, debate, question, laugh, say things out loud which are really quite difficult to admit to ...."I do not feel I can say that I am proud to be Jewish in France today".... and meet the Other from another country with an open heart and an open mind. It was a privilege to work with them.

I started with a poem by a boy who was an asylum seeker from Bosnia. Unfortunately his name is not known.

After the reading, we discussed the poem and then I asked the students to write a piece showing how they might respond to the boy. Here are examples of their writing :-

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Time passes quickly. As we track the progression of events hundred years ago on the Western Front, the dramas flash by. In the time it takes to answer an e-mail the anniversary of another battle has come and gone.

We have celebrated the fumbling British skirmishes at Mons and Le Cateau in late August, but largely forgotten the French triumph at the Battle of the Marne which first stemmed and threw back the German wheeling attack through Belgium into Northern France under the Schlieffen Plan. We have already bypassed the spirited Franco-British attempts at the Battle of the Aisne in September to take the Chemin des Dames. The Race to the Sea was under way: the British and German Armies desperately trying to turn their enemy’s northern flank.

Throughout, the performance of the British Expeditionary Force has often been exaggerated. Imaginative accounts of Germans advancing in massed columns and being blown away by rapid rifle fire are common. A rather more realistic assessment is that the British infantry were steadfast enough in defence, but unable to function properly in coordination with their artillery or machine guns. The Germans seemed to have a far better grip of the manifold disciplines of modern warfare.

Yet everything changed in October. The Germans were scraping the barrel for manpower and decided to throw new reserve formations into the battle. Young men with the minimum of training, incapable of sophisticated battle tactics. They were marched forward in a last gambler’s throw of the dice to try and break through to the Channel Ports. To do that they needed first to capture the small Belgian city of Ypres.

One might have thought that Ypres was some fabled city, fought over to secure untold wealth or a commanding tactical position. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ypres was just an ordinary town, lying in the centre of the fertile Western Flanders plain. Yet the low ridges to the east represented one of the last feasible lines of defence. The British also saw the town, not as an end in itself, but as a stepping stone to more strategically important locations pushing eastwards, such as the rail centre at Roulers or the ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge. For both sides Ypres was on the road to somewhere.

The battle began in mid-October and soon began to boil up. Time and time the Germans hurled themselves forward, the grey-green hordes pressing forwards and being shot down in their hundreds. The British had learnt many lessons and this was where they finally proved themselves worthy adversaries for the German Army. On the evening of 23 October young Captain Harry Dillon was fighting for his life:

A great grey mass of humanity was charging, running for all God would let them, straight on to us not 50 yards off. Everybody’s nerves were pretty well on edge as I had warned them what to expect, and as I fired my rifle the rest all went off almost simultaneously. One saw the great mass of Germans quiver. In reality some fell, some fell over them, and others came on. I have never shot so much in such a short time, could not have been more than a few seconds and they were down. Suddenly one man – I expect an officer – jumped up and came on. I fired and missed, seized the next rifle and dropped him a few yards off. Then the whole lot came on again and it was the most critical moment of my life. Twenty yards more and they would have been over us in thousands, but our fire must have been fearful, and at the very last moment they did the most foolish thing they possibly could have done. Some of the leading people turned to the left for some reason, and they all followed like a great flock of sheep. We did not lose much time, I can give you my oath. My right hand is one huge bruise from banging the bolt up and down. I don’t think one could have missed at the distance and just for one short minute or two we poured the ammunition into them in boxfuls. My rifles were red hot at the finish. The firing died down and out of the darkness a great moan came. People with their arms and legs off trying to crawl away; others who could not move gasping out their last moments with the cold night wind biting into their broken bodies and the lurid red glare of a farm house showing up clumps of grey devils killed by the men on my left further down. A weird awful scene; some of them would raise themselves on one arm or crawl a little distance, silhouetted as black as ink against the red glow of the fire. [p. 287-288, Fire & Movement, by Peter Hart]

Some of the Germans had got within 25 yards of Dillon’s line. It had been a close run thing and after they had been relieved by the French later that night the French reported that some 740 German corpses littered the ground in front of his trenches. This was the real war: not a skirmishes like the earlier battles, this was the real thing.

