Jan 29, Samedi

Sandrine, my french teacher (no longer Jean-luc, long story :p) got us free invites to the grand premier of Ocean in Gsc Pavilion. C'est beau et manifique.

It is a French nature documentary film by Jacques Perrin budgeted at 50mil euros. Amazing, I would say. It reflects marine life that need to be respected and negative aspects of human activities on them.

Shame on us!!

Pollutions, massive shark fins hunting by the Chinese...

Can you imagine how cruel are they to cut off the shark's fins and threw it back to the sea ALIVE?!!


According to wiki, the fins contain almost vitamin-less, and due to high mercury level, the FDA recommends pregnant women and young children avoid eating shark fins.

Personally, I don't really like to eat shark fins as it is tasteless and could be replaced by grass noodle that has the similar texture. I really don't see how it is the "status symbol" and all nonsense.

A few friends of mine had pledge for not eating shark fins lifetime, supporting the campaign of "Save Our Shark From A Bowl Of Soup" which I think is very noble.

Lastly, wishing you guys have a merrily chinese new year :) Bon nouvel an chinois :)


Life's 25 Toughest Questions - continued.

Question 2: Why do married folks begin to look like one another?

Watch any two people who like each other talking, and you'll see a lot of mirroring.

One smiles, and so does the other. One nods or raises her eyebrows, and so does the other. Faces are like melodies with a natural urge to stay in sync.

Multiply those movements by several decades of marriage, all those years of simultaneous sagging and drooping, and it's no wonder!

errrrr....... I can't really agree with this haha. I don't see how my parents look alike :p how about yours?!



signing off,
1.20pm

Jan 22, Samedi

Phew, finally, hectic short semester ended with disasterous finals. I'm on holiday oh là là!

Just a short update on "life's toughest questions (answred!)" that I read from Reader's Digest, thought of sharing it :)
J'espére que c'est intéressé et ne ennuyeux pas :) I hope it's interesting and not boring.

Question 1: Can love really last a lifetime?

Absolutely - but only if you chuck the fairy tale of living happily ever after. A team of scientists recently found that romantic love involves chemical changes in the brain that last 12 to 18 months. After that, you and your partner are on your own.

Relationships require maintenance. Pay a visit to a nursing home if you want to see proof of lasting love. Recently I spoke to a man whose wife of 60yrs was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease. He came to sit with her every day and hold her hand. "She's been my best friend since high school," he told me. "We made a promise to stick together."

Now, that's a love story.

So, what do you think?

To me, love is not just how you feel towards your partner, it can be to your family, friends or even your pet.

I love my dog, she is the first dog that I have (I can't say pet because I had hamster, gold fish and even tortoise before her!).

She is not those cute fluffy poodle that I always dream of owning, she is a gift from mom's friend after her dog got "raped" and gave birth to. And, she is Black, that will be the last colour I'll choose for owning a dog, doesn't brown and white or even grey looks more adorable?

However, I love her truly. We have spent 9 years under the same roof, we pampered her like our new adopted little sister, and that explained her ego, bossy, princessy attitude haha. Unlike poodle, she is active and fun at the right time, and very "human". Smart and silly at the same time :D

She is so human that dad decided to throw her a cake ceremony on 09.09.2009, 09:09pm.

The King had crowned her the new Princess.

And also, she got herself a piece of land.

George Bush's dog died at the age of 5. This made me feel so afraid of losing her, especially when she is 9 now. People might not be able to understand the strong bond and relationship that build between us in the years. She is part of the family. She is, and will always be.

My favourite sunset picture with her and brother, taken by elder bro some time ago.

I ♥ you, Mow-Mow,
you are more than a dog to us.

signing off,
3.35pm

Jan 06, Jeudi

New year new diary new semester..

