Back To Basics 04/10/2012

Back to basics – counting in French, listening to recordings
of voices counting me to death, I dug up a 5^th edition Basic
Conversational French, p 66, Cardinal numbers, looked at
the keys – 11 to 16 with ZE – onze douze treize quatorze
quinze seize; 30 to 60 with TE - trente quarante cinquante
soixante, 70 is sixty plus ten - soixante-dix, 80 is 4 times 20
= quatre-vingts, 90 is 4 times 20 plus ten = quatre-vingt-dix

Just seeing this gives me the shivers, reading it aloud to get
used to the sound is terrible, I remember being a freshman
at university sitting with my book repeating this endlessly
until I could do Dictée – but today the object of the lesson
is to teach diplomatic staff to get around in France and as
I am not going there, learning this only serves the purpose  
of passing the time, in the end I’m better off reading Mars
and Venus by John Gray explaining why men and women
cannot get along, talking about martyrs

Well, there you go, I’m a martyr to my cause, peace in the
home, now it seems I have sold my soul – with that blasted
soul gone I have nothing with which to go on, no wonder
I feel so bad, being only a shell of my former self – I hope
my soul has fun in its wanderings because I seem to have
lost the ability to have fun myself, repeating the same
things without any hope of ever using these skills

Basic Conversational French, 5^th edition, Harris &
Lévêque,  p 66

4 October 2012