Languages
French
By and large, universities in English-speaking countries no longer offer direct curricular access to academic French. The concept of academic French in fact no longer exists. Instead, the French majors spend three years learning to get on and off the Paris bus with fluency and grace, and the majors in other subjects simply ignore French scholarship in their fields. In that vacuum, anything the self-student can pick up is welcome. We offer the following tidbits by way of assistance:
Mots Français. What little French one knows should at least be memorable. By great good fortune, it happens that France has always valued the sort of wit that produces memorable sayings (mots). Here is a selection:
13c 14c 15c 16c 17c 18c 19c 20c
Personnes. The style of French and the style of French people are somehow connected; a sense of the one may perhaps help with the other. We cannot go into great detail, but here, mostly borrowed from other parts of this web site, are a few people who in one way or another are characteristic of their time.
Renaissance
Blaise Pascal (1632-1662)
Enlightenment
The Age of Napoleon
The Age of Hitler
Afterward
Postscript
30 Nov 2005 / Contact The Project
