My Silly Technique for Storing New French Vocabulary
January 21st, 2008, 7 Comments »
We’re going to try to learn a little more French while living in Morocco. We have plans to to find a private tutor through the local Alliance Francaise.
In the meantime, I’m learning new French words. In order to cement them in my limited vocabulary, I wait until I’m home, and then use them in simple declarative sentences with a bad, Clouseauesque accent.
For example, I recently acquired a power bar, which I learned is known as un relange (or was it une?) I’m not spelling that correctly (French speakers, aidez-moi!), but that’s what it sounded like. I even said it back to the guy, so I think I got it approximately right. So when I get home, I might say, to no one in particular:
Où est mon relange?
Votre relange est dans la bureau!
Ah, j’ai trouvé mon relange!
And so forth. Goofy, but I find it works. I’m pretty sure I have this tremendous Flight of the Conchords sketch (careful, earworm ahead) to thank:
UPDATE: A commenter provides the right spelling as ‘une rallonge’. I was rather off on the spelling.