• Seeking Tranquillity in France

  • 著者： John B Howard
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Seeking Tranquillity in France

著者： John B Howard
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  • Stories and reflections from an American and Irish citizen living in France

    leavingamerica.substack.com
    John Brooks Howard
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Stories and reflections from an American and Irish citizen living in France

leavingamerica.substack.com
John Brooks Howard
社会科学
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  • A musician's perspective on language learning

    A musician's perspective on language learning
    2025/03/13
    When I first began to work with computing technology—I needed a database to manage a combination of bibliographical and encoded musical information—I became acquainted with two consultants at my employer’s computing centre, one of whom was a musician. It was in this context that I first heard the assertion that “musicians make good programmers,” and indeed I came to understand over the years that this was something of a stereotype, at least in the years before ca. 2000.Being a musician myself I was intrigued by the concept, and in fact became somewhat immersed in development of the technical infrastructure that my project required. At a certain point I began to articulate an explanation of why musicians might take naturally to computer programming:Musicians, by practicing, are accustomed to working alone, relentlessly performing repetitive tasks, seeking to create coherence and meaning across non-verbal micro- and macro-structures, striving for perfection.In other words, we acquire technical mastery by breaking things down musically into their smallest logical components, repeating and refining these until they become fluent, then joining them with what precedes or follows to shape meaningful phrases, ultimately to build tension, expectation, resolution, and a sense of overall meaning and wholeness.One of the values I see to musical training is that one learns, through practicing techniques and skills, an approach that transposes well to learning and understanding things in both quantitative and verbal arts, such as mathematics and language. It also simply develops the ability to sustain attention for long periods of time. Language learning seems to me to have a particular kinship with music insofar as it requires listening to build understanding, as well as to enable the ability to create or recreate sounds; it requires sensitivity to the nuances of the temporal flow of sound—rhythm and meter—to shape comprehensible phrases and sentences; and it strives for the ability to detect and mimic the melodic shape of spoken language—the rise and fall of pitch in spoken language that lends it intellectual or emotional expression.Indeed I have always been fascinated with language acquisition and actively transpose approaches from musical learning and practice to language learning. How does this work?In effect, I’ve adopted an approach to learning languages—currently focusing on improving my fluency in French—that looks very much like how a musician approaches mastery of their instrument or a piece of music. A key part of this is a daily practice routine. I spend a part of almost every day in language study—sometimes no more than ten minutes if circumstances demand, but often an hour or more. While I might begin a musical practice session with exercises to limber up the muscles used while playing—scales, arpeggios, other études—I often start my language learning simply by reading aloud from the French newspapers I subscribe to. There might be new vocabulary, or a turn of phrase I have to linger on to fully discern its meaning, and these can interrupt the flow—if I am not understanding something’s meaning, I cannot read aloud in a meaningful way either. So I’ll pause, acquire understanding, then repeat so that the spoken language feels natural. I might also then make notes about vocabulary or word usage for future study.Frequently these days the newspaper offers audio versions of its articles, sometimes read by the author. There will be times when I listen to these as well. And on other days I will also record myself reading these same pieces aloud, then listen and compare (I’ve a basic recording setup I use to create voiceovers for my Substack essays). Again, this feels much like the experience of learning to perform a piece of music, recording it, then reviewing the recording—you always hear things differently during playback, and frequently things just don’t sound the way you thought. Sometimes it is quite painful, sometimes rewarding. I think of this as my cobbled-together “language lab” experience.Some language teachers frown on the old tradition of studying vocabulary lists, but it’s still part of my practice routine. Over the course of time my lists consist less of individual words than idioms, expressions and common phrases, which I find more challenging to master. It’s in this context that I find the old music practice techniques kick in. Let’s say, for example, I’m trying to master an idiom, like “être au ras des pâquerettes” (literally, “to be at the level of the daisies,” i.e., to be at a low intellectual level). I’d first take “être au ras de” (which might be used by itself in some other context), then join it up with “des pâquerettes” to build the idiom—and then someday I’ll be able to reel it off spontaneously, to everyone’s astonishment (“Il reste toujours au ras des pâquerettes!”). Or let’s take a phrase like ...
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    7 分
  • An approach to adapting linguistically in France

