François, Deutsch

[alt_hydra]

I went to Draco's French speaking club today and I don't think I've learnt very much yet, except for Oui, s'il vous plaît and Non, merci. But Draco says you don't have to speak all that much to make a good impression. I hope that's right. I also found out that almost everyone at Durmstrang speaks German, even if they're not from Germany, so Remy sent away for a book on that and we've been looking over it together a little bit. So far I've memorised Hallo, Guten morgen, and Guten tag.

For some reason Deutsch seems much more familiar than French.

And I was curious because Teddy Nott was reading a book on parseltongue when he was in the commonroom. He let me look at it. It was extremely confusing, though, because it doesn't have words or even an alphabet, it's really just noises more than anything. The person who wrote the book said that for a long time it was thought that the parseltongue was hereditary and couldn't be learned, only imitated. But he also said that it's an intuitive language and if someone can properly visualise themselves as a serpent, they can penetrate the mysteries of the tongue. Then he listed different exercises for visualising yourself as a serpent, such as moving along on your belly, and sleeping in dark corners while coiled in on yourself, and eating dead mice.

So, I don't think I will be trying out parseltongue. Not now, anyway.

Comments

Private message to Hydra

[alt_sally_anne]

Everything I try to say in French comes out sounding completely wrong. And nothing sounds like it looks on the page, like 'non' you say the first 'n' but not the second one and with s'il vous plait you don't say the l, the s, or the t. I don't understand why French uses those letters if they don't want people to SAY them? Why not spell them si vu plai, if that's how you say them?

German seems a little more sensible.

I like snakes but I'd never try to learn parseltongue. It doesn't sound like snakes have anything all that interesting to say.

Re: Private message to Hydra

[alt_hydra]

English is a Germanic language, I was told, which is why it comes more naturally.

I think it depends on if it's an ordinary snake living in the jungle or a snake that's been bred to be a wizard or witch familiar, but in either case I don't know if I'm very interested in snakes. I know that's a bad thing for a Slytherin to say, though.

From,
Hydra

[alt_justin]

I said over in my own book, but I do think it's jolly clever to pay attention to German as well as French. I'll tell you one I know: Wie geht? It's the same as Ça va? in French and they both mean, literally, 'How goes?' which is a very informal way of saying 'How are you?'

So, I might say: Guten Abend, Fräulein. Wie geht es? and you could say Sehr gut!. Et voilà, votre conversation prémier en l'Allemande (your first conversation in German)!

-Justin

[alt_hydra]

Yes, I just saw that. We don't really say "How goes?" so much in England. Most people say "Alright?" You probably know that, though.

Oh, I learned Fräulein and gut today, so I suppose I'm getting somewhere, but still further along with German than French, it seems. Only I have Charms and Defense to work on tonight so I should concentrate on that until it's time to go to bed. Our Professor Raz said it's good to learn a few words of French and German but we'll be more impressive to the visitors if we're clever and sharp. I suppose he has a point, doesn't he?

From,
Hydra

[alt_justin]

No, I didn't mean that one actually says 'How goes?' in English. (Although I think Americans do, what?) But that is what it means, in strict translation. In practice it's simply a rather familiar form of address, I suppose. The sort of thing one says to a mate, if you follow me. One would never speak to a professor that way.

And yes, I say, P Froissart's telling us much the same, that we'd be going to give everyone a good impression of our homeland and what our education can do and all that. Personally I think it's mainly to keep us all concentrating on our studies!

(Speaking of which, those examiners I mentioned showed up this morning at breakfast. They were in one of our lessons today, as well. One of them looks like she's about a hundred years old, if you can imagine! They're well intimidating. It's hard enough to transfigure a button or a mouse without that sort of pressure, rather.)

-Justin

[alt_hydra]

I don't really know much about Americans, but you might be right.

They can't make it all about socialising and fun, even with the Triwizard Tournament, or else it wouldn't really be school. But I do think they want most people to have a brilliant time or at least a very good time, because some of the older parts of the castle seem brighter and cleaner than before, though maybe that's just because we have a new groundskeeper. And Draco was right about the food being nicer than usual. Even I think it's nicer and I don't even like most food.

I would feel intimidated, too. But then I don't like to transfigure animals.

From,
Hydra