On Monday I spoke to a lady who is taking an English exam soon, and wondered if it would be good for us to meet up..me to help her with her pronounciation, and her to help me too..
Her daughter is in the same class as Catrin..and the mum is often at the centre where I go for my French lessons.
So we met up this afternoon! We read Jane Eyre, well not all of it but the part where Jane is rememberiing her childhood with Mrs Reed, her aunt..she has been locked in the bedroom, and is imagining the ghost of her dead uncle coming to haunt her.
We read it in English first, and I hardly had to correct my friends pronounciation at all..just the odd word like endurance..she pronounced it indurance, and a few little things like that. Then it came to my turn..boy, some of the sentances seem soooo long! I had to draw breath in between words,and even between one long word!
I have a problem (well lots actually) with the good old nasal vowels..words with 'in' I forget that you don't say them the English way but 'un' so over the top of some of them I put the number one (un)
We spent about an hour going through it all, and I have to admit that some of the English words I couldn't even pronounce, let alone know what they mean...'heterogenous-preternatural-
but what lovely language too...'Daylight began to forsake the red room' sounds so much better than ' It began to get dark 'or 'the sun began to go down' It makes me want to read it again!
Ah me, we don't talk like that any more..
It has crossed my mind to ask if she has anyone else who would like to practise their English in exchange for French, but think at the moment it's best to concentrate on helping her pass her exam..
She has read Shakespeare, and other classics like 'The grapes of wrath' heard of it but never looked at it!!!!
I asked several times why she needs the exam, and probably got an answer but didn't understand!
So we are going to meet again next week..her exam is in March
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