Today at work I was using my vast chick lit knowledge to replenish a sad, depleted, romance book display. A man with an accent approached me and pointed to an Alexandre Dumas book on a different display.
Mr. Accent Man: This is Mr. Dumas (he pronounced it Du-Mass)?
Well-Versed in Chick Lit Librarian: No, Dumas (Du-Mah).
Apparently this was a test. A few minutes later at the reference desk, the man approached me again and, in French, asked me if I speak French. I did not disgrace myself or my three French teachers by attempting to answer in French, because I absolutely do not parle the français. I can recite most of a poem by Jacques Somebody or Other and I can read and understand a few things, but mostly my French training was a disaster. I had three French teachers.
Teacher #1-COMPLETELY insane. I'm not sure why any school board ever thought this woman was fit to be in the company of children. Mostly I learned about the Moulin Rouge and French prostitutes in her class.
Teacher #2-One of the meanest women alive. She looked exactly like a short, round potato with legs and she was very fond of telling my class that when we got out into the real world no one was going to be easy on us like she was. She was not easy on us. I think her true calling was the military (possibly Hitler's military) and somehow she missed it. Perhaps because she looked exactly like a potato.
Teacher #3-If we drew a snail on our test papers, she gave the class extra credit. She had a thing about snails. She also taught us how to sing "Achy Breaky Heart" in French. She did not resemble a potato or any other vegetable.
French pronunciation is a little bit interesting to me at the moment, because I'm reading Bill Bryson's book, Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, and it's full of fascinating stuff about foreign words that have been Americanized or used in strange ways for place names, like Versailles, Indiana (pronounced Ver-sales) and
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (heart of the awl? what?). There's also great stuff about old British pronunciations that have survived in the South (explaining why my sister who spent her formative years in Kentucky pronounces pen as pin and why some of my relatives say warsh for wash and cheer for chair). And the parts about contractions! The contractions are fantastic. Newark is a contraction of the original place name New Ark of the Covenant, and good-bye is the contraction of God Be With You (Godbwye), and there are more! There are lots more. I'm stopping now, but isn't it so, so interesting? Oui! C'est très intéressant.
6 comments:
Ahh, yes. Couer d'Alene... What's even weirder is that there is an Indian tribe in Idaho with that name. (Seen Smoke Signals?)
Side note: I sometimes read the blog of a very, very, very libertarian ward member of mine and she lately decided to turn her muckracking wrath on the public library system. I was wondering what you thought about her accusations...
Sadly, I too had some French training but have let it slip away.
I love Bill Bryson.
Alyssa-Part 1
Yeah, I totally disagree with your ward member. We do gaming at the library, too, and I think it has value. Gaming does bring a different population into the library, and the library does not exist purely as a hallowed institution of learning. The library is important as a democratic space in society that welcomes every member of a community and serves every member of the community without bias. Library patrons come to the library for different reasons—to check out materials, to use study space, to find information, to be entertained—and those are all legitimate needs. Most libraries see themselves as community centers that appeal to both the educational and recreational needs of their communities. Even if teens attending gaming programs NEVER check out a book, convincing them that they’re WELCOME in the library is a coup, because they are. We want teens to know that we are interested in them and in the things that interest them. Our programming covers all kinds of topics, because we serve all kinds of people and try to maintain a collection on as many topics as possible, including gaming. Also, it’s terribly short-sighted to think that one day those teens are going to grow up and support the taxes that support libraries if they were disenfranchised by the library growing up. And, the posters argument that standing in a library will not lead to a love of reading any more than sleeping with a dictionary will lead to a better vocabulary? Could be, but at least if you’re sleeping with the dictionary, you know it exists and might consider cracking it open one day. Same with the library. If teens are in the library, they see that other people (all kinds of people) use the library, which is positive modeling for them, and I can guarantee that the librarians running those gaming programs are also plugging other library services while they have a captive audience.
Part 2
I was glad to see Chris’s comment about “junk” books. Junk books ARE gateway books to better reading. I work with the juvenile detention center youth and if I can get them reading ANYTHING that they enjoy, they trust me to recommend things that may have more value. I really think that ANY reading is good reading, though. Except for pornography and hate literature (pro-KKK, etc.), I would argue that most reading is beneficial even if it’s “junk.” The act of reading itself teaches skills and exposure to different ideas, different worlds, and the concept of story are invaluable. I argue for the rights of teens to read “edgy” stuff all the time, because literature is a safe place to explore issues and there are many, many teens who live edgy lives and know edgy people who need to find themselves in literature. AND the right to read stupid stuff is also important. Again, being a good reader, even if you choose to read junk, makes you more articulate, more skilled at test-taking, and more adept at navigating all forms of information. Yay reading!
do you know what i learned yesterday? that the apostrophes in irish names were added by the british because they thought ocallahan looked weird. my source, the internet.
Yes, yes, yes!!! I absolutely agree. I knew that you'd be able to provide a thoughtful, articulate rebuttal. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this topic. Thanks. :)
P.S. Chris says, "I like Mary Beth."
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