So the French Civilization book is good for something. . .
je suis fait pour ça = I'm done for (French)
je suis formaté = I'm formatted ("current" French)
je ne comprends pas = I don't understand (French)
j'imprime pas = I don't print ("current" French)
Hilarious!
We had a guest in our Advanced French class today, Dr. Plaster, the academic dean, who was 'observing' our professor and her class - as happens to all Grace professors every three years. He can speak French, and with some difficulty restrained his theological opinions while we discussed French 20th century philosophy - existentialism and absurdism. Fascinating. We didn't get into Sartre and existentialism quite as much, though Prof. Schram did give us some quotes to discuss, such as -L'existence précède l'essence-, "Existence precedes essence." Sartre believed that in order to find meaning or reality in life, we have to produce it ourselves by our own actions. For Camus and absurdism, we read a few short extracts from Le Mythe de Sisyphe and L'Etranger (you can figure those out). According to Camus, our lives and our work are meaningless, much like Sisyphe who would roll the rock up to the mountain's summit only to have it fall back down again and again. As long as we are not conscious of the futility of our work, life is not tragic; but once we realize it, yet continue to work, we become victorious over this futility, and Camus calls us "heros of the absurd". Then life has meaning, perhaps even happiness.
There's the typical French optimism for you. I don't agree with Camus' premises, but his conclusions seem to follow. Thankfully we know the one who brings sense to life, because He is life Himself - Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
From the French
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7 comments:
Hey, I didn't know you were "into" philosophy. 'Fraid I don't remember much of my "Intro" course. Come to think of it, why am I here?.........where did I come from?......what is the meaning of life?...........
Well, I'm not exactly 'into' philosophy, but this was very interesting. In fact, each of us has to choose a French novel to read during the rest of the semester, and I'm thinking about reading the rest of "The Stranger", or maybe something similar. After all, I doubt that I'll have time to take a philosophy class here!
No mention of French Philosophers of the 18th and early 19th century? France has such a lovely philosophical history in that period of time... (the Marquis de Sade comes to mind)
Ah... the French.
Hi Sharon, sister of Ardith, daughter of Ma and Pa Hoyt. I am a charter member of M.O.C.K., just so you know I'm not a total weirdo stranger posting on your nice blog, though I suppose the part about not being a total werido is debatable.
I see you live in Winona Lake. I don't know much about the town, but I attended a Free Methodist church for years, and I always heard them talk about Winona Lake like it was Mecca. That is, until they moved their headquarters to Indianapolis.
My two boys both graduated from Taylor U, not too far from you. I guess your school probably plays sports against Taylor.
I also see you are interested in languages and linguistics. Boy, do I have a job for you! Are you looking for a career? The pay isn't great, but the benefits are out of this world. In fact, they're celestial.
Vengeful Cynic, I appreciate the thought and the article (which I read), but since we were covering a whole century each class, we didn't have time for every (in)famous person.
Hi Thainamu, don't worry, I recognized you from Mommy's blog. I've sometimes wondered about the Free Methodist Publishing House... Printing House... something like that. We know it as Mount Memorial, which houses the art, psychology, and education classes, and best of all, the campus post office.
No, I'm not exactly looking for a career yet, but you make me curious!
Oh, good, you're curious. I'm just talking about becoming a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators. That is one profession in which you can actually use linguistics, and there are plenty of French speaking parts of Africa that need translations in the vernaculars. (We've been Wycliffe members for over 25 years, first doing translation in Solomon Islands, and now in computer support and international administration in Dallas. Anyway, here are a couple websites you could look at if you are interested: www.wycliffe.org and our graduate school in applied linguistics www.gial.edu Like I said, the pay isn't great (we all raise our own support), but the benefits are terrific! OK, recruiting pitch is over.
Actually, I was already considering that! But I have several years to go yet. Thank you for giving me the websites, I will look them up.
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