December Champagne Lounge

[irishprincess]

I figured I'd start this one, and I pray the mods forgive for this, since it's not really a ballet moment....but I just had to share anyway....

 

 

My husband, who was supposed to deploy for Afganistan on December 8th, would have missed our first Christmas together. (We were married in June)

 

But, in a surprising move by the Army, they pushed his deployment back to January! I get Christmas AND New Year's with him!!! An extra month! Now he can come see my brother in the Nutcracker!

[Chinafish]

Yay! Glass of Champagne for you!

 

I have a champagne moment today. 2 actually!

 

1. I've got an offer to study dance at University.

 

2. I nailed a few nice doubles in class today.

 

Yipee!!!!

 

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Congratulations fish :-) Will you accept the offer?

 

And have you finished your audition round?

[Redbookish]

Congratulations, Fish. Which university? A review of the audition process & so on would be good to have posted in the Education forum.

[skyish]

I'm finally set and ready to move to Strasbourg / France. My departure date is 19th January=) Finally, I will get to buy ballet stuff without shipment costs... Only if I can find a studio that would accept an adult student....

 

Made a search in here and found a good studio in Strasbourg which I could pin on Google Earth and I will go see if they could accept me or not...

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Good for you Skyish. You will be very close to Switzerland and Germany. Happy travelling and exploring Europe (and dance of course)

[skyish]

Thank you =)

 

Yes I've heard that Germany is 15 mins, Switzerland is 1 hour away from Strasbourg so I'll be traveling a lot. My head is full of French sentences because I'm listening to that French DVD of mine all day long... I hope it'll worth it...

[Dance_Scholar_London]

What will be the language of instruction at your university? French, English or German? :-)

[skyish]

Well it is French; my French is good on paper I mean I can understand what I read and my spelling is weirdly good. However... I was really having a hard time understanding spoken French and I could not express myself even in the easiest situations like "I would like to have a cup of coffee with you" etc. Now I'm working really hard on that and I guess I'm improving =P At least I now can understand the lyrics to songs like Pink Martini - Sympathique =P

 

I'm just waiting my fingers crossed to find a ballet teacher who can speak a little English to compensate my bad French there=P

[dido]

Oh, Irish, what wonderful news. I hope you and your husband enjoy this Christmas and many, many, many more after.

[spingirl]

Well it is French; my French is good on paper I mean I can understand what I read and my spelling is weirdly good. However... I was really having a hard time understanding spoken French and I could not express myself even in the easiest situations like "I would like to have a cup of coffee with you" etc. Now I'm working really hard on that and I guess I'm improving =P At least I now can understand the lyrics to songs like Pink Martini - Sympathique =P

 

I'm just waiting my fingers crossed to find a ballet teacher who can speak a little English to compensate my bad French there=P

 

 

That's not unusual, I think. I had (and have!) similar experiences with Spanish. Remember, you have to factor in everyone's regional accent as well as a whole new language. Listening to Spanish-language songs helped me a lot, as did recorded books in Spanish. And some phrases will come to you before you realize it--pretty soon a sentence like the one you quoted above will come as easily in French as in English.

 

Congratulations! I so envy you the chance to explore Europe. Have fun! Bonne chance (the last remnant of my 9-th grade French...)

 

Lisa

[olddude]

Well it is French; my French is good on paper I mean I can understand what I read and my spelling is weirdly good. However... I was really having a hard time understanding spoken French and I could not express myself even in the easiest situations ...

 

 

That's not unusual, I think. I had (and have!) similar experiences with Spanish. ...

I'll support that comment. You'll get it fairly quickly, once you are there.

 

My personal big secret for other languages - if both parties try to speak the other's language, it works really well! My low-quality French is slow and primitive and uses few words - so it's easily interpreted by native French speakers. If you can get them to reciprocate, it works well the other way too. Even if they won't, everyone appreciates the one who is trying - I've had remarkably positive reinforcement in France when I try to speak French, and understandable annoyance when I don't ...

 

A good relationship with people goes a long way. Make the effort and people will meet you more than half way. I recall (a looong time ago!) a deep, philosophical discussion in Delphi one evening - we had been in Greece 10 days, and knew maybe a dozen words, the guy we met spoke no English, but we were all motivated to connect - and it worked really well.

 

Of course, the evening was well lubricated with retsina, so my memory may be a bit impaired

 

...Oh yes - while I think of it, here's another secret. Use your hands and arms! Something like 70% of communication is body language. You're a dancer, well versed in body language - use it!

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Skyish, didn't you have to take a language exam to get accepted to the program?

[skyish]

Well that exam was for English proficiency, not for French=) Erasmus does not require one to speak the native language of the place which (s)he goes to; having sufficient English skills is enough. My friends who went to Poland did not speak Polish and it's the same for Portuguese, Germany etc. I know it sounds a little bit strange to you because your native language is English and you have to speak any other language than English as a foreign language, and French is a good choice to master for you. However French is the 4th foreign language I have had lessons in (first English, then German, then Italian and "then" French) and just like the other 2 (german and italian) I did not have enough chance to improve my French by speaking/writing/reading/listening =P But it's a challenge for me and I'm gladly looking forward to it (btw, if I had a French proficiency exam, I would probably pass it with a high grade because my French is really good on paper...only on paper=P only when I have enough seconds to think and plan what I'll say =P)

 

Back to ballet, today I somehow nailed a clean double attitude turn to right.... I was shocked. I cannot do a "regular" double pirouette and I can do an attitude turn? Something is terribly wrong with me.

[Tiffany]

Congrats to Irish, how wonderful for you two!

 

Congrats to Skyish, how cool you get to move to another culture and your French will improve dramatically there I'm sure!

 

I am going to be performing in a Nutcracker after all!!!! My former teacher had a snowflake drop out at the last minute so I will be taking her place! I am really excited because I have not performed in about a year and there aren't any performing opportunities where I live now for adults who are not professionals. Also I have danced in her Nut. twice doing snow so I am familiar with this and she has shortened snow due to some of her dancers this year not having the level of technique needed so snow is easier than normal, otherwise I'd be out of my league not having the 6 weeks of rehearsal that the others have had.