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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4386 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 385 of 1317 13 January 2013 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Emk, this may sound like a stupid question, but where exactly do you get all the BDs?!
They look brilliant, just the kind of thing I'd enjoy reading. Do you get the from amazon, or do you get them local? I'd be very interested in those Tintin comics, are they still being written regularly I wonder? If so, I wouldn't mind getting a subscription. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5314 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 386 of 1317 13 January 2013 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | ||
Good question! Bandes dessinées are basically "graphic novels." They usually run about 60 pages, and they're almost always hardbacks. Sometimes a BD will consist of a single volume, or a series of standalone volumes (like Tintin and Asterix). But many BDs follow a single plot over 3 to 5 hardback volumes (which can get expensive). Generally speaking, the stories will never be published as "comic books", and there's no way to subscribe. I guess the French just like longer storylines and high-quality books. :-) You can see all the Tintin volumes here. If you want parallel texts, you should be able find English translations pretty easily. I buy my BDs from several sources: 1. Amazon.fr. If you have an Amazon account anywhere in the world, just log in using your Amazon account and password, and you can order anything you want. They'll ship all around the world, and the user interface is pretty familiar. It works exactly like every other Amazon site, except that it's in French and things take longer to arrive. (You may also want to try Fnac, which is a big French chain. I've never bought much from them.) 2. Renaud-Bray stores when I visit Montreal (or similar stores in France). This is great for browsing through a couple of hundred titles and finding something cool. 3. Schoenhof's physical store in Cambridge, MA, USA. I don't recommend ordering from them online—their in-store service is amazing, but their mail-order can be a major headache. They'll sell you Tintin and Asterix in a truly impressive number of languages, and they often have a couple of excellent literary BDs in stock. A couple of pages back, geoffw recommended Izneo, which will allow you to read BDs for very good prices in your web browser, using Flash. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really promising if you don't want a permanent copy of the book. They seem to have recent BDs, but not as many of the old classics. I hope this helps you get started! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4464 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 387 of 1317 13 January 2013 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
Just to make you jealous ;-) 
Seriously though, I'm looking forward to seeing those sweet BDs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4386 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 388 of 1317 13 January 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for that, very helpful as usual! I'll have a look on amazon.fr.
liammcg 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5314 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 389 of 1317 14 January 2013 at 5:51am | IP Logged | ||
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OK, version 2 of my homemade scanner is up and running, and it's time to bring out the good stuff.
Immigrants The true stories of 13 French immigrants, drawn by 13 artists and recorded by 6 historians. 
Let me show what I love so much about this book. This is the story of a political refugee from Africa: 
This is a powerful book, both for the amazing life stories and for the remarkable view of what it's like to be an immigrant. View on Amazon.fr Persepolis (four volumes in one book) This is a major classic. It's the story of a young girl who lived through the Iranian revolution and who later emigrated to Europe. I'll let it speak for itself: 
And look at all that lovely, idiomatic French dialog. This is what real, spoken French sounds like to me. View on Amazon.fr (there's also a movie version, which I hear is good) Siegfried (three volumes) This is a retelling of Siegfried and the Nibelungs. The plot has changed quite a bit, but I rather liked it despite the changes. I can't quite capture the gorgeous colors on my scanner yet. (click below to enlarge) 
There's relatively few words per page here, and the vocabulary is a little challenging. But if you like epic fantasy and great art, check this one out. View Tome 1 on Amazon.fr (all the covers are gorgeous) View Tome 2 on Amazon.fr View Tome 3 on Amazon.fr Have I mentioned just how much fun it is to read French? Edited by emk on 14 January 2013 at 6:07am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Helemano Newbie Japan Joined 4122 days ago 31 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 390 of 1317 14 January 2013 at 7:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Homemade scanner ? Do tell more!
EDIT: Nevermind. I see what you wrote above. Edited by Helemano on 14 January 2013 at 7:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5314 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 391 of 1317 14 January 2013 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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While I was cooking dinner last night, I reread IRS All Watcher part 4. Something has definitely changed in my French reading skills since I took the DELF this past spring, because back then, I could make it through a moderately-challenging BD with several hours of careful reading. But now I can do it in under an hour in between cooking dinner, playing with the kids, and getting everybody into bed.
What changed? Two things, I think. I've moved several verb forms from my "intellectual" French into my "automatic" French. And my passive vocabulary has apparently gotten much bigger, because I've seen most of the individual words and expressions so often that they're familiar, and I no longer need more than a moment to recall how they're typically used. Oh, and a fun exercise for parents: When your kids are playing with other kids, try to silently translate everything they say into your target language. It seems I can do this with four-year-olds, given a few minutes of warmup. But then again, my toddler and parenting vocabulary is strong in French, in a way that's not necessarily available to the average learner. Still, this is heartening: I have about the same amount of experience that a four-year-old does (a lot less conversation, a lot more books), and I'm not getting totally destroyed here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4447 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 392 of 1317 14 January 2013 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Awesome pictures! Both of those look great.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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