6 posts tagged “french”

yay, I finished my half-marathon within my target of 3h. the results are out on RunPix and my time is 2:57 - slower than the average 2:38 but good enough for me, haha.

after cramming much french into my head (and software architecture for him) and getting about 2 hours of sleep, we woke up at 4:15am and hailed a cab to clementi stadium so that we can catch the shuttle bus departing at the ungodly hour of 5am. I was worrying about how to complete the race.

oh yea, you know how the ladies are always crowded? it goes to show the male-dominance of the event when the mens was full but there were lots of empty cubicles in the ladies! - toilets were available outside esplanade so avoided those (yucky) mobile toilets. along the run, saw some males relieving themselves in the bushes too...lol. by the way, I like this year's running singlet...keke.

we saw the leading elite runners while waiting for the race to start. I think their single stride is 2.5 times of mine!! :O

we (or rather, I) started at a slower-than-usual pace as the 21km stretched endlessly ahead and I had a target of not stopping for 15km. so, it was a sort-of-comfortable jog until about 17+ km and I made the mistake of taking a breather. somehow, we didn't see any distance markers after 16km (did you?).

once I stopped, my legs felt as strangely detached and I could feel all the muscle aches while walking. I thought that it'd be good to walk and rest a bit but no (!), the tiredness set in even more! finally, I picked myself up and we ran for the last 1+ km.

besides the muscle aches, the worst agony was that felt by my toes - as if they had been flattened / stomped by something. all due to my unfitting-shoes but I didn't get a new pair because I didn't know what to get. sigh.

after getting home - by the way, you can get a cab easily from peninsular plaza instead of standing in the long queue at raffles city shopping mall - I slept the afternoon away and only managed to wake up in the evening to continue mugging for my french test.

actually, I have the impression that the french test is not that difficult. the main reason I'm studying so much is to make use of the opportunity to catch-up with all that I've learnt. but of course, it helps for the test too. I intend to continue revising after the test...

about the A1 exam, it was ok except the listening portion - as usual, I could only pick out words in the sentence but not able to understand the complete meaning of the sentence / passage. later on, I saw some ex-classmates and they commented on the same so maybe that's normal? but in class, I find that most people are able to listen, understand and response while I'm lost. hmm. I'm glad that I registered for the exam early and my oral was scheduled about 1/2h after the written test instead of in the afternoon / evening!

I realised I kinda misunderstood a part of the oral section where I was supposed to pose questions based on a few subjects assigned to me. I didn't even think and assumed that it was just 1 question per subject but afterwards, I came to the conclusion that it's supposed to be a dialogue, with the examiner, on the subjects so there should be maybe 2-3 questions per subject? :(

anyway, shouldn't be a problem to pass it and I've signed up for the next class too. unfortunately, they are not having any saturday morning sessions for my next level and I have to take the 2:30 - 5:30pm slot. knowing myself, I'll wake up at noon to go for class and so, I'm basically left with saturday evenings for anything. so sad...less weekend for me!

it's back to work tomorrow but I'm not dreading it because the boss is on vacation and there's nothing outstanding on my side...kekeke.

I'm so unprepared for the half-marathon run on sunday as well as the french delf a1 exam on monday!!! :(

trying to study very hard past few week nights and ending up really tired, which is not good for the run. argh. it's just bad timing that the twice-yearly exam falls the day after the run. gees.

work-wise, I could finally get a breather this week. projects are closing and I think I'd be quite free for next few weeks as well.

for those who are running on sunday as well, let's keep going and reach for the finishing line!

starting to study for the french DELF A1 exam. I don't think these will come up but I wanted to take this opportunity to get the basics stuff down.

why are numbers in french so complicated!??! like how cent (hundred) doesn't end with an "s" if it is followed be another number, mille (thousand) doesn't ever come with any "s". I'm having problems with quatorze (14), quinze (15), quarante (40), cinquante (50) and so similarly numbers like 45, 55, 54, etc. then you don't pronounce cinq, six, sept, huit (5, 6, 7, 8) with the final sound when it is followed by a word beginning with a consonant! argh!

and, in french, the thousand separator is either a full-stop or a space, and a decimal is represented by a comma.

I got him to come up with some numbers for me to convert into words today... (hope they are right)

99 887 766 = quatre-vingt-dix-neuf millions huit cent quatre-vingt-sept mille sept cent soixante-six
12 332 100 = douze millions trois cent trente-deux mille cent
91 827 374 = quatre-vingt-onze millions huit cent vingt-sept mille trois cent soixante-quatorze
44 100 144 = quarante-quatre millions cent mille cent quarante-quatre
94 939 291 = quatre-vingt-quatorze millions neuf cent trente-neuf mille deux cent quatre-vingt-onze
345 234 = trois cent quarante-cinq mille deux cent trente-quatre
321 321 = trois cent vingt et un mille trois cent vingt et un
142 243 = cent quarante-deux mille deux cent quarante-trois

