French with Marie

Whoa, 2 posts in one day, aren't you lucky blog readers!

For a while now, I have been working on my French with a "language exchange partner" who I met at the Tempo Tea Time conversation group. Well, what I thought would be "language exchanges" quickly became hanging out with a friend. A friend is what I was secretly hoping for, so I was pretty happy with that. Marie has shown me and some other lucky anglophones some of the greatest spots in Paris, including an amazing ice cream shop called Berthillon, the Tea Caddy, the Places des Vosges, and the Playmobil exposition.





I had originally envisioned doing 30 minutes in French and 30 minutes in English during our outings- to make sure I really worked on my French. Instead, we just switch back in forth. Sadly, Marie is leaving Paris soon. She just got a job in Germany. I mean, I'm very happy for her. I'm 90% excited for her and 10% sad for me.

I thought this would be a good time to share all the wonderful vocabulary I have learned thanks to Marie. Some are helpful for everyday, and same are downright hilarious.

Here is the list, taken in order directly from my vocabulary notebook (if you think I'm a nerd, Marie has a notebook and a pen especially for English vocab, haha).

se damner
Je me damnerais pour ça - I would sell my soul for that; I would kill for that

un lèche-bottes - brown-noser; suck-up

un cancre - dunce (or the kid who goes to sleep in class)

crade - dirty; gross

un déjeuner-baskets - dine-and-dash

sécher - to skip/cut class (also: to dry)

trinquer - to toast

dégoûter - to disgust
J'étais dégoûté(e) - That disgusted me (can also been that you are jealous)

râler - to moan; to complain

J'hésite entre... - I can't decide between...

le repose merdouille - junk drawer

le gendarme couché = le dos d'âne = le rallentissage - speed bump

un intello - nerd; geek

un montagne russe - roller coaster

There are probably many more I learned when I didn't have my notebook handy.

Thank you for teaching me these great words, Marie, and for showing me around Paris! Maybe it's more like 70% excited and 30% sad.



60%/40%