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Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart Paperback – September 16, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A charming memoir by a passionate Francophile - Kirkus Reviews
At the age of 57, Alexander decided to fulfill his lifelong dream of learning French. His 13-month marathon of language learning included five levels of Rosetta Stone, two Pimsleur audio courses, hundreds of podcasts, 52 TV episodes of French in Action,two immersion classes (one, in France, lasting two weeks), reading dual-language books, watching TV5Monde, emailing with a French pen pal and Skyping with another. Alexander's love affair with French, he concludes in this wry and warmhearted memoir, has reaped unexpected rewards.
Highly readable..Mr. Alexander presents himself as an apprentice, but the reader quickly discovers he is also a master teacher . . . Mr. Alexander even manages a highly readable gloss of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theory, a feat of intellectual distillation akin to 'Jacques Derrida for Dummies.'"--Wall Street Journal
"One of American's funniest writers has done it again...Très, très bien!" -- Counterpunch
How old is too old to learn something new? Bon courage, mes amis. As Alexander discovers, French is the least of it when you've reached late middle age...He throws himself into learning to speak French with Gérard Depardieu-like gusto in a George Plimpton-like stunt...But he never gives up. He hurls himself at French again and again almost like a cartoon character who, smacking up against a slammed door, slides to the floor in a puddle of humiliation. -- The New York Times Book Review
(Review quotes)
At the age of 57, Alexander decided to fulfill his lifelong dream of learning French. His 13-month marathon of language learning included five levels of Rosetta Stone, two Pimsleur audio courses, hundreds of podcasts, 52 TV episodes of French in Action,two immersion classes (one, in France, lasting two weeks), reading dual-language books, watching TV5Monde, emailing with a French pen pal and Skyping with another. Alexander's love affair with French, he concludes in this wry and warmhearted memoir, has reaped unexpected rewards.
Highly readable..Mr. Alexander presents himself as an apprentice, but the reader quickly discovers he is also a master teacher . . . Mr. Alexander even manages a highly readable gloss of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theory, a feat of intellectual distillation akin to 'Jacques Derrida for Dummies.'"--Wall Street Journal
"One of American's funniest writers has done it again...Très, très bien!" -- Counterpunch
How old is too old to learn something new? Bon courage, mes amis. As Alexander discovers, French is the least of it when you've reached late middle age...He throws himself into learning to speak French with Gérard Depardieu-like gusto in a George Plimpton-like stunt...But he never gives up. He hurls himself at French again and again almost like a cartoon character who, smacking up against a slammed door, slides to the floor in a puddle of humiliation. -- The New York Times Book Review
“[Alexander] deals with a lot of pangs, yearnings and fears that readers, especially those around his age--57 when he set out to learn French--can identify with . . . The appeal of Flirting with French is not in the breathless descriptions of Paris or the bad puns in the chapter titles, but in the author’s amiable dunderheadedness as he delves into the culture, with all its confounding contradictions.” —The New York Times Book Review
“While language learners are a natural audience for this book, there is no prerequisite. Anybody who liked Alexander’s previous books or just likes to see an underdog try to beat the odds will enjoy this voyageur’s latest adventure.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Alexander presents himself as an apprentice, but the reader quickly discovers he is also a master teacher . . . Alexander even manages a highly readable gloss of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theory, a feat of intellectual distillation akin to ‘Jacques Derrida for Dummies.’” —The Wall Street Journal
“One of America's funniest writers . . . Très, très bien!" —Counterpunch
“A charming memoir by a passionate Francophile . . . Alexander's love affair with French, he concludes in this wry and warmhearted memoir, has reaped unexpected rewards.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Flirting with French is hilarious and touching, all the way to the surprise ending. In this 'travelogue' about learning French, William Alexander proves that learning a new language is an adventure of its own--with all the unexpected obstacles, surprising breakthroughs and moments of sublime pleasure traveling brings.” —Julie Barlow, author of Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong
“Flirting with French is far more than a fling; it’s a deep love affair. A blend of passion and neuroscience, this literary love affair offers surprise insights into the human brain and the benefits of learning a second language. Reading William Alexander's book is akin to having an MRI of the soul. A surprise delight that will ignite desire in every reader.” —Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements
From the Author
One reader told me that Flirting with French was The $64 Tomato, but with Frenchman instead of groundhogs. My resident groundhog takes offense, but I hope that my losses at French are the readers' gain -- and laughter. Whether you've failed to learn French or Italian, Spanish or German, if you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, you'll relate to my experiences.
I might've learned more French if I'd spent less time delving into such mysteries as why a lamp has a gender; why the French have a dedicated word for "husband" but not for "wife," and where the heck is the hand-held universal language translator that Captain Kirk used 40 years ago, but someone has to answer these questions, so it may has well be moi.
