Succès Éxito Success Erfolg

I have completed the course today with a final brief introduction to drawing animated figures.  

I was encouraged to use the artist's blue pencil for the first sketch and then a special red for the more detailed sketch. I made do with what I had, so my first drawing looks rather scary. Still, I learned today some more about using simpler lines and less detail for animated drawings, and it was a good review of drawing hair, eyes, noses and mouths.  


This morning, too excited about upcoming trip and life in general to sleep, I woke up and listened to Pimsleur French, Radio Quebec, a rap song in French on YouTube and then followed this dive into French by a video by Slow German on the subject of lying.  

Language learning and learning to draw, have many qualities in common: they provide for focused, in the zone time, slowly build skills with practice, practice, and observation. They require sources of motivation to keep on keeping on. They open the way to fresh perspectives on the world and relationships. They provide the learner with chances to  explore, venture into new territory, create, and perhaps best of all to communicate. 

Final Post Coming Up!

Today, after a break as I focused on language learning with my morning coffee, I came back and completed the avant finale curso (code switching). 

I feel a sense of satisfaction. It seems a timely point in my life of have completed this course- the week before leaving for Senegal. 

This week, and the following 3 weeks, I plan to focus on French and maybe Wolof. I am surprised at how good it has been to revisit French. I have been following some excellent podcasts and blogs that are giving me non-textbook, real life expressions and tips on how to sound more French. Plus, I have been listening to Radio Canada only for about 2 months and I am beginning to feel the French of Quebec once more.   

While at LangFest in Montreal, I heard a very interesting talk on bilingualism and bringing up children in bilingual or multilingual environments. I purchased Agathe Tupula Kabola's book,  Le bilinguisme, un atout dans son jeu. and am reading it with 'impressement' before passing it on to Fatu and Yacine. I hope they will find it pertinent for their kindergarten schools, Sukabe. 

Today the drawing course, that permitted me to shift into the 'zone', was on using geometrical shapes and the center of gravity to draw figures.