Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart [CoLa France, mon amour -- Stiff job -- First-person shooter -- William the Tourist meets William the Conqueror -- A room with a veau -- Your French is killing me -- The event -- It's complicated -- A rooster in the henhouse -- Die hard -- Ministry of silly talks -- Le social network -- Making Fanny -- Et tu, Brute? -- Baby Jesus in velvet shorts -- French and the middle-aged mind -- Glazed and confused -- Fruit flies when you're having fun -- Bah, ouais! -- Botte Camp -- Cherchez la femme -- Eyes wide shut -- This is your brain. This is your brain on French -- Lagniappe]
Language: English
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2014, 2014
- First Edition
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Joseph Valles - Books, Stockbridge, GA, U.S.A.Joseph Valles - Books
AbeBooks seller since August 17, 1998
Condition: Used - Fine
£ 24.76
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
1st ed., 3rd printing ; xiv, 266 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm ISBN 9781616200206, 1616200200 OCLC 866938496 pictorial stiff paper wrappers ; tents: CoLa France, mon amour -- Stiff job -- First-person shooter -- William the Tourist meets William the Conqueror -- A room with a veau -- Your French is killing me -- The event -- It's complicated -- A rooster in the henhouse -- Die hard -- Ministry of silly talks -- Le social network -- Making Fanny -- Et tu, Brute? -- Baby Jesus in velvet shorts -- French and the middle-aged mind -- Glazed and confused -- Fruit flies when you're having fun -- Bah, ouais! -- Botte Camp -- Cherchez la femme -- Eyes wide shut -- This is your brain. This is your brain on French -- Lagniappe ; FINE.
Seller Inventory # 010518
- Title
- Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart [CoLa France, mon amour -- Stiff job -- First-person shooter -- William the Tourist meets William the Conqueror -- A room with a veau -- Your French is killing me -- The event -- It's complicated -- A rooster in the henhouse -- Die hard -- Ministry of silly talks -- Le social network -- Making Fanny -- Et tu, Brute? -- Baby Jesus in velvet shorts -- French and the middle-aged mind -- Glazed and confused -- Fruit flies when you're having fun -- Bah, ouais! -- Botte Camp -- Cherchez la femme -- Eyes wide shut -- This is your brain. This is your brain on French -- Lagniappe]
- Author
- Alexander, William
- Publisher
- Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2014
- Publication year
- 2014
- Condition
- Fine
- Book Type
- Book
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1616200200
- ISBN 13
- 9781616200206
- Edition
- 1st Edition
"A delightful and courageous tale and a romping good read. Voila!" --Mark Greenside, author of I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do)
William Alexander is more than a Francophile. He wants to be French. There's one small obstacle though: he doesn't speak la langue française. In Flirting with French, Alexander sets out to conquer the language he loves. But will it love him back?
Alexander eats, breathes, and sleeps French (even conjugating in his dreams). He travels to France, where mistranslations send him bicycling off in all sorts of wrong directions, and he nearly drowns in an immersion class in Provence, where, faced with the riddle of masculine breasts, feminine beards, and a turkey cutlet of uncertain gender, he starts to wonder whether he should've taken up golf instead of French. While playing hooky from grammar lessons and memory techniques, Alexander reports on the riotous workings of the Académie française, the four-hundred-year-old institution charged with keeping the language pure; explores the science of human communication, learning why it's harder for fifty-year-olds to learn a second language than it is for five-year-olds; and, frustrated with his progress, explores an IBM research lab, where he trades barbs with a futuristic hand-held translator.
Does he succeed in becoming fluent? Readers will be as surprised as Alexander is to discover that, in a fascinating twist, studying French may have had a far greater impact on his life than actually learning to speak it ever would.
"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." --Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements
"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
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
William Alexander, the author of two critically acclaimed books, lives in New York's Hudson Valley. By day the IT director at a research institute, he made his professional writing debut at the age of fifty-three with a national bestseller about gardening, The $64 Tomato. His second book, 52 Loaves, chronicled his quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread, a journey that took him to such far-flung places as a communal oven in Morocco and an abbey in France, as well as into his own backyard to grow, thresh, and winnow wheat. The Boston Globe called Alexander wildly entertaining, the New York Times raved that his timing and his delivery are flawless, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune observed that the world would be a less interesting place without the William Alexanders who walk among us. A 2006 Quill Book Awards finalist, Alexander won a Bert Greene Award from the IACP for his article on bread, published in Saveur magazine. A passion bordering on obsession unifies all his writing. He has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition and at the National Book Festival in Washington DC and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times op-ed pages, where he has opined on such issues as the Christmas tree threatening to ignite his living room and the difficulties of being organic. Now, in Flirting with French, he turns his considerable writing talents to his perhaps less considerable skills: becoming fluent in the beautiful but maddeningly illogical French language.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Joseph Valles - Books
Stockbridge, GA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since August 17, 1998
Shipping rates within U.S.A.
| Item | 3 to 6 business days | 5 to 10 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 12.74 | £ 12.74 |
Payment methods
- Cash
- Money Order
Specialty
Language and Linguistics, Japan, Music, History, China, Medieval Studies, Occult, Art, Science, Rare & AntiquarianSeller's business information
Joseph Valles - Books
GA, U.S.A.
Terms of sale
TERMS: All items subject to prior sale.
Returns accepted in same condition within 10 business days for any reason.
PAYMENT: Cash with order.
International orders require payment in U.S. funds drawn on a
U.S. Bank or through an International Money Order.
Libraries and institutions may defer billing upon our receipt of purchase order.
15 % discount for libraries and institutions.
SHIPPING: All items shipped USPS Priority Mail unless otherwise arranged.
1st book $10.80, each additional book $7.00.
Airmail and international shipments will be considerably higher.
Books graded conservatively with prominent defects mentioned.
Right of withdrawal
If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.
Information regarding the right of withdrawal
Statutory right to withdraw
You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.
The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.
To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.
To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.
Effects of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).
We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.
We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.
We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.
We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.
You shall send back the goods or hand them over to Joseph Valles - Books, Stockbridge, Georgia, U.S.A., without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.
Exceptions to the right of withdrawal
The right of withdrawal does not apply to:
- The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
- The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.
Shipping terms
Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.