Almost French

We had to read parts of the chapter six of Almost French of the script. Although I've read it already in the book I went over it again and did some vocab-work. I can remember that I liked that chapter a lot because Sarah struggled the first time with the rather strange seeming behaviour of the French. I can totally understand her embarrassement when she is at this dinner party, since I'm too a very outgoing person and hate it when people at a party are very restrained. Getting to know new, interesting people is a great thing - I really can't fathom the French. But more about it in my next blog about the book - almost french - almost finished (-:
Here is the vocab-list of this chapter.

inhibited	gehemmt	I felt very inhibited when I first joined the new group.
ill at ease	Not relaxed	You always seem ill at ease in your suit. Antonym: at ease
to bridge	überbrücken	The differences between our two cultures can be bridged if we continue to communicate.
dauntless	unerschrocken	When I was young I was dauntless and wanted to explore the world.
inane	dumm, sinnlos	Most pop lyrics are pretty inane.
to take the plunge	den Sprung wagen	We took the plunge and set up our own business. Syn: to take a risk
bourgeois	spießig	She rejected her parents' conventional bourgeois lifestyle.
gaffe	Fauxpas	My champagne gaffe had been far too assertive.
intrusion	Einmischung	My attempts to start a conversation might have seemed to them like an intrusion.
a tinge of	a very small amount of a colour, emotion, or quality Farbton	There was a tinge of sadness in her voice. This glass has a greenish tinge.
to discern	wahrnehmen	I don’t know how he discerned who was a real friend and who not.
to mingle	-In Kontakt kommen -mischen	She was eager to mingle with the other guests. Her excitement was mingled with a slight feeling of fear.
to dispel	beseitigen	To dispel the self-doubt I had, I tried to concentrate on other things.
restrained	verhalten sein	The French people I’ve met so far seemed rather restrained.

Kleine Zeitung Crash-Kurs

I forgot to mention my morning crash-lessons in English (-:

We have a subscription of the "Kleine Zeitung" and in every release there is a sentence in German you have to translate in English. So my day already starts with tiny translation practice. Unfortunately almost every morning I'm very annoyed because I always think, oh that's so easy, and then when I look at the solution it's not quite right. But now, after having attended a few lectures about translation science, I know there is not only one trantslation and I'm happy again (-:

I will write down some morning examples here, when I come across some nice ones (-:

Here is one:

• Ich möchte einen Plan von der Umgebung.

solution:Could I have a map of the area.
"of" not "from" the area (-; In which of Rebecca's table does it fit? Maybe "Relation to"?

Another one:

• Ich hätte gerne einen Termin für Schneiden, Washen und Föhnen.

solution: Could I have an appointment for cut and blow-dry, please.

Would you have translated it like that? For my part blow-dry is really a bit strange, but never mind.
I know the sentences are always a bit weird but it's because they concern everyday life communication, I guess. Anyway, it's fun though.

vocab "and now..."

Here are some words or phrases from the text which are, in my opinion, worth learning:

exuberant: happy and full of energy and excitement (überschwenglich)
He is an energetic and exuberant person.
She needs to try and control her natural exuberance.

embellish: to make something more beautiful by adding decorations to it
My sister couldn't help embellishing the story.
She wore a beautiful dress embellished with golden stripes.

to fragment/fragmentation: to break something, or be broken into a lot of small separate parts
The more English spreads, the more it diversifies, the more it could tned towards fragmentation.

hold sway: to have a lot of influence or power
Just as Latin, which once held sway over a great linguistic empire, split into French, Italien, Spanish portuguese and Romanian.
Our traditions in Austria still hold sway.

ponderous: - slow or awkward because of being very big and heavy (schwerfällig)
an elephant's ponderous walk
- boring, very serious, and seeming to progress very slowly
The system, though ponderous, works.

make - do

I worked on the exercises concerning verbs and idioms with "make and do" today, which we did in class last time. Here are the ones I want to remember and use:

do a good/bad turn: ( to do something that is helpful or unhelpful for someone)
syn: to do a favor
You did me a good turn by driving Molly home last night.
She was only trying to do me a good turn.

be done for: (INF) ( to be in serious troubles or likely to fail)
If we get caught, we're done for.
Alone in the Ghettos of New York, I realised that I was done for.

make amends: syn: make up for, pay penance
He seized the chance to make amends for his behavior.
He tried to make amends for what he's done.

make off with: syn: to steal and take away
Thives broke into the house and made of with several sumptuous items.

do up:
- decorate: The appartment was done up in a special style.
- to fasten: Do up your coat or you'll get cold.
- repair, improve: They did up and old cottage in the outskirts of Graz.
- to be done (shoes): Your shoes need doing up (need to be done), otherwise you'll trip over the laces.

do away with: syn: get rid of, stop
Do you agree that all examinations should be done away with?
I thought the discussion would do away with preconseptions.

Vocab work - Almost French

Here a little excerpt of my vocab work I've just done. Maybe you can use some of them for your own writing.

• to immerse - The idea was to immerse myself in fascinating foreing cultures. (eintauchen)

• preconception - syn: prejudice

• haunt - The Cafe Vianna was a favourite haunt of journalists and actors. (a place that someone likes to go to often)

• conceal (F) - I couldn't conceal the doubt in my voice. syn: hide

• hurtle - All of a sudden, a car come hurtling round the corner. (rasen)

• peal of - We could hear peals of laughter. A loud peal of thunder. A sudden peal of bells.

• at odds - He found himself at odds with his colleagues. The two politicians were at odds over what was the truth.

• to be lost for words - For once in her life, she was lost for words.

I have to appologize for this rather chaotic list of words and phrases but I'm not yet totally familiar with blogging and making organized entries. I try my best to post maybe a table or something similar the next time.