987,123 = neuf cent quatre-vingt-sept virgule cent vingt-trois

I had no idea that there are complimentary channels if we are subscribed to the digital cabletv!!!

so the story goes...

we are still using the analog set top box in our house and there's two - one in my parents' room and the other in my bro's. initially, one was placed in the living room but my bro remarked that no one is watching it there so he moved it into his room. I have to admit that I didn't watch much TV because I was occupied with my other activities. anyway, I wasn't able to conveniently watch my Discovery Travel & Living and taiwanese entertainment programmes for the past 4 - 5 months, even if I wanted to.

finally, my bro agreed to get another set top box after I complained that I still wanted to watch TV. well, now StarHub only provides digital ones so he got it and installed it yesterday in my parents' room, taking their analogue one to the living room.

wheeeeeeeeeee, at last, happy me can be a couch potato again!

while watching the usual programmes, I recalled that an ex-classmate mentioned that there are French programmes on cable TV, on BBC. so, I picked up the programme guide and flipped through but BBC is just all about news, what!

then...I saw it, under the complimentary digital channel heading, TV5MONDE! how coincidental, because just last Sat, my classmate was talking about this channel's website and it was the 1st time I knew its existence.

of course, I hurried to my parents' room and tuned in. with that, I also played around with the digital TV capabilities, such as the programme guide - works great! maybe I should consider unsubscribing from the programme guide book then.

caught a French programme that was featuring Vietnam and was able to understand a bit. the presenter was speaking quite slowly, translating over the Vietnamese speak. :) but I'm completely lost in the news programme that came on later.

got me all excited last night!

next thing to do is to move that digital box out to the living room and have my parents continue using the analogue one!! :D

last saturday saw us going to bukit timah hill for the first time. the steep slope at the start of the path was enough to make one start panting..lol. after that it was alright, just tiring on the thighs when I was climbing up the steps of the summit trail and some parts of the yellow trail, hehee. not bad, quite fun! it's so out of the way though, have to walk some distance to the bus-stop near bukit timah shopping center. alas, I was disappointed that the hawker center was closed for washing that day and we didn't get to have dinner there - I wanted to eat the fish porridge!

anyway, was telling him that one reason why people who drive lead a different lifestyle is because they can get to inconvenient places more easily instead of having to consider how to get to there. and such convenience also adds to the willingness to head out to places, like going for supper, etc.

about the start of my french class, my french teacher this time is a young lady who is half-italian! and she speaks singaporean-english! I don't know if it's on purpose but I think not - when she is naturally conversing with the class in english, it is accented the same way that we speak. she said that we are her first class of students as she was only teaching part-time until recently. nothing new about my french level - I'm still very bad at conversing and listening, reading is much better. not much of a talker in any language anyway. :(

she told us something interesting about the french. that is, it is very common for people there to work for a minimum period of time (e.g. 6 months) to qualify for an allowance scheme provided by the government. then, they will get themselves fired (resignation doesn't count!) and live on a monthly allowance which is a certain percentage of their previous income. this percentage will decrease every few months and provided up to about 1 year, to allow the person to survive while looking for a new job. and apparently, many people do that and pack their bags to go traveling, haha. c'est la vie! she's joked about that being the reason why we see so many french backpacking for long period of time. well, obviously this is bad for the country's economy...but if I'm in these shoes, I doubt I really care.

another interesting fact: in france, those who work in the public sector are guaranteed a job for life. they won't get fired but at most, transferred to other departments. in other words, it is really 铁饭碗！ so, banks will always approve loans taken by them! oh, got one more: policemen in france are usually lowly-educated and that's why they are always the butt of the joke in french films.

forgot to mention that I've officially graduated and will get my certificate in a month's time. still don't see much use for it though.

I'll be resuming my french classes at the end of this month. quite excited but worried too; that I've forgotten most of what I've learnt previously. the plan to revise before resuming classes did not happen because I am just too lazy to sit down and read through textbook/exercise 1 + notes. I figured that getting into the class first will act as a motivation for me to catch up if I find that I'm seriously lagging behind. :)

ooh, I'm looking forward to the Ubin day hike - it is confirmed! clear skies please! I had thought it would be canceled because the number of registrants is currently at 11 instead of the minimum 20. great, I've not been to Ubin before!! |||>_< it's really early though, will have to take the train at about 6am to get to changi at 8am. this also means that I have to get a suitable pair of sandals since all I have are flimsy slippers. well, no worries about this, shall go Bata later and settle on a pair - hope picky-me will find something acceptable.

I'm also tagging along (with my dad) to my mum's D&D at Sentosa on Sat. basically, it's a dinner and a night's stay at the Rasa Sentosa. My parents were waxing lyrical about the hotel's room after last year's D&D, so they asked me to go along since it's FoC.

gonna play badminton on Sun too and this time, it's at a proper court in the community centre! sure beats the past few (windy) sessions downstairs.

keeping my spirits high for this coming weekend, just 2 more days to go! :D