Linguistic shenanigans

 So over the summer while we were in the UK we were able to think a little about our decision to stay here for retirement. It’s a hard-headed decision, based on where we can most easily afford to live, where we already have a life to live and where we might conceivably be most useful in the future.

But of course, that means that we are not retiring to the United Kingdom, and we are not retiring to Wales. Had we returned to Wales I envisaged getting my Welsh back up to a reasonable level. Years ago I read contemporary novels with little difficulty. Now I struggle.. a lot..As for conversation, I don’t know any Welsh-speakers here in Bordeaux. But then I haven’t looked for them. So I can tackle, and am tackling my reading by getting the old familiar books off the shelf and getting books from Amazon in kindle format. I’ll also make a few trawls for Welsh-speakers in Bordeaux and see if they come up with anyone.

I continue to work on my French, of course, and hit situations still where I am uncomfortable. For example, on Sunday I read ‘celui qui est humble’. Do we do the liaison or not? I ask our French speakers. They don’t know. The Frenchman on the Caudéran omnibus would almost certainly not do the liaison and would definitely feel that it doesn’t matter either way, but … hey … I’m obsessive. So I work on things like that.

But we now have a German side to our family. That’s a whole new world of challenge. So I’m looking for a way to start learning German that does not break the bank or the diary. The university does classes, but they’re too expensive. The university of free time (our equivalent of the university of the third age) does classes, but there’s no beginner German this year. The Goethe institute is expensive. Looks like some kind of online thing, then.

 

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