I invite you to join me in my quest to become French. Au revoir!
I might've learned more French if I'd spent less time delving into such mysteries as why a lamp has a gender; why the French have a dedicated word for "husband" but not for "wife," and where the heck is the hand-held universal language translator that Captain Kirk used 40 years ago, but someone has to answer these questions, so it may has well be moi.
I invite you to join me in my quest to become French. Au revoir!
More About the Author
William Alexander is the author of the best-selling memoir, "The $64 Tomato," and "52 Loaves: A Half-Baked Adventure," his hilarious and moving account of a year spent striving to bake the perfect loaf of bread.
His latest book is "Flirting With French," about his often riotous attempt to fulfill a life-dream of learning French.
The New York Times Style Magazine says about Alexander, "His timing and his delivery are flawless." He has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, and was a 2006 Quill Book Awards finalist. Alexander has been a frequent contributor the New York Times op-ed pages, where he has opined on such issues as the Christmas tree threatening his living room, Martha Stewart, and the difficulties of being organic.
When not gardening, baking, or writing, Bill keeps his day job as director of technology at a psychiatric research institution, where, after 28 years, he persists in the belief that he is a researcher, not a researchee.
His latest book is "Flirting With French," about his often riotous attempt to fulfill a life-dream of learning French.
The New York Times Style Magazine says about Alexander, "His timing and his delivery are flawless." He has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, and was a 2006 Quill Book Awards finalist. Alexander has been a frequent contributor the New York Times op-ed pages, where he has opined on such issues as the Christmas tree threatening his living room, Martha Stewart, and the difficulties of being organic.
When not gardening, baking, or writing, Bill keeps his day job as director of technology at a psychiatric research institution, where, after 28 years, he persists in the belief that he is a researcher, not a researchee.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By
takingadayoff
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on August 29, 2014
Format: Paperback
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Writer William Alexander loves France. He loves just about everything French, including the language. Not that he speaks French, but he has immersed himself in French television, French books, French radio. The obvious next step is to build on the French he learned in high school, some forty years ago, and become fluent. Piece of gâteau.
Alexander knows it will be a challenge, because learning a language is notoriously difficult for most adults. In fact, as part of his preparation, he learns as much as he can about second language learning. He attends a conference of linguistics, he interviews specialists, he has his brain scanned.
He determines the best methods for language learning and dives in. He describes his experiences with Rosetta Stone, on-line tutoring, small-group evening classes, and eventually a two-week immersion course in Provence. But in a stark reminder that even when you have an important project to attend to, real life intrudes, and his heart begins to act up and he has to undergo several tricky operations.
I've read several books recently about adults in middle age learning or re-learning to play musical instruments. Whether they succeed in their goals seems to depend as much on how they define success as how much they practice. Let's face it, when we're in our fifties or sixties, we're probably not going to become virtuosos. Alexander tells a story about how, at the peak of his frustration, he declares he should have spent all the time he had spent studying French learning to play golf, so that at least he could be a decent golfer. Then he reads that Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) recently bemoaned the time he had spent over the years practicing golf, even though he never got any better.Read more ›
Alexander knows it will be a challenge, because learning a language is notoriously difficult for most adults. In fact, as part of his preparation, he learns as much as he can about second language learning. He attends a conference of linguistics, he interviews specialists, he has his brain scanned.
He determines the best methods for language learning and dives in. He describes his experiences with Rosetta Stone, on-line tutoring, small-group evening classes, and eventually a two-week immersion course in Provence. But in a stark reminder that even when you have an important project to attend to, real life intrudes, and his heart begins to act up and he has to undergo several tricky operations.
I've read several books recently about adults in middle age learning or re-learning to play musical instruments. Whether they succeed in their goals seems to depend as much on how they define success as how much they practice. Let's face it, when we're in our fifties or sixties, we're probably not going to become virtuosos. Alexander tells a story about how, at the peak of his frustration, he declares he should have spent all the time he had spent studying French learning to play golf, so that at least he could be a decent golfer. Then he reads that Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) recently bemoaned the time he had spent over the years practicing golf, even though he never got any better.Read more ›
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By
John L Murphy
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 3, 2014
Format: Paperback
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Learning French, even for a middle-aged Francophile, proves elusive. Its infamous pronunciation, its maddeningly gendered nouns, its elisions, its lack of syllabic emphases: William Alexander laments them all. Going on 58, after writing successful books on mad ambitions to achieve the perfect garden and bake the perfect loaf, he seems as well-suited as any driven autodidact for task three.