Love my Melody diary, thanks love ♥

Gonna see KLCC every class. New teacher - Jean-luc, he gave us devoirs! Je n'aime pas devoirs :( I hate homework.



signing off,
1.25am

Jan 03, Lundi

Phew~ I was conquered by complete lazyness. I know I might sound a lil defensive, meh I was busy with college stuff, assignments course works and guess what? I passed my French beginner level 1!!

I was suppose to share my learning experiences and I had only blogged about it twice and the next thing is I passed level 1 :D absurd I know, my bad.

Anyway, joyeux noël et bonne année 2011 ♥

How did you guys celebrate le jour de l'An, the day of the year? Count down in malls where you were surrounded by meat walls?

I celebrated mine in a fine place with Korean Jazz band introduced in Alliance Français magazine, thanks to Shen chéri who noticed it when waiting for my class to end. Hmm, I guess that's how this post is related to my learning diary :p


So here we go, violà, ilprimo restolounge, tata...


Jalan Conlay, somewhere around the twin tower.

ilprimo has very interesting interior.

bleu

orange

violet

cured salmon with avocado puree

vin rouge, l'eau et baguette

cheese with tomatoes

pan-seared scallop with saffron arborio rice

petite parsnip and almond soup

quail with rigatoni and goose liver

chéri's main course : lamb with sweet potatoes

main course of mine : fish with sweet potatoes

dark chocolate tart with homemade vanilla bean ice-cream and wild berries coulis

The jazz band played most of my favourite songs and made me can't pay full attention on the food dancing rolling and gliding on my tongue.


Anyway, my 2010 ended with a beautiful full stop, and my 2011 begun with a peaceful and joyous night. Thank you, cheers ♥



signing off,
9.22pm

Nov 13, Samedi

çava people :) I'm starting my new semester on Lundi(Monday), day after demain(tomorrow)--Dimache(Sunday).

It sounds so weird with english and français together, doet :p I know!! Super lack of vocabulary! Excuse-moi, si'l tu plaît /si-tu-play/ (excuse me, please) or it can be in excusez-moi, si'l vous plaît /si-wu-play/, excuse with a extra 'Z' is excuse in respected form, and vous is you in respected form while tu is you in a friendly manner.

I feel so number-ed today :p Just got my new numéro(number;/numeho/) for moi portable téléphone--BB. Cell phone, mobile phone, or aka hand phone is known as portable téléphone in d F language--le français. Where portable doesn't sounds like our english portable, it's something like /pok-ta-bleo/.

Numéro:

un - 1 /aun/
deux - 2 /do/
trois - 3 /tua/
quatro - 4 /kato/
cinq - 5 /sign/
six - 6 /sis/
sept - 7 /set/
huit - 8 /wit/
neuf - 9 /nerve/
dix - 10 /disc/
onze - 11 /onze/
douze - 12 /du-ze/
treize - 13 /the-ze/
quatorze - 14 /kato-ze/
quinze - 15 /can-ze/
seize - 16 /say-ze/
dix-sept - 17
dix-huit - 18
dix-neuf - 19
vingt - 20 /vang/

21, 31, 41... onwards are a bit different.
21 - vingt et un /vang-teh-aun/...

trente - 30 /thonte/
quarante -40 /kahont/
cinquante - 50 /sign-kont/
soixante - 60 /sua-song/

Above 70 made me feel that French is really lazy in creating new words :p

soixante-dix - 70 ; which is like 60+10
soixante et onze - 71 ; 60 + 11
soixante-treize - 73 ; 60 + 13

quatre-vingts - 80 ; 4 x 20
quatre-vingts-un - 81 ; 4 x 20 + 1

quatre-vingt-dix -90 ; 4 x 20 + 10

cent - 100

mille - 1000

Quand est ton anniversaire? (When is your birthday)
Mon anniversaire est le vingt Novembre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix.
(my birthday is on 20, Nov, 1990...ps:which is next week, weee :)

Bon weekend people :)


signing off,
2.46pm



La vie en rose, a song for your weekend, may u have a romantic weekend.

