MadmoiZelle speaks English

[miss-ter]

Comment traduiriez vous "my little bearkin"? Je ne trouve aucune définition pour ce mot! Il s'agit des retrouvailles d'un couple, le mec dit ça à la nana et je bloque sur la traduction... Y a-t-il un terme affectueux en français qui y ressemblerait? C'est un dérivé d'ours, j'imagine...

[Van Damsel]

Posté par miss-ter

Comment traduiriez vous "my little bearkin"? Je ne trouve aucune définition pour ce mot! Il s'agit des retrouvailles d'un couple, le mec dit ça à la nana et je bloque sur la traduction... Y a-t-il un terme affectueux en français qui y ressemblerait? C'est un dérivé d'ours, j'imagine...

Tu es sûre de l'orthographe ?

[miss-ter]

Oui, certaine : je traduis les sous-titres d'un film, j'ai donc le mot sous les yeux. Il revient d'ailleurs ensuite. Et je ne parle pas la langue d'origine du film, donc pas moyen de savoir à quoi ça correspond. Tant pis, je mettrai un truc comme "ma petite chérie", puisqu'il semble que le précédent traducteur se soit fait plaisir! Merci :small:

[myswom]

Posté par Ithurielle

Russe et Arabe à l'université de Manchester, donc trois langues en un parcours, c'est top-moumoute

Oh my God I'm your fan ! lol
What kind of studies are you doing ? I feel so stupid beside you.. (I'm only studying english spanish and of course french... you're studying the two languages that I'd love to learn for my future job but I know i'ts IMPOSSIBLE ) and How did you get the opportunity to go in Manchester?
And what would you like to do -as a job- in the future?
Oh and last question, I SWEAR! Were you a beginner in these languages or... ?

[Ithurielle]

Posté par myswom

Oh my God I'm your fan ! lol
What kind of studies are you doing ? I feel so stupid beside you.. (I'm only studying english spanish and of course french... you're studying the two languages that I'd love to learn for my future job but I know i'ts IMPOSSIBLE ) and How did you get the opportunity to go in Manchester?
And what would you like to do -as a job- in the future?
Oh and last question, I SWEAR! Were you a beginner in these languages or... ?

Ok, from the start, haha. I did two years of Russian at school in 2nde and 1ère, then decided I hated the teacher so I stopped. I really missed it in Term, though.

Originally, I wanted to become an interpreter, and as I was told by an interpreter, it's better to study whatever you want, but abroad. I was gonna go for architecture, when I discovered you could do Russian and Arabic, and I decided to go for that instead. I really wanted to study in the UK, it had been my dream since I was 12, and my parents knew that I was really set on the idea, and fully supported me. The application process wasn't easy because no-one in my school had ever done that before (I'm from a completely typical background, my family's entirely French, and before me, my school had never sent a student abroad), but I managed to get offers from the universities of Exeter, Leeds and Manchester, and decided to go for Manchester because of the flexibility of the course (and the fact that it's awesome).

At first, I was gonna do post-Bac Russian, and Arabic from scratch, but my level in Russian wasn't good enough, so when I arrived at Manchester, I actually started both from scratch. What I do study, now, is obviously the language, and I also have modules about the culture, the religion, the history, as well as modules in translation, cinema or more language (like aural Arabic, for example). I have some free credits, so I use those to study Politics, in order to broaden my mind and my abilities.

This year, I'm doing Russian language (translation from and into Russian and oral classes), a short dissertation on a topic of my choice, related to Russia (8,000 words on the international relations of Russian and the Middle East for me), Russian Politics, Arabic language (translation from and into Arabic and oral classes), Business Arabic, and Security Studies, so I basically have a 1/3 of Russian, 1/3 of Arabic and 1/3 of Politics. My teacher also allows me to sit in Business Russian classes, just so I can get more vocab and language training.

If at first I wanted to be an interpreter, I've long decided against it, and at the moment, I'm looking at pursuing a career in diplomacy (NGOs, UN, EU, government, whatever) or something that relates to books, ideally publishing, or even become a librarian. Or maybe business, we'll see where I end up!

[Dyx]

How bad is my pronounciation !

[Alba Perséphone]

@Ithurielle : I admire you (I'm also in your fan club ! haha)

[Amy']

My english teacher is a hipster in disguise. :o

[Ithurielle]

I am SO happy right now!

Generally, Cadbury sells Creme Eggs for Easter, but you can't get them all year round, which is a shame because they're really tasty, but I discovered that they made "Screme" Eggs for Halloween, woohoo!

[Lison Frisson]

I was about to cry today...It couldn't be helped, I was so tired, I couldn't understand when my mates were talking to me, it was frustrating. I had to be concentrated all the day long since, and it's killing me...honestly, I hope it will get better soon. A guy from my group told me earlier he will come at my place to explain me the project on which I'm supposed to work..but I'm feeling so low, it's a pain.

[Dyx]

Posté par Lison Frisson

I was about to cry today...It couldn't be helped, I was so tired, I couldn't understand when my mates were talking to me, it was frustrating. I had to be concentrated all the day long since, and it's killing me...honestly, I hope it will get better soon. A guy from my group told me earlier he will come at my place to explain me the project on which I'm supposed to work..but I'm feeling so low, it's a pain.

Relax , you will improve yourself. You should be patient.

