Nicolas is going to a camp on a overnight train. His counselor/leader is Gérard Lestouffe. They have been put into groups of 12 with one group leader. Nicolas’ group is called “Oeil-de-Lynx”, their rally cry is “Courage!”. On the train, they couldn’t really sleep. One boy kept crying because he missed his parents and another one called him a baby, then they got into a fight. Then, another boy took out some food from his luggage and made all the other boys hungry as well. After that, they couldn’t sleep because of the munching noise and the crumbs. Then, some boys went exploring the train and one got stuck in a compartment which you’re not allowed to be in when the train is not moving. Everyone was worrying because this boy was crying a lot and was scared. Later, when they were all trying to find their train compartments, no one could find theirs because they all looked the same. Everyone was running around and opening and closing doors. Then, an angry man came and said that if they didn’t stop the noise, then he would complain to the SNCF where one of his friends occupied a very high position of authority.

Everyone took turns sleeping and in the morning they arrived at Plage-les-Trous where there were cars waiting to drive them to the camp. It was amazing that their leader wasn’ t tired even though he did not sleep very much at all. In the car, everyone was shouting. So the leader told them to sing instead of shouting and showed them a couple of camp songs. In the end, he decided that the shouting actually sounded better than their singing. They arrived at the camp.

Nicolas was a little disappointed because he thought they would be living in tents, like the Natives, and not in cabins, that would’ve been more fun. In the middle of the camp there were two men waiting for them. One was bald, the other was wearing glasses, they were both wearing shorts. The bald one is the camp director, M. Rateau. He welcomed them all the Camp Bleu and told them that here, they would get ready to become men. He introduced them to the other man, M. Genou, the treasurer, and said that M. Genou might ask some boys for their help with his work. He then tells the leaders to lead their group to their cabins and they will gather in 10 minutes to go for their first swim.

Once Nicolas’ group was in their cabin, a big tough boy said that he would have to bed closest to the door. Another boy wasn’t happy with this and they started to argue. Another one also joined in. Soon, there were 8 people on the bed and they were all fighting and hitting each other. Then, the leader walked in, asking why they weren’t ready yet and telling them to hurry up. Other boys started complaining about missing their parents and not wanting to change in front of others. One boy started crying. Then, Nicolas said he couldn’t put his on because his parents forgot to give him his suitcase. This causes more problems: one doesn’t want to let others borrow their stuff, one boy doesn’t know how to untie his shoelaces, one boy’s jam spilled in her suitcase. But when they looked around for their counselor, he was no longer there.

When they finally managed to exited the cabin, they were all in their bathing suits, they were the last ones to get there. The only person not in a bathing suit was their leader. He was in a suit and tie and he was talking to the camp director, saying that he was quitting. However, the camp director was trying to persuade him to stay by telling him to have “Courage!”.

So just in case you don’t understand the questions, here they are in english:

1. Why was Nicolas a little nervous when leaving for the camp?

2. What had the camp administration done to help the kids to have “a good morale”?

3. Describe an incident in the train or at the camp that you find is very typical in kids.

4. Find a funny incident in the story. Why did you find it funny?

5. What happened when the leader left the kids alone in the cabin? Explain two problems that he ought to have thought of.

6. In your opinion, did the leader leave or stay? Explain your answer.

7. Would you like to have to job of the leader? Why or why not?

8. In the story, there are stereotypical characters. Describe one.

Commençant de maintenant, j’écrirai en français!  De cette façon, vous pouvez apprendre le français aussi. Que je suis gentille… En tout cas, je sais que j’étais très paresseuse les derniers mois mais je vous promis que j’améliorai. Pour les devoirs aujourd’hui nous devons écrire un petit passage qui décrit quelque chose en utilisant les adjectifs. Utilisez le guide sur page 106 pour quelques règles concernant les adjectifs. Si vous ne savez pas le genre d’un nom CHERCHEZ-le. Quelques sites utiles sont granddictionnaire.com ou wordreference.com

*NOTE : I’m not proofreading these posts so if you find any mistakes please comment and tell me I’m WRONG. Trust me it’s a good feeling. Also comment if you don’t know the meaning of something, chances are someone else doesn’t either. Just tryin’ to help out the community!

WORK HARD

Anyway, here’s my summary for the poem that we read in class. The questions are due for Monday so if you have any questions feel free to comment. Sorry I’m not at home and I don’t know how to do the a accent grave on this computer.

Un petit enfant nègre prie au seigneur de ne plus aller a l’école. Le chemin a l’école est très long et fatiguant. Au lieu d’aller a l’école, il veut rester avec son père pour faire de la chasse dans la forêt. Il veut dormir sous les manguiers et être avec la nature. Il dit que les nègres ont toujours travaillé alors pourquoi faut-il aller a l’école maintenant? Aussi, les choses qu’ils apprennent a l’école n’ont aucune appartenance a leur vie. Il dit qu’il se sent triste pour les élèves et homme dans l’école parce qu’ils ont oublié dansé au clair de lune et raconté les contes aux veillées.

Celui (mas. sing.)

Celle (fém. sing.)

Ceux (mas. pl.)

Celles (fém. pl.)

En anglais, ils sont : This/that et these/those.