The German attacks continued, followed as day follows night, by French and British counter-attacks to restore the situation. The Germans nibbled at the Allied line but were unable to achieve anything of importance. Yet for all the sound and fury, over the next few days the front line stayed relatively static. The German troops were flagging in their efforts. After one last effort on 11 November the Germans threw in the towel. They would not break through the Allied lines in 1914. The British and French lines had held. Battered, bruised, but unbroken. The First Battle of Ypres had confirmed the strategic victory gained by the French at the Marne. The German advance in the west had been blocked, if they sought victory in 1915 they would have to look to the east and attack Russia.

The 1914 campaign would prove decisive to the war. The utter failure of the Schlieffen Plan, designed to secure the rapid defeat of France, meant that Germany would be condemned to ruinous hostilities on two fronts. This was the great turning-point of the whole war. The pre-war predictions from the German strategists that they could not prevail in a long-drawn out war against the combined forces of France and Russia proved accurate, especially when the British Empire and United States joined the fight. The German Army fought with a sustained skill and endurance, but after 1914, the odds really were stacked against them.

The post The Road to Ypres appeared first on OUPblog.

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Madeline & Genevieve sharing some quiet time in the rain. I love Madeline, and always have- here’s my tribute to her.

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Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan, translated from the French by Irene Ash

Cecile loves the carefree and glittering lifestyle she and her father live in Paris. The summer is shaping up to be perfect--her father, his current mistress, and Cecile are spending the summer in a rented beach house. There’s even Cyril-- a nearby university student that Cecile tastes first love with. But then her father invites Anne, a friend of his late wife, to join them and it turns sour. Anne’s understand elegance forces out the mistress Elsa and the lifestyle that Cecile loves. When her father and Anne get engaged, Cecile, Cyril and Elsa hatch a plot to break them up, with tragic consequences.

While Sagan has some interesting and insightful comments about the type of people in Cecile’s life, especially her father, her age when writing this really shows. It’s written as Cecile looking back, mostly regretful for her actions, but then you realize that only a year has passed, and Sagan herself was only 18 when the book came out (younger when she wrote it) so while it well captures the emotions and logic behind Cecile, the older-and-wiser gets a bit tiresome as readers that actually are older and wiser will realize she still doesn’t get it, and it’s pretty obvious that it’s the author who still doesn’t get it, not the character.

THAT SAID, I did like a lot about it and I think it would lend itself really well to a modern YA-reworking, and it would work really well when aimed at an age-contemporary audience instead of adults. It’s a short book (without back matter, it’s only 130 pages in a small trim size) and she captures the languid summer beach atmosphere really well.

Not sure if I recommend it, but I am glad I read it.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Damn, I'm going to miss this place this year. These are drawings of Clermont Ferrand. They're a kind of mixture of realism and imagination, fact and fiction. I like that place in between both. I have an idea for a small series of these drawings. So, if I will not get to physically visit this year, I will travel there through drawing.

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Above is a new poster that I've created for the Buxton Fringe Festival. I've had this love of poster art for many a year, and creating my own, for our Dr Sketchys (amongst other events) is just one of my favourite things to do.

Some of the artists I adore the most are those who making posters way back when; Toulouse Lautrec, Mucha are just Gods to me. with that in mind, I had this idea of making a series of posters where I pay homage to these heroes of mine. Obviously there's no improving on their works, but just perhaps, doing my own cover version. So I started with this beauty, below, Le Frou Frou by Lucien Henri Weiluc. Damn, it's gorgeous.


You can see more of my poster artwork HERE.