Most adults will never fully master a second language. Alexander's ambitions meet the obstacle most of our brains encounter when we try to learn a new language post-puberty. As he explains, once the neural networks have sparked childhood fluency, our valuable hard-wiring gets diverted so the brain can apply it to non-linguistic necessities as we mature. Our innate capacity which enables us to quickly attain our native language in infancy then fades; consider how even teens struggle with foreign conjugations and prepositions.
Alexander sums up linguistic theory and neurological research, but he finds that these cannot account for the other 8/9 of our body. Acting out French sentences, he shows, overcomes his brain's hesitations. Reading a play by Sartre or reciting into a microphone via Rosetta Stone stymie him. French evokes from Alexander emotions, impulses, and gestures, beyond vocabulary lists and conversational lessons. He wanders along this book's way to relate his correspondence with a pen-pal, his stints at total-immersion French environments, the history of French, the sly promises of machines such as Google Translate, and the daunting barriers to fluency.
Alexander plugs away. He claims to work, but from the obsessive attempt he documents, pursuing French becomes what seems to me a full-time job.Read more ›
Most adults will never fully master a second language. Alexander's ambitions meet the obstacle most of our brains encounter when we try to learn a new language post-puberty. As he explains, once the neural networks have sparked childhood fluency, our valuable hard-wiring gets diverted so the brain can apply it to non-linguistic necessities as we mature. Our innate capacity which enables us to quickly attain our native language in infancy then fades; consider how even teens struggle with foreign conjugations and prepositions.
Alexander sums up linguistic theory and neurological research, but he finds that these cannot account for the other 8/9 of our body. Acting out French sentences, he shows, overcomes his brain's hesitations. Reading a play by Sartre or reciting into a microphone via Rosetta Stone stymie him. French evokes from Alexander emotions, impulses, and gestures, beyond vocabulary lists and conversational lessons. He wanders along this book's way to relate his correspondence with a pen-pal, his stints at total-immersion French environments, the history of French, the sly promises of machines such as Google Translate, and the daunting barriers to fluency.
Alexander plugs away. He claims to work, but from the obsessive attempt he documents, pursuing French becomes what seems to me a full-time job.Read more ›
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By
I Know What You Should Read
on September 15, 2014
Format: Paperback
2 Comments
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When I departed for Nancy, France, for the first semester of my junior year abroad, I was confident. French had always come very easily to me (in my French classes in the States). I couldn't speak fluently, but I thought I was pretty good.
As it turns out, I was wrong. Very wrong. On the first day with my host family, my amazing host mother picked me up to drive me to my new home. During the drive, she chatted and chatted and chatted . . . while I just sat there, dumbstruck. She asked questions that I struggled to understand and to which I certainly wasn't able to respond. Finally, she looked at me and said, "Christi, tu comprends pas français?" (Christi, don't you understand French?). I immediately realized that, despite my years and years of French classes, no, I decidedly did not.
Here's the thing: French classes in the United States are largely useless. Yes, you learn basic vocabulary and verb conjugations. But you don't learn how people actually talk. Nor have you been prepared to understand French when spoken at a very high rate of speed (with every word gliding smoothly into the next, until they all become an indistinguishable mess).
I love French. But learning French was HARD. There are a bunch of weird things that come naturally to people who learn French as a first language--things like whether nouns are masculine or feminine or whether an H is aspirated-that frequently trip up non-native speakers. And there are tons of ways in which real, spoken French is different from the French you learn in school in the US. These are the kinds of struggles and frustrations that William Alexander highlights in a very funny, relatable way in his soon-to-be-released book, Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart.Read more ›
As it turns out, I was wrong. Very wrong. On the first day with my host family, my amazing host mother picked me up to drive me to my new home. During the drive, she chatted and chatted and chatted . . . while I just sat there, dumbstruck. She asked questions that I struggled to understand and to which I certainly wasn't able to respond. Finally, she looked at me and said, "Christi, tu comprends pas français?" (Christi, don't you understand French?). I immediately realized that, despite my years and years of French classes, no, I decidedly did not.
Here's the thing: French classes in the United States are largely useless. Yes, you learn basic vocabulary and verb conjugations. But you don't learn how people actually talk. Nor have you been prepared to understand French when spoken at a very high rate of speed (with every word gliding smoothly into the next, until they all become an indistinguishable mess).
I love French. But learning French was HARD. There are a bunch of weird things that come naturally to people who learn French as a first language--things like whether nouns are masculine or feminine or whether an H is aspirated-that frequently trip up non-native speakers. And there are tons of ways in which real, spoken French is different from the French you learn in school in the US. These are the kinds of struggles and frustrations that William Alexander highlights in a very funny, relatable way in his soon-to-be-released book, Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart.Read more ›
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