Pour remplacer quelque chose qui est proche, on ajoute –ci après le pronom. Pour remplacer quelque chose qui est loin, on ajoute –là.

« this one » = celui/celle-ci

« that one » = celui/celle-là

« these ones » = ceux/celles-ci

« those ones » = ceux/celles-là

« the former » = celui/celle-là

« the latter » = celui/celle-ci

Nous avons aussi appris les mots de vocab :

La négritude : le fait d’appartenir à la race nègre.

Le nègre

L’esclavage : la condition où un être humain travaille sans paie et il n’est pas son propre propriétaire.

L’esclave

La colonisation : l’acte de prendre une région pours son pays

La colonie

Le sauvage : un homme qui n’est pas civilisé, fuit la société, et vit seul.

Le cliché : une expression top utilisée

Le préjugé : un biais, une opinion envers quelque chose avant savoir les détails.

Le racisme : la discrimination, biais contre une certaine race

La discrimination : un sentiment négative envers une certaine race, couleur, genre

L’abus

La tolérance : la capacité d’accepter les choses

La racine : d’où vient les mots ou ta famille, la partie de la plante qui est sous la terre et qui prend de l’eau

Le traitement : l’acte de prendre soin de quelqu’un ou quelque chose

Le siècle : cent ans

La libération : l’acte de rendre les pouvoirs ou les droits à une entité ou une personne

Le compatriote : des personnes nées dans le même pays et fidèles à ce pays.

***DON’T FORGET TO START THINKING ABOUT YOUR FINAL PRESENTATION***

Pour moi, je pense les conflicts importants dans l’histoire sont:

1. Qu’est-ce que c’est la connaissance (knowledge)? Est-ce que c’est ce que Djéliba pense? Ou plutôt ce que M. Fofana pense?

2. La grande différence entre la culture du griot et la culture de la famille de Keita. Est-ce que la mode de vie est changer pour le mieux?

3. Le bataille de Sundjata. (Parce qu’il était handicappé et il n’avait pas d’amis) Tout le monde sauf le roi était contre idée de la reigne de Sundjata. Pensez-vous que Sundjata sera finalement le roi?

Que-pensez vous sont les trois oppositions importantes? Partagez…svp!

Voici un résumé sur les prepositions avant les villes, pays, etc.

LES VILLES

pas d’article (c’est à dire pas de “le/la/les”)

in/to = à

from = de

LES PAYS MASCULINS (aussi les régions et provinces)

*Mexique est un pays masculin*

the = le

in/to = au (**SAUF Iraq et Iran = en Iraq, en Iran pour la prononciation)

from = du/de l’ (on utilise “de l’” si le pays commence avec une voyelle)

LES PAYS FÉMININS (aussi les continents)

*Les pays féminins sont tous le pays qui terminent en “e” SAUF le Mexique*

the = la

in/to = en

from = de la/ de l’

LES PAYS PLURIELS ET LES ILES

*ex. les États-Unis

the = les

in/to = aux

from = des

Djéliba is continuing the story for Mabo. Back in the village of Do, Sundjata’s brother, the king’s first wife’s son, has sent Sundjata’s griot away. When Sundjata hears this, he becomes furious, and threatens to kill his brother in front of everyone. Because of this, the authorities are forced to send him to exile because he has “threatened to kill the king”. And so, Sundjata and his mother leaves the village, but Sundjata assures his brother that he will return and take revenge.

Meanwhile back at Mabo’s, the parents of the two classmates come with M. Fofana to visit Mabo’s parents. The parents are furious because Mabo dragged their children down with him. The parents insist that Mabo leaves their children alone. After this, Mabo’s mom decides that she wants to leave and get away from Djéliba. So, in order to have the family at peace, Djéliba says that he will leave. And so he does and he gives advice to Mabo, he says, “The future emerges from the past”. Soon after, Mabo chases after him, but instead he bumps into the hunter from Djéliba’s story. Mabo asks him to finish the story for him. But the hunter says that he can’t finish the story because that is the job of a griot. And he tells him not to worry because he will meet more griots in the future who will be able to finish the story for him.

Today, we also learned about prepositions introducing cities, countries, continents, provinces, etc. A little summary of that will be up soon..probably tomorrow.

Travaillez bien mes amis, ne soyez pas comme Mabo..

So, today we watched more of this never-ending movie. We see the childhood of Sundjata. The other kids don’t play with him because he is handicapped and also because everytime, Sundjata just attacks them with his muscular arms. 10 years later, he is still not able to walk. One day, Sogolon asks Sassouma (the king’s first wife) for some leaves to cook in her sauce. Sassouma responds by throwing the leaves in Sogolon’s face and insulting her and Sundjata saying that he is so useless. Sogolon becomes very upset and tells Sundjata that she would be better off if he died at birth. And so, Sundjata tries to stand up. The first time he fails… but the second time he miraculously succeeds! He then proceeds to pull an entire tree out of the ground and he brings it to his mother, giving her the leaves she had asked for.

Meanwhile back in reality, Mabo is telling this story to two of his school friends. Because they were so caught up in the story, the three of them are late for school. The teacher sends the two other students to their seats. He blames Mabo for dragging two of his classmates into his situation and he expels Mabo, sending him home with a letter to his parents.

If you have any questions, please comment!