    An approach to adapting linguistically in France
    2025/02/26
    If you’re a relative newcomer to France, have a basic knowledge of French and want to gain fluency in informal daily conversation, there are many possibilities that do not involve a computer or mobile phone screen. Some of these opportunities are sponsored by associations.Although I already had a good foundational knowledge of French when moving to Nice, Côte d’Azur at the end of 2021, our first months comprised a coming to consciousness of the French I had never learned, that is, the things that aren’t taught in your average American French classes. Some examples: the language used in official documents required to transfer our citizen’s rights from Ireland to France; the processes for exchanging drivers licences; all the fine print when opening bank accounts and insurance policies; understanding lease agreements; registering with the national healthcare system; and all the other démarches administratives (administrative procedures).As these administrative processes fell into place, however, another linguistic weakness made itself known that was partially based in language knowledge, and partially in culture and attitude: ordinary everyday conversation and small talk.It’s easy enough to gain fluency in the kinds of transactions that are part of everyday life—interactions with staff at the market, bakery, or at the till in a supermarket; buying necessities at the hardware store; making an appointment on the telephone. I say these are easy because they are repetitive and involve a limited vocabulary—every transaction becomes a brief language drill. (Just make sure you can tell the time of day and know numbers well enough to easily recognise them!) But find yourself in a conversation with someone unexpectedly—a friendly person at a bus stop or discussing the weather with a neighbour—and the arbitrary excursion into small-talk can become tricky quickly.I had had a strategy for upgrading my abilities in French well before taking up residence in France—radio, television, newspaper subscriptions, youtube videos (a nice feature is being able to slow the tempo down and repeat when needed), language apps, even Alliance Française classes online. But none of these is a substitute for actually conversing with French people. We were new in town, and had no local friends or personal contacts. What to do ?France, like other European countries, has many associations, ranging from informal groups of people with common interests to large entities with legal obligations. I happened upon the Maison des Associations at Place Garibaldi, Nice, whose exterior bulletin board has notices advertising many local associations—several of which focused on language learning. I followed up with one of them and learned that, by becoming a paid member (€30 annually) , I would be eligible to participate in a range of activities sponsored by the group, including a weekly informal gathering at a café to exchange French and English language conversations, as well as a weekly atelier or “advanced French workshop” that has a more literary inclination.Once I’d become a member of the association I joined the conversation group at one of its Tuesday morning gatherings at a café. The timing of the meeting should have tipped me off to this being a group of seniors and retirees, and so it was, and it is a friendly and welcoming group at that. There were no formal introductions, I simply introduced myself to those seated closest to me. It became apparent quickly that I was one of a small handful of native English speakers present.Formally the “rule” was that conversation would be undertaken for one hour in French, and for one hour in English. The first order of business is choosing which language to start with. On my first meeting with this group we began with English, but it quickly migrated back to French. The person seated next to me explained that most of the people who attend have done so for years and that it is now more of a social gathering than a structured learning experience. Others also explained that there had previously been a near balance of French and English speakers, but the majority of British attendees disappeared once Brexit took hold. All the better for me, since my personal goal was to gain better fluency in French day-to-day conversation, and most of the conversation takes place in French.The members of this association are diverse and attend the Tuesday morning meeting as mood and possibility allow. It’s like a small-talk language immersion programme. Topics arise spontaneously and change as quickly as they appear. Sometimes the topic is obscure to someone who is not a long-time resident of France or Nice, which means learning some new tidbit about the culture, geography or local politics and politicians, for example. And everyone is curious linguistically—so interrupting a chat to ask that an unfamiliar word be explained can lead to an entirely new topic of conversation.For me, ...
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    11 分
  • Getting involved with French community life - Associations

    Getting involved with French community life - Associations
    2025/02/13

    There is a large and growing cottage industry catering to people moving internationally, particularly from the U.S. to France. These range from individuals and couples who have moved in the past couple years and are now offering how-to advice on social media, to corporate relocation firms that can handle or assist with many of the logistics and administrative paperwork involved. Some of these services offer advice on getting settled and building a new network of acquaintances, but few speak about the potential role of French Associations.



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