Comments for France Tales

Comment on Armelle LeRoux, “Remembered Light” by Owen

Owen — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:47:22 +0000

Hi Vassil,
It was nice to meet you too, we’ll have to get together again sometime. Martin, Eduardo Marylee and I will go to Armelle’s studio sale on Sat Dec 10 in the mid afternoon sometime. Maybe we meet up then, or another time.

Comment on Armelle LeRoux, “Remembered Light” by Vassil

Vassil — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:58:38 +0000

Hey Owen, it was good to finally meet you last Friday. Just saw your post here from three years ago. As you correctly guessed, I am not Armelle (who could ever be her?), but I was, and still am, acting on her behalf!

Comment on Alliance Française or Rosetta Stone by bharat thapa

bharat thapa — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:49:53 +0000

One more thing, i would like to add that(my personal opinion, what i felt so far.)
One should have atleast some or basic knowledge of the language before starting it.
Thank goodness i already went through with Dorothy Richmond’s “Practice makes perfect:Basic spanish” and that helped me a lot understanding it and using it.

Ahorita por lo menos puedo escribir y charlar facilemente.
Van a hacer muy bien si usan regularmente.

Comment on Alliance Française or Rosetta Stone by bharat thapa

bharat thapa — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:46:19 +0000

I am using it for spanish, right now i am almost to finish second level(maybe still 30+ hours are there)
Now i can see that it teaches you grammer as well but their method is somewhat different than traditional language teaching, i hope once i’ll be through with all the 5levels of it, i will have better listening, understanding and reading capability.
I don’t expect, it’ll do miracle for me but it sure is a good way of increasing your knowledge of vocabulary and understanding.
Well thought programme, after completing all five levels either i’ll start with platiquemos or FSI basic spanish.

Comment on Moving to France: 7 Things NOT to do! by Alex

Alex — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:34:06 +0000

Hey! Owen

Thanks for sharing the heart felt, no watering down honest truth about your French experience.
I spent 5 months in France as an exchange student 6 years ago.
I went myself, had about 2 years of intensive study of French at that time. Felt very isolated, and lonely, the local kids all had their own cirlces, and none of my freinds was French. This did not help me in terms of keeping up with the study at uni, very vulnerable, very trying experience.
So, France could be just any odd foreigne land which would front you with the feeling of being uprooted, even you are reasonably confident with your French.
So be prepared for a hard landing.

Though after 6 years, and a rather tough experience, I still find myself being drawn towards that land, this time, for the career opportunities and their fresh produce. I’m fluent in 3 major languages, however, here in New Zeland (absolutely gorgeous, but so far away from the rest of the world), I can only use 1 of them. I invested a lot of effort and passion into learning french, and would like to make good use of this, but here the only people who will appreciate this part of me are only the french exchange students and myself.

Currently, I’m forging a new France-plan. Planning on working holidaying for 5 months, then english teaching assistant for 7 or 9 months, followed by 2 years of Masters, and hope that all my three languages (chinese, english, and french) would find opportunity there to be appriecated.

However, I don’t know much about the graduate education there, is it also on a tight budget like for the Bac+1~Bac+3? I’m worried that I might find myself in a do-or-die on your own situation by not having much support from the university. Do not want to see history repeat itself.

What’s the working culture like over there? If you happen to know.

Could you or anyone share some insight?

Cheers,
Alex

Comment on Funny French mistakes by Dominique

Dominique — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:41:39 +0000

hello Owen
could you explain me why “Tu habites dans une institution” sounds funny for English speakers? thanks

Comment on Converting grill from the US to work in France by H

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:39:39 +0000

BTW – if anyone wants “proof” that the Weber Q200 and Q220 BBQ can be used with either butane and propane WITH NO MODIFICATION NECESSARY (except of course an appropriate regulator for each gas type, here is the faq directly from weber’s website:

http://www.barbecueweber.fr/Default.aspx?ID=1130#Q7

Use google translate if you can’t read the French.

Comment on Using a gas grill from the US in France by H

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:22:10 +0000

I am also living in France (Corsica, actually), and brought over a nice Weber Q220 grill, because the same one here is over 300 Euro! (It was only $200 new in the US…)

I brought it over as one of my “suitcases”, right in the shipping box.

So now I’m trying to figure out how to convert it from propane to butane, and found your blog. After a lot of research, and reading from people who say there are HUGE differences between propane and butane.. I think the truth is there is very little difference besides pressure and BTU. In other words, it should be possible to simply remove the original (propane) regulator from the BBQ and then install a hose directly from the BBQ to the new (butane) regulator… and that’s it. No need to change the burners or flow limiter, etc…

Although of course, I’ll probably stand a little back when I light it for the first time… heh.

Comment on Moving to France: 7 Things NOT to do! by Renae

Renae — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:28:14 +0000

Owen,
My husband is American but also a citizen of France and we are moving back this year. Is there a site you could recommend in English so that I can look for apartments in Toulouse too…my french is not good but I would like to look just to see whats going on over there as far as housing. Most that Ive found are for vacation homes.
Thanks:)
Renae

Comment on English in Toulouse by YVONNE

YVONNE — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:26:41 +0000

I’M LOOKING FOR A MUSIC STORE IN BAYONNE FRANCE