Unexpected foreign language poetry recital?

[Zeph]

So last night I went to a Modern Languages open mic night at my uni, and I was coaxed by my friends into going up to read poetry… I chose (in the very short time I had to decide) to read Lewis Carrol’s Jabberwocky in French (Le Jaseroque) and then in Dutch (Wauwelwok) with a little bit of background about the poem and why I chose it (in English) before and between; it was pretty terrifying since several French lecturers (one of whom I had a lecture with this morning) and my French conversation lectrice were in the audience, plus a couple of native Dutch speakers.

It was kind of fun though! I got applauded (unless it was purely out of politeness!), and my friends said that some fourth-year French students sat near them seemed impressed with my French accent, plus the other guy I was with (who is more or less Flemish) seemed pleased with the Dutch too. As I passed my French lectrice on the way out she told me "C'était vachement bien!" (roughly 'That was bloody good!') so yaaay.

I think someone recorded the whole night, so if I can get hold of my bit I might consider putting it up here, I dunno.

It was the first time I've done any sort of public speaking/performance to a relatively large audience since doing a play in February, so it was kind of daunting and refreshing at the same time!

 

[surskitty]

congrats!

 

[Tarvos]

Mes félicitations!

Did you pronounce the Dutch version more like Flemish or Dutch? There is a difference. (Sorta like pronouncing the English poem with a Kiwi or a Canadian accent)

 

[Zeph]

Thank you both!

Tarvos: Ik spreek het met een Nederlandse accent, since my teacher is from Holland. My Flemish friend (and also some Flemish Erasmus students who give conversation classes) have shown* me what their accents are like, so I'm aware of some of the differences, yes c:

*'shown' isn't really the right word, but I couldn't think of a better one?

 

[Tarvos]

Hahaha, tof. I have lived in both countries so I'm very familiar with both "varieties" (a misnomer since there are a shittonne of dialects, although most of them are rare in their pure form - most people mix it with the standard nowadays). I'm Dutch though, so I don't really speak the Belgian variety without having to "put on an accent".

You are a linguistics student, then, I take it? It is pretty rare for Anglophones to learn Dutch, barring them having lived here (I know a few people who did).

 

[Zeph]

Well, not linguistics, just modern languages. I'm doing French, Dutch, Italian and Latin (Not modern I know but ssh)!

Yeah, my uni is one of the maybe five in the UK that teach Dutch, and in my year there's only about twenty of us doing it? So I'm glad to say I'm one of few! It's been great so far though, I think it's a very nice language! Some of my friends who don't study it disagree en ze zeggen dat het lelijk klinkt, but I disagree thoroughly!

 

[Tarvos]

Ze weten er ook helemaal niks vanaf. Laat ze maar lekker zeggen, jij weet wel beter!

I don't know much about Italian (apart from that I understand bits and pieces when I hear that), but I know Latin is a fairly difficult language to get a handle on because of its explosive grammar (which is all people teach). I think a solution for that would be to learn Latin as a spoken language (see Neo-latin) but I never got round to doing that. I studied Latin years ago so I haven't used it in seven years; meaning my active usage is pretty much nil (but I can read/understand simple phrases and recall some of the grammar).

I love speaking French, by the way. I used to not like it as much but I have recently found out that speaking a language gets more fun the better you are at it, and French is a language I only have really got a handle on in the past years.