Radio France Internationale − 18 November, 2007
I'm almost to the anniversary: one year since I went public with my music. One year since evolution came out on Jamendo.
And, almost one year since I began learning French.
I've been through ups and downs. This past summer, I focused on music to the point of excluding just about everything else. When I finally got near the finish line, I had to relearn some of what I'd lost.
Today, yes, I still live by the LaRousse dictionary . . . however, I can stand on my own most of the time. Most of the words I have to look up are specific to the subject at hand. I believe I could get by in France . . . .
. . . provided I communicated with everyone by notes or text messages :D
Ah, yes, the sticky subject of pronunciation. I know the basics, but I just lack the practice. My wife speaks French from her days in the Peace Corps. However, she will agree that most of the time I can't even get by in English ;-)
As long as I'm on a familiar subject, I'm fine . . . but the moment I have to stop and concentrate, to figure something out, I start chugging along like a Chevy Nova (that hasn't had an oil change, ever) driving up the side of Pike's Peak.
Well, in French, I always have to stop to figure something out. It's just not automatic, yet.
I'm hoping it will be. Years ago, before the internet came along, I was a short wave radio listener. Therefore, I knew about Radio France Internationale.
Last year, when I started to learn French, I went to their website. Sure enough, they had a section dedicated to language learners. Excited, I clicked the link---
---only to find the files were in that dratted RealAudio format.
This, of course, is a proprietary format: not free. The only player for Linux was a closed-source item available from RealMedia itself.
No thanks.
Now, a lot of you can't understand how it is that I'm opposed to anything that even sounds like Microsoft Windows. Let me ask you this: while you've been sitting at your computer, how many times have you been interrupted?
Not by people: by the machine.
Windows is notorious for those irritating "helpful" popups that appear in the little icon ashtray at the bottom of the screen. Every program you install seems to have its own little personal update widget, that requires a restart of the computer, or broadcasts helpful messages designed to get you to buy this or that software product. I think elsewhere we call those items "spam."
Certainly the continuous rebooting is insane. Compare this with Linux:
mccosar (0) -> ~
$ uptime
07:07:00 up 13 days, 12:07, 2 users, load average: 2.31, 1.89, 1.35
Actually, that's not as good as it is normally --- I've seen it go into the hundreds of days, before. The message above shows I haven't rebooted in nearly two weeks. And the only reason I rebooted then was that I cleaned the room. (Thoroughly. I even moved the computer and vacuumed up the dust on the cables and behind the computer desk.)
So there was no way I was going with the "Real" player. For one thing, it would probably be some form of crippleware --- software that does some minor task, but you have to "upgrade" to the version that does something useful. Meaning, $$$.
Well, at last: Radio France freed me from the curse.
Yesterday, I went to their site, and found that their broadcasts are now available in .mp3 format. While .mp3's aren't a "free" format, they are playable by hundreds of Linux programs.
So when I'm setting up my room for music, or performing equipment maintenance, I listen to the news in French. I'm trying to study the pronunciation, and practice what I hear. I doubt I'll ever sound like a native speaker, but I'll certainly sound better than that Chevy Nova.
And, almost one year since I began learning French.
I've been through ups and downs. This past summer, I focused on music to the point of excluding just about everything else. When I finally got near the finish line, I had to relearn some of what I'd lost.
Today, yes, I still live by the LaRousse dictionary . . . however, I can stand on my own most of the time. Most of the words I have to look up are specific to the subject at hand. I believe I could get by in France . . . .
. . . provided I communicated with everyone by notes or text messages :D
Ah, yes, the sticky subject of pronunciation. I know the basics, but I just lack the practice. My wife speaks French from her days in the Peace Corps. However, she will agree that most of the time I can't even get by in English ;-)
As long as I'm on a familiar subject, I'm fine . . . but the moment I have to stop and concentrate, to figure something out, I start chugging along like a Chevy Nova (that hasn't had an oil change, ever) driving up the side of Pike's Peak.
Well, in French, I always have to stop to figure something out. It's just not automatic, yet.
I'm hoping it will be. Years ago, before the internet came along, I was a short wave radio listener. Therefore, I knew about Radio France Internationale.
Last year, when I started to learn French, I went to their website. Sure enough, they had a section dedicated to language learners. Excited, I clicked the link---
---only to find the files were in that dratted RealAudio format.
This, of course, is a proprietary format: not free. The only player for Linux was a closed-source item available from RealMedia itself.
No thanks.
Now, a lot of you can't understand how it is that I'm opposed to anything that even sounds like Microsoft Windows. Let me ask you this: while you've been sitting at your computer, how many times have you been interrupted?
Not by people: by the machine.
Windows is notorious for those irritating "helpful" popups that appear in the little icon ashtray at the bottom of the screen. Every program you install seems to have its own little personal update widget, that requires a restart of the computer, or broadcasts helpful messages designed to get you to buy this or that software product. I think elsewhere we call those items "spam."
Certainly the continuous rebooting is insane. Compare this with Linux:
mccosar (0) -> ~
$ uptime
07:07:00 up 13 days, 12:07, 2 users, load average: 2.31, 1.89, 1.35
Actually, that's not as good as it is normally --- I've seen it go into the hundreds of days, before. The message above shows I haven't rebooted in nearly two weeks. And the only reason I rebooted then was that I cleaned the room. (Thoroughly. I even moved the computer and vacuumed up the dust on the cables and behind the computer desk.)
So there was no way I was going with the "Real" player. For one thing, it would probably be some form of crippleware --- software that does some minor task, but you have to "upgrade" to the version that does something useful. Meaning, $$$.
Well, at last: Radio France freed me from the curse.
Yesterday, I went to their site, and found that their broadcasts are now available in .mp3 format. While .mp3's aren't a "free" format, they are playable by hundreds of Linux programs.
So when I'm setting up my room for music, or performing equipment maintenance, I listen to the news in French. I'm trying to study the pronunciation, and practice what I hear. I doubt I'll ever sound like a native speaker, but I'll certainly sound better than that Chevy Nova.
Comments:
edunn (November 18, 2007. 10:10pm)
Sounds like a trip to France is in order! For educational purposes of course!
bmccosar (November 19, 2007. 02:46am)
Not a bad idea --- one day. A lot of secret projects in the works right now. 2008 will be an interesting year.