Becoming Parisian, It's Easy...?

I had a drink with an American friend who loves to make these great vlogs (video blogs) and recently did one about the top 10 reasons that she'll never be Parisian and the top 10 ways in which she HAS become Parisian.

It's very Anglophone to have lists like these. My Dutch and Italian friends, for example, are UNABLE to name their top 5 breakup songs of all-time, if you can imagine. It is no coincidence that the author of High Fidelity (featuring about 5 million lists of this kind) is British.

Among the reasons in favor of Parisianess was that she now uses non-verbal communication. I must confess that I do, too. To express disdain, frustration or annoyance, the French (and some expats, too) just sigh dramatically. They huff and puff in annoyance. This sigh is even transcribed verbally in books, text messages and IM chats as "Pfft."

I've also noticed that when I visit my family in the American university town where they live, I am horrified on a daily basis by American college students who wear baggy sweatshirts, sweatpants and running shoes on a daily basis. To me, it looks like they're wearing their pajamas. In Europe, people only wear sweatpants when they're exercising. Which they don't do in public, but only in small, overpriced gyms or city parks.

For me, I think one of my most French habits, besides sighing and a physical aversion to baggy sweatsuits, is the use of terrible sentence structure in English. In French, you often introduce a noun or idea and then subsequently make a comment on it using the pronoun "it" with an understood antecedent. For example, "the snow, it's pretty." This is pure French ("la neige, c'est beau."). Obviously, in English, we would say, "the snow is pretty," as normal sentence structure is subject, verb, object.

Or as the French would phrase it: normal sentence structure, it's subject, verb, object.

But normal, what is it?

The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Czech Proverb

"Learn a new language and get a new soul."

Flirting Through Firewalls

Once women waited for men to call. Now we look for each other on Facebook or wait for them to email (or respond to an email) and worry that their spam filter-- or ours-- might prevent the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

As the Bangles asked in the 1980s, "is this burning an eternal... firewall?"

Our Father Who Art in English Class

I have a new student whose last name is God. No kidding, I'm teaching God English.

As you might expect, his level is quite good. God is from another country (God's country) and in his native language, his last name refers to a little black snake that brings good luck. If you see one, something good will happen.

This is why I enjoy teaching-- for the cultural exchange, what I learn from the students and exposure to different perspectives. Depending on the country, one small word can mean either 'basis of world religion' or 'good luck snake!' And both are culturally important, just in different contexts.

Running Down a Dream

Feeling like it's time to go back to an old source for some new goals. I loved running when I lived in California and did a few half marathons, one of which was a highlight of my short (hey, everything's relative) life. It's unfortunately not so easy to run in Paris, so I've lost the habit-- you either have to do it at the crack of dawn so that you don't end up trapped in the pedestrian throng or take the metro to various jogger-friendly parks. If you run on the streets in the evening, you get incredulous and bemused stares. Exercising in public is generally alien behavior in the French metrop.

However, too bad, because I'm looking for some new inspiration for an old habit that I once adored and I'm willing to take the metro to Parc Monceau 3+ times a week which is conveniently a 1 km loop.

Thinking a springtime half marathon is in order and this one caught my fancy, mainly because it is in one of the most beautiful towns I have ever visited: http://www.marathon-annecy.com/

Running 13.1 miles (or 20.1 km) is in many ways an easier goal to meet that my other big one for 2010 which is to find a better job. This one depends a lot on the whims of others, while half marathon training depends more on my own whims...