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The autobiographical graphic novel L’Ascension du Haut Mal, (released in English as Epileptic), is being adapted into an animated feature in France. The critically acclaimed series by David Beauchard (aka David B.) focuses on the creative fantasies of the artist as a child as his family unsuccessfully attempts to cure his brother’s advancing epilepsy through alternative medical treatments like magnetism and macrobiotics. Originally published by L’Association, the French comics publisher of which Beauchard was a founder, the six-part L’Ascension du Haut Mal has been widely celebrated in both Europe and the United States, winning numerous prizes at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, and helping Beauchard win an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist in 2005. Filmmaker and architect Christophe Gérard will direct the film, which is being animated by the French studio Tchack and produced by Atopic. The filmmakers recently posted two teasers on the film’s official website. No release date has been set at this time.

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Learn how literacy coach Mindi Rench has helped middle school world language teachers to con-construct charts with their students, which has helped students' writing in French and Spanish.

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This was resized in my Studio for the MINIATURE / CIRCUS / CAROUSEL / LOVER.
Handmade in my studio. The Artwork is from an Antique print.

French Circus Carousel Miniature
• The expression image d'Épinal has become proverbial in French and refers to an emphatically traditionalist and naïve depiction of something, showing only its good aspects. Info sourcs- wikapedia
• Épinal prints were prints on popular subjects rendered in bright sharp colours, sold in France in the 19th Century. They owe their name to the fact that the first publisher of such images — Jean-Charles Pellerin — having been born in Épinal, named the printing house he founded in 1796

It took over 2 days for me to print, cut and assemble.
Each tiny Circus figure is carefully cut and assembled to the interior wheel.
---------------
DETAILS •
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• THe small one is 4-1/2"" High x 2" diameter base
• Working mechanical.
• The inner carousel rotates clockwise as the viewer turns the bead on the top.
• Each CIrcus performer is cut out separately and glued into place on the wheel that rotates.
• The center post is wood, the topper is a dimensional AB plastic crystal bead with the very top being a gold colored bead -all the rest of the Carousel is of cardstock paper.
• Reproduction of a paper toy.
• The coloring may vary from the original Antique print and shades shown here.

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Añadir leyenda

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PARDON MY FRENCH

Do I parlez-vous Français?
Well, I really couldn't say.
I know that checkers are passé,
And what a fencer says: "Touché!"

Merci gives someone my thanks.
Money used to be called francs.
(Now they've euros at their banks).
Beyond these words, my mind's a blank.

No, wait! A lot is said "beaucoup,"
And ballerinas wear tutus.
When you're mad, shout, "Sacrebleu!"
That's enough of French -- "Mon Dieu!"

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012


Poem #15, National Poetry Month, 2012

This poem goes out to Josie's husband, Jim. He gave me the title...or should we say, gave it BACK to me, since I'm the one who said it first?!?

The poem has nothing to do with the original context, but that's probably for the best...




Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining me in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, Linda at TeacherDance, Donna at Mainely Write, Laura at Writing the World for Kids (daily haiku), Liz at Liz in Ink (daily haiku), Sara at Read Write Believe (daily haiku), Jone at Deo Writer (daily haiku)...and YOU?

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Before I talk about the new TRILINGUAL picture book, My Sister is My Best Friend by Nicole Weaver (Guardian Angel Publishing), I would like to announce the winner of Melissa Goodwin’s book, The Christmas Village. The winner is Beth F.! Thank you, Beth, for your comment, and happy holidays to everyone who left a comment and shared a tradition.

Now on to. . .My Sister is My Best Friend:

*Picture book, contemporary fiction for preschool through 1st graders
*Two twin girls as main characters
*Rating: A sweet book, especially for anyone (young or old!) with sisters. Plus, children can start to learn some Spanish and French while reading the book. It celebrates FAMILY!

