Author Archives: Hugh Paterson III

A List of French Language Resources for Young People

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I put this list together for Katja's learning and exposure. The context is that she is 9 and has had 4 years of exposure and two years of bi-lingual education in French.

Bi-lingual stories in classical literature.

https://frenchwithstories.com

Numberblocks in French does translate to French well. Alphablocks in French does not. They speak French while all the visuals are in English.
https://www.youtube.com/c/NumberblocksFran%C3%A7ais

FouFou has some vocabulary building like this one for emotion words.

The Fable Cottage has a set of 5 stories:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheFableCottage

EFBA has a list of French PodCasts for Kids.
https://efba.us/blog/11-french-podcasts-for-kids

French with Elise is a bi-lingual vocabulary building introduction to cultural differences between France and the USA.
https://smalltalk.fm/pod/french-with-elise

Salut l'info! is a short kids oriented radio broadcast of news issues delivered as a podcast.
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/salut-l-info
an example episode:
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/salut-l-info/elections-europeennes-dissolution-et-decouverte-d-un-dinosaure_6604107.html

Radio Canada has a series centered around Arthur L'aventurier who goes to different places and discusses culture and Zoology. Requires VPN to Canada for access.
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeunesse/prescolaire/emissions/4124/arthur-aventurier-afrique/contenu/nosvideos

Au Maroc : Grand explorateur du monde, Arthur L’aventurier se rend cette fois-ci au Maroc afin de découvrir ce pays fascinant qui renferme des trésors uniques. En chanson, il raconte sa découverte d’une faune diversifiée peuplée de macaques de Barbarie, de bourricots, de fennecs, de cigognes et de flamants roses. Émerveillé, il relate son expédition dans le désert du Sahara à dos de dromadaire et sa rencontre d’un peuple fantastique qui possède une culture d’une richesse extraordinaire.

Au Zoo de Granby : Arthur L'aventurier part à la rencontre des animaux du Zoo de Granby : girafe, panda, lion, tortue, rhinocéros, lama, hippopotame ou encore tigre, effraie des clochers, rhinocéros et wallaby.

En Australie : Arthur L’aventurier réalise un grand rêve : découvrir l’Australie, ses magnifiques paysages naturels et ses animaux exceptionnels. Le voyageur préféré des enfants rend visite à sa grande amie Jade, vétérinaire au refuge Au bout du monde pour animaux blessés. Il fait également la connaissance de Matéo, soigneur animalier, et de Finlay, 5 ans, qui adore la nature. À travers un jeu proposé par ses camarades, Arthur partira à la découverte des koalas, kangourous, dingos, crocodiles et autres animaux typiques du pays.

Dans les Rocheuses : Arthur L'aventurier transporte les enfants dans un univers d'une beauté exceptionnelle rempli de trésors naturels : les Rocheuses canadiennes. En images et en chansons, les enfants découvrent les hautes montagnes, les lacs majestueux et les grottes.

Au Costa Rica : Être un aventurier ou une aventurière selon Arthur L’aventurier, qu’est-ce que ça signifie? C’est s’émerveiller, se laisser vibrer, affronter ses peurs et être accro au bonheur! Et tout ça, au Costa Rica!

New Jersey vs Oregon

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There is quite a culture difference between New Jersey’s and Oregon. Evidently every Jersey Lawn needs this poison applied like sunshine!

People and pets beware! Poisonous materials applied.
Drain to the river.

With drains to the river what poisons do they think won’t leech the 20 feet from the lawn to the drain?

20 feet from the lawn poison sign to the drain.

The big culture difference is that Oregonians who have been part of families who have lived in Oregon a long time generally are anti-pesticide. (Even though the logging industry uses pesticides without restrictions.) All over Eugene there are yard signs stating: “this yard is a bee sanctuary” and “pesticide free”.

The simple fact remains. Unconstrained capitalism allows a business to sell the poisoning of a domestic space as a product, even if that poison is liable to travel into other places in the watershed, including rivers and estuaries.

Princton Rec Pool Lifeguards

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The first time Katja swam with me at the Rec pool she asked me if this was a dangerous pool to swim at. The question caught me off guard. I asked her what she meant. She said that the life guards were on the same side of the pool and talking to each other instead of watching the swimmers. So today I took a picture of one guard on break behind me and the other two chatting with each other.

On break behind my shoulder.
In the far perch.

Filtered water… for what

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Words cause our brains to make certain associations. For example, water is supposed to be fresh to be best.

So I find the following marketing posted by water fount to be interesting. First, Princeton University wants people to think their water is “fresh” but really, it’s filtered. Second, they don’t really advertise what is filtered out. The EPA report designates Princeton city water as containing PFAS chemicals. So, does the filtering actually solve that problem? It makes me wonder if drinking local is really healthy.

What is local water at Princeton?
Page from EPA report.

Select Hotel Gendarmenmarkt Berlin – Review

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BEWARE of this place. There were two major issues: 1. The staff would not refund me even though I wanted to check out early and I booked directly with the hotel. 2. The quality of the rooms was low.

I stayed in Room 440. There were several things wrong with the room. First, there were tile bits in the bathroom shower and floor which were chipped and broken. Second, there were stained bed sheets. Third the electrically controlled sun shade which is used to keep the room cool in the day was inoperable. The climate control in the room could not keep up with the intense heat from the afternoon sun. Additionally, at various times I could hear people in the neighboring room, their shower, their alarm clock (phone), and their sun shade operating.

I talked to the front desk because I wanted to check out of the hotel 1/2 through my stay. I wanted a refund on the remaining part of my stay. They said it was not in their power to make that decision. I had to email the main office. By the next day the main office still had not replied to my email. I kept asking at the front desk and they (the front desk) eventually sent me a response saying no they would not refund me. Their position was that because there were no widely attended activities in Berlin during the scheduled time they were not likely to be able to re-rent the room. By this time I had gone online and looked at their nightly rate. It was 100 Euro less than what they were charging me. So I sent another email to the main office asking for a price adjustment to the advertised nightly rate. This time they ignored my email and did not reply at all.

Management and the team here are not looking to make repeat customers. My next trip to Berlin City Center will likely support the City Mission of Berlin and stay at their Gasthaus.

Stains on the bed sheets.

Stains on the bed sheets.

Inoperable sun shade.

Inoperable sun shade.

Bathroom tiles missing

Bathroom tiles missing.

Kinder Eier

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When I was a kid, part of the whole special experience that a Kinder Überaschung Eier created was due to the novelty of the characters they created. It was their toys and their ideas.

Now, it seems that they have in some way reduced to catering to facilitating mania. It is as if their brand isn’t as big as it once was and they think that they need to piggyback on someone else’s moment. It’s really say that they don’t seem to be able to retain their uniqueness in both brand and culture.

Paw patrol? Really?!?