today i had a french listening test, so for the long trip in i loaded my mp3 with french music.
the mix included:
1) pat’s french rap mix (obtained some time ago through scott, but barely listened to)
2) noir desir – des visages et des figures (really fantastic band with girlfriend-killer front-man)
3) edith piaf mix (obtained through alice’s russian computer, some time more than no. 1)
4) java – safari croisière (hip-hop group seen in sydney just before departure, cd bought through fnac shortly after arrival in spain)
french classes are going well. my complaint with french for the day is the whole random-figuration-of-the-numbers-from-70-to-100 thing. the way that eighty is quatre-vingt (four-twenty) and the nineties are just extensions of that already complicated form ninety-two = quatre-vingt-douze (four-twenty-twelve). now what i don’t like about this is that it makes be do maths, when in the process of comprehending single integers. it’s not enough for me to understand four, twenty, twelve; for me to turn to that page in my book, i have to do this: 4 x 20 + 12. imagine if i actually had to add 97 and 94.
i would have to do this: 4 x 20 + 17 + 4 x 20 + 14
now, somebody with an understanding of the basque construction of numbers might accuse me of bias here, given that all their numbers between twenty and one hundred are formed along the pattern of:
30 = 20 + 10 (hogeita hamar)
40 = 2 x 20 (berrogei)
50 = 2 x 20 +10 (berrogeita hamar)
60 = 3 x 20 (hirurogei)
and so forth… however, basque has the advantage that it is the indisputable coolest language in the universe. french, on the other hand, has no such luxury.