Short, short summary:

Nicole Weaver’s book begins with these lines: “I am lucky my sister is my best friend. We do everything together.” And then the Spanish and French are listed neatly underneath the English AND accompanied by super-cute illustrations by Clara Batton Smith. The book goes on (it’s more like a concept book about family/sisters than a story with a problem/solution) to tell the interesting things the sisters like to do together such as playing with their dog, riding the see-saw at the park, and chasing butterflies. Again, each page contains a cute illustration and the text in English, French, and Spanish. A great book for a classroom or for a home library!

So, what do I do with this book?

1. There’s an automatic lesson built into this book, which is always great for any parent, teacher, or librarian. Children can see how English translates into French and Spanish. They can try to pick out the important words like sister and friend. If you know someone who can speak Spanish/French, invite them in to read the book with a proper accent!

2. Your students/child can make a similar book about their sister, brother, mom, dad, cousin, and so on. For example, one child could create: My Mother is My Best Friend; another could write My Cousin is My Best Friend. After children write a few pages (or just illustrate if they are preschoolers), they can share their pages/books with classmates.

3. Nicole Weaver has included some wonderful details and word choice in her picture book. For example, take this page (in English): “Sometimes just for fun, we shriek and run as fast as we can …pretending to be orangutans.” The six plus one traits of writing, Word Choice, celebrates words such as “shriek” or the choice of pretending to be orangutans, instead of just monkeys. Both of these words present clear images in the readers’ mind. What other examples of good word choice can readers find in the book?

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A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet

Koumail knows that his real name is Blaise Fortune. He is a French citizen. As a baby, he was rescued from a train wreck by Gloria. Since the age of 7, they have been on the run from the rebels, from the war. He doesn't understand the war and everytime he asks, Gloria tells him that it's useless to try to understand the Caucasus. It's not the concern of a French citizen. And so they try to get from Georgia to France, finding kindness and refuge, fleeing from rebels and militias. The politics aren't fully explained until the end and it's hard to know what they're running from, but this confusion that the reader feels is the same that Koumail feels-- he knows they are refugees and that the soldiers mean badness and that's all the reader knows as well.

It's hard to pinpoint, this book. It's quiet and fast-moving at the same time. We start when he is 7, we end when he is 20, but the book is only 180 pages long and the chapters are short. Koumail narrates his story simply, and to the point. Despite all the action, it's still going to be a book for your readers-- Koumail's constant upheaval is just the way his life is, so he's not that focused on it. Instead, he focuses on the relationships he makes-- the friends he meets and inevitably loses along the way. Through it all his is relationship with Gloria, the woman who has raised him and his fear that he will lose her, too.

The twist isn't that hard to see coming, but the twist isn't what's important. It's how Koumail grows, how he focuses on the positive so he doesn't give in to despair and his journey.

It's not a book for everyone, but I really loved it.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Fantasy Book Reviews

Picture Books

1) Where The Wild Things Are -This picture book by Maurice Sendak and  a very popular book. I highly recommend it if you did not read it yet. The book is a classic and has been for years.  It was published originally in 1963 and won the 1964 Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book of the year. When a boy named Max misbehaves his mother sends him to his room where his fantastic journey begins. After his journey he comes home to discover that barely any time had passed even though his trip seemed to take place a very long time. This book is a wonderful read not only for children but adults as well. It explores the possibilities of other worlds and so much more.

2) The Egg- This picture book by M.P Robertson is less known, but also a great read. It was published in 2001 by Dial books. It is about a boy named George, who one day discovers a huge egg under one of his barn chickens. When the egg is warmed and hatches a dragon is born. It is then when George's adventure begins. His adventure takes him for a special training and eventually to another world where dragons live. The book has amazing illustrations and a great fantasy story line that any child or adult will enjoy. It is a great read for everyone. Make sure to look for this book and to share it with your children in the classroom or by a sizzling fire.

