Reading and Jotting

I have found a new challenge in the treasure trove that is the blog of Linda G Hill. She calls it  “Just Jot it January.” And that’s all it is! Just to “jot” something down every day. Doesn’t even have to be posted every day, it can be saved up! So so cool. Click on the link to see all the rules.

I needed a little inspiration at the beginning of this year for my writing, both for my blog and for my journal that I do as part of my French course. Linda has been kind enough to provide a prompt every 10 days for inspiration and the first one is “reading.” That’s great for me because I had already integrated reading and jotting as I set off on reading a French book that was a gift to me from one of my correspondents. I have decided to jot down the words that I don’t know, and also to pay close attention to the conjugation of verbs in the very special “passé simple” or “literary past” tense. Which is a) not simple at all, b) doesn’t exist in English, and c) nobody uses outside of literature.  It’s just important to recognize it if you intend to do a lot of reading in French, which I would like to do. So that’s my first use of the challenge.

My second idea is more simple, and I will show you a little of it. You see, my amazing husband has finally decided to learn a little French himself! My prof has organized un cours de français pour les débutants (beginner’s class) which starts next week! Mon mari has signed up and I intend to “help” at home if I can. So we got a “French Word a Day” calendar, which also has a digital version including audio. I thought I could “jot” the word of the day in sentences on post-its and place them randomly where he might see them. No, he won’t understand the rest of the sentence, but he can ask. Also, I have placed des petites étiquettes (little labels) on a lot of stuff in la cuisine (the kitchen.) This way he sees the words every day and if I see him using something I read it to him. I am hoping he’ll start to remember how to recognize and say the words, and then later on I will remove them all and see if he can put them back! Cool, huh? Pink for feminine words and green for masculine.

 

I had already started jotting even before I realized it was a “thing!” So what was the calendar word today?  L’avenir, a very appropriate word for the first day of the year as it means “the future.”  And J’ai beaucoup d’espoir pour l’avenir. (I have a lot of hope for the future!)

 

Et vous, chers lecteurs ? Will you join in and Jot Something in January?