The relevance of the Williamcans
Richmal Crompton wrote a story where William Brown and the outlaws decided to become monks, and dressed up in their dressing gowns and slippers. William being their leader, they were known as the Williamcans.
He modelled himself on Francis of Assisi, and so concluded that everything must become either a brother or a sister. Hence brother dressing gown and sister slippers.
One of the (many) hurdles I regularly encounter in French is the gender of things. It is not immediately obvious that the ceiling is masculine, for example, or that I drink brother tea from sister cup.
Strangely, the harder the word the more obvious its gender. For example all "tions" are girls and all "ismes" are boys.
Thus in an attempt to at least get some of the common household words sorted out I am going to label everything in sight.
This will not entirely fix the issue. I know the gender of the sea. I have known it for years. But that didn't stop me getting it wrong yesterday while talking to the history lecturer about why we don't fly Union Flags all the time in Britain (you see the tricolor on almost every town hall in France).
However, French people get it wrong, too, and usually they don't notice. After all, you have to have the liberty to decide to change the word to use between the "the" and the word itself.
He modelled himself on Francis of Assisi, and so concluded that everything must become either a brother or a sister. Hence brother dressing gown and sister slippers.
One of the (many) hurdles I regularly encounter in French is the gender of things. It is not immediately obvious that the ceiling is masculine, for example, or that I drink brother tea from sister cup.
Strangely, the harder the word the more obvious its gender. For example all "tions" are girls and all "ismes" are boys.
Thus in an attempt to at least get some of the common household words sorted out I am going to label everything in sight.
This will not entirely fix the issue. I know the gender of the sea. I have known it for years. But that didn't stop me getting it wrong yesterday while talking to the history lecturer about why we don't fly Union Flags all the time in Britain (you see the tricolor on almost every town hall in France).
However, French people get it wrong, too, and usually they don't notice. After all, you have to have the liberty to decide to change the word to use between the "the" and the word itself.
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