3) Sweep Dreams- This picture book came out in 2005. It is by Nancy Willard and Illustrated by Mary Grandpre.  It was published by Little Brown and company. It is about a man who fell in love with a magical broom. The mystery started when the lady at the register had no idea where this broom was from. Since it had no cost on it she gave it to the man as a gift. The man never used the broom to sweep and this made her sick. As soon as started using her to sweep the floors and etc.. the broom became very happy and danced outside in the street.  A bad man saw it and kidnapped her. As the book goes on many magical adventures take place. I believe children will get right into the story. The book has all kinds of wonderful pictures that almost everyone will enjoy. Please pick up a copy.

Middle Readers

1) The Phantom Tollbooth- I read this wonderful book back in elementary school. It was written Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer who I had the pleasure to meet and talk to a few months ago. It came out from Random House in 1961. I love this classical book that teaches many things to children. It is about a boy named Milo who is bored of everything in his life. One day a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room. Milo drives through it in his toy car because he has nothing better to do. This leads him to a different world. It is here that Milo's whole view of life changes. he takes on several amazing quests and meets fantastic creatures including a ticking watch dog named Tock.  I loved this classic fantasy book as a young lad and I truly believe your son or daughter will as well.

2) The Book of Time Trilogy- I got a chance to read this Trilogy on my trip to FL. You can look back at my older posts to read more about it. It includes three books: The Book of Time, The Gate of Days and The Circle of Gold. They are by Gullaume Prevost and were translated by William Rodarm. The books  originally published by Gallimard Jeunnesse in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The English- language translations were published by Arthur A. Levine books in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Cheryl Klein was the wonderful editor who worked on this wonderful Fantasy Trilogy.  The books are about Faulkner family. They could be any ordinary family on the outside, but they have many secrets. Sam Faulkner a 13 year old boy discovers a sec

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By Anatoly Liberman

I have collected many examples about which I would like to hear the opinion of our correspondents.  Perhaps I should even start an occasional column under the title “A Word Lover’s Complaint.”

Hanging as. Everybody must have seen sentences like the following: “…as the president, our cares must be your concern.”  This syntax seems to be acceptable in American English, for it occurs everywhere, from the most carefully edited newspapers to essays by undergraduate students.  The idea of the sentence given above is obvious: “you, being the president…” or “since you are the president…” but doesn’t the whole sound odd?  Don’t we expect something like “as the president, you should (are expected to)….”  And I find the following passage highly ambiguous: “As a baby, his mother strapped him into the car seat and drove around St. Paul in the middle of the night to lull her boy back to sleep.”  Who was the baby: the mother or her son?   Wouldn’t it have been better to begin with: “When he was a baby…”?

Splitting all the way. Rather long ago, I wrote a post on the epidemic of split infinitives (the post was titled: “To Be Or To Not Be”).  I should reiterate that I am not an enemy of the split infinitive if putting an adverb somewhere at the end of the sentence produces awkward results.  But I see no virtue in to not be, and today I would like to offer a few more of my choicest examples.  When to get up late became to late get up, writers (or even speakers?) got into the habit of splitting everything they could lay hands on.  Naturally, if one may say the court asked the prosecutors to not make the name public and it is better to not think why these things happen (the second quote is from an article by David Brooks; I bet ten or fifteen years ago he would have written it is better not to think, but who is he not to jump—to not jump—on the bandwagon?), it is also legitimate to say giants gave birth to not only the giant race but also…, even though there is no infinitive around.  The rest is trivial (more of the same): we made a promise to never surrender and kept it; …might be able to also intervene to help her companions; this word is thought to perhaps stem from baby talk, and staff members also were advised to always call “a data projector” a “Datenprojektor…” (this horror happened in Germany, where there is a movement to substitute native computer terms for the English ones, but the ugly sentence, with its  also were…always and to always call, was produced in the United States), and so it goes.  Why not might also be able to intervene, never to surrender, is thought to stem perhaps, and always to call?  I understand that in long sentences like it’s hard to spontaneously generate a bubble, when… or and ordered the Department of Defense to immediately stop any ongoing effort to

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