[Coloquial]

Today my english teacher has given us our writing tests... And it was my first note under 10...
I ever know I had a bad level in English but I never had a note like that. I've cried, because I'm really anxious. All the other pupils in my english class seem to be so strong in english... I wonder if I have my place on this group. (it's the "strong group"). I believe that I'll always be a bad pupil in english, even if I never had any problems on this subject.
I don't know how improving my writing expression, so I come here. I hope it will help me a little.

[Ithurielle]

Posté par Coloquial

Today my english teacher has given us our writing tests... And it was my first note under 10...
I ever know I had a bag level in English but I never had a note like that. I've cried, because I'm really anxious. All the other pupils in my english class seem to be so strong in english... I wonder if I have my place on this group. (it's the "strong group"). I believe that I'll always be a bad pupil in english, even if I never had any problems on this subject.
I don't know how improving my writing expression, so I come here. I hope it will help me a little.

Nooo! Don't despair!

You will get better with a bit of work and dedication, of course it isn't easy being challenged, especially when other seems to be doing better, but every little steps you make forward is still made towards getting you better at English!

Lang-8 is a free website that was originally created by Koreans, but can now be used for pretty much every language you're learning. It allows you to write little essays in English, and native speakers will correct them for you, so you don't always need to ask your teacher for help.

A great thing to do is pick your favourite book in English, and as you already know the plot and how the story develops, you won't need to stop too much to get the translation of words, or extracts you're not too sure about, because you can get the information from the context.

And the last piece of advice I can give you is to never give up. For the record, I used to be in your situation. In 3ème, I was quite good at English, and when I moved schools, and decided to go into 2nde Européenne, and it turned out I was the worst student in the class. I rarely had any grade above 10, and the teacher used to use my exams as examples of what not to do…

I was really disenhearted and at loss as to what to do, but I still tried to push myself, and applied for section internationale (it wasn't a real one, we just had extra hours of English), and somehow got in, despite being crap at English. Over that summer, I had also read Harry Potter, and when I arrived in 1ère, I had improved loads, without actually doing much. I carried on reading books, I also used this forum to discuss with English people, I watched American series subtitled in French, etc.

Now I'm finishing a degree at university in the UK (4 years of studying in English), I'm fluent in English, and I can honestly say my English is better than most people who were in class with me. So please, please, please, don't give up!

[Coloquial]

@Ithurielle

Thank you for all your advices, and for the websites.
I know that I must continue, and I must try making an effort... but I'm not really patient, and I'm giving up quite fast when I see I don't have the required level. I'll try to continue, and I hope I'll progress. Thank you for all.

[Alecto]

Yesterday, I've been to my favourite pub to listen to a live gig, with my landlady and friends of hers.

I've been told by a Guernsey-born Jersey-raised that when I speak, I have a very posh accent.

Not sure it's a compliment!

[Lelaina]

Posté par Alecto

Yesterday, I've been to my favourite pub to listen to a live gig, with my landlady and friends of hers.

I've been told by a Guernsey-born Jersey-raised that when I speak, I have a very posh accent.

Not sure it's a compliment!

Isn't it a 'foreign thing'? I mean, I don't know how it was when you were at university, but in mine they really want us to speak 'the Queen's English' so it might seem posh to other people. Is the accent in Jersey very different from the one in England? (I know there's a lot of English accents but I remember you lived in York for a while so let's talk about that one haha) I thought it was similar because it's not that far away.

(I feel quite stupid writing in English here, it's weird )

[Ithurielle]

Posté par Lelaina

Isn't it a 'foreign thing'? I mean, I don't know how it was when you were at university, but in mine they really want us to speak 'the Queen's English' so it might seem posh to other people. Is the accent in Jersey very different from the one in England? (I know there's a lot of English accents but I remember you lived in York for a while so let's talk about that one haha) I thought it was similar because it's not that far away.

(I feel quite stupid writing in English here, it's weird )

It depends where you are, really. Up north, they'll laugh at you if you speak in RP, and southerners think northern accents are retarded. I can't really remember how they sounded in Jersey when I went, but chances are there's a massive difference with the broad yorkshire accent you could encounter in York.

Most foreigners seem to adopt a sort of american accent by default, probably because the sounds are a lot easier to reproduce than those of British English, so I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to "correct" your pronounciation.

[Alecto]

In York, the most noticeable accents were in the mouths of old people or children. I found the 20-50 population quite easy to understand, especially that working in schools, teachers soften their pronunciation - but their husbands, no, that's from one of them that I understood the major differences.

In Jersey they are quite posh actually... Very Southern England. Which is quite logical, and ironic at the same time, that's why people don't guess straight away I'm a foreigner.

At Uni they praised the American accent. Which was not particularly intelligent. Some people were making huge mistakes on words they should know since secondary, (saying [studai] for study, or [exercis] for exercise) and they did not really mind... For the people speaking with a very strong French accent, they'd mark only the academic content, for the fluent ones they'd mark only the accent. If you were in the middle (my English was obviously less good that it is now, in a English-speaking country) you were screwed.

[Ithurielle]

Right, I just sent my application for a scholarship of an Arabic programme in Morocco, and all I need to do is read a couple of journal articles about human security, and translate some dodgy piece of Russian literature that uses bloody aspects far too much for my liking. Productive day has been half-productive. But at least I'm not in front of X-Factor anymore!

[Hello Brooklyn]

Hey girls! I need a piece of advice I would like to translate the last part of this sentence :
"To dance is to be yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. It is power on earth and it is yours for the taking" .
I understand the sense but i'm not able to translate it perfectly in french