Precerpt from My 20th Language: L4 French - The Textile Mill
The Textile Mill
During high school, I worked summers in a textile mill in
Gonic, NH. I started out as a burler (pulling knots out of freshly woven wool
fabric) in the sewing room, where my grandmother and aunt were sewers (filling
in the holes that the burlers made).
My grandmother, aunt, and I were the only native speakers of
English in that sewing room of 21 workers. The conversations during the day
were lively, helping the time to pass more interestingly while mechanically
sewing up holes practical reinforcement—and in a mixture of mostly New England
French, some English (essentially any unbroken and continuous English mainly between
my grandmother and aunt whose sewing positions were side by side), and a fair about
of French-English blend typical of what happens in areas where two languages dominate.
The comment that has stayed with me for more than 60 years now is that made by
the women sitting in the position on my life, who was complaining that things
were falling apart at her house and, to top it off, she said, “Ce matin, J’ai
découvert que mon tosteur était broKÉN,” as if “broKÉN” were a legitimate past participle.
I was surrounded by French, not literary French from my high
school classes, but lived French. Acadian French on the NH/ME line. Pragmatic
vocabulary. Nonetheless, the experience and exposure did help me keep up with
my French-speaking classmates (i.e. all my classmates) in those French 1, 2, 3
high school classes that converted to far more that college-level French 1, 2,
3. Thanks to the mill, French became as much as rhythm of life as a language—and
I never considered it a “foreign” language; it was just another language.
For more precerpts from My 20th Language, click HERE.
For more posts about language learning, click HERE.
has gained mass recognition for releasing highly acclaimed books of varying genres
that are distributed internationally.
To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount,
use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.
Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to buy for it?
(1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
(2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.
(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)Check out recent issues.
Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Turn your manuscript into a book!
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.
We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us?
Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.
Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Comments
Post a Comment