Oct 20, Mercredi

Have not been updating due to final examination that thankgodly just ended last week *grin* last Wednesday to be precise.

Mercredi is Wed in french and it sounds like /meh-ker-dee/.

Most of my friends' birthday falls on the Octobre month.

Wish you guys joyeux anniversaire (happy birthday).

Anne's 20th birthday. Elle a vingt ans. She is 20(vingt) years old, vingt sounds like /vang/ while elle is she. When vingt ans is put together and it'll sounds like /vangtong/, connected.

From left, Kate, Anne-the birthday diva, Gigi, Meg, me & Vni.
Wives forever ♥

Anson's 21st. Il a vingt et un ans. He is 21(vingt et un) years old, vingt et un sounds like /vang-teh-un/.

From gauche(left), femme (ladies which pronounced as /fam/) Gigi, me, Kate, Anne & Meg.
Homme (men) are Heng and Anson.

Anson with a red scarlet flushed tomato-ified face. Viola(there you go /vala/), may you find joy and excitement in your new sexy blanc(white) Lancer.

French is a very beautiful language and it's like singing when we pronounce a sentence or phrase as one word is read connected to each another just like singing.

Too bad I can't form sentences yet cause lack of vocabulary :'(

Do really hope I can make beautiful sentence in the near coming future.



Signing off, 2.47pm.

Oct 3rd, Sun

Attended my very 1st French [français] class on Friday evening. I really thought Momoko and I will laugh very hard in class but both of us were too stress to do so.

French is ain't easy [facile]. Ain't easy. Particularly the pronunciation part, it's slaughtering me (stress much).

Alliance Français, Lorong Gurney that looks like an old folk home.

Alike?

Behind of the building and parking lots.

The hall where the "old folks" socialize.

Our prescribed text and work book for beginners. Nicely wrapped ♥

Fortune is by our side, our teacher is a sweet appealing young lady--Ms[Mlle] Sandrine. She is a Malaysian but is eloquent in french, the way she speaks made me fall in love with her already.

She started the class by making all of us introduced ourselves and saying some very basic greetings in french.

What is your name?
Comment tu t'appelles? -informal
Comment vous vous appelez? -formal

My name is Yan, how about you?
Je m'appelle Yan, et toi? - informal
Je m'appelle Yan, et vous? -formal
Toi is used when you are more familiar with that person or to show friendliness while vous is used to show respects, ie to the elders or superior. The toi sounds like /tua/ and vous sounds like /wu/.

Nice to meet you.
Enchante for male and enchantee for female, same pronunciation.

Bonjour --good day, morning, it can also be used in the evening if you meet the person for the first time (I bet most of you know).

Bonsoir --good evening.

Bonne nuit --night.

Bonne soiree --have a nice evening. It is pronounce in something like /bon suah he/.

Bonne journee --have a nice day. It can be said when you are leaving.

How are you?
Comment ça va?
Vous allez bien?
The ç that comes in a tail is kinda pronounce as /s/.

ça va bien, merci beaucoup. --Fine, thank you.

Oui --Yes sounds like /we/

Non --No

facile --easy

tres bien--very good

Monsieur, M. --Mister

Madame, Mme --Madam

Madamoiselle, Mlle --Miss, Lady

d'accord --Ok. Sounds like /dah coh/

a demain --see you tomorrow

a bientot --see you soom

au revoir --bye /ou he vuah/ Their "r" kinda sounds like the deep husky trembling "h" from your throat, very difficult to pronounce. VERY. It's like when you wanted to gurgle water and play it with your throat.

Some of the very basic phrases or words that we use in our daily life.

Besides, we learnt the pronunciation of the ABC to Z and 123 to 16. 16!!! Yes, 16!! Very kindergarten, I know. And I barely can remember all.

People, feel free to let me know if I have made a mistake above. I know it can all be google translated (advantage of modern technology 101), but I just wana write it down, as a revision :)

Hope you have a good weekend.
Bon weekend.



signing off, 10.22pm.