Telling time
Springtime brings new records. Things like a high temperature of 15.6C (yesterday) and gasoline at $1.35/l (today). A mix of good and bad.
Over the last few decades of double-language life, I’ve worked out a lot of kinks. However, some things just “don’t come naturally”. A case in point, certain sounds. English has them, French doesn’t. And vice-versa. I’ve had a particularly difficult time with the diphthongs eu and ou, as expressed in the combinations “deuxième” [/dø.zjɛm/] and “douzième” [/du.zjɛm/]. And certain, other, similar occurences. In fact, I can’t tell the two apart, aurally.
Today, I had a rendezvous at the hospital. When the phone message was delivered, I heard “12h15”. I repeated it, just to be sure, and the clerk confirmed it. I arrived early, just to be sure. And because I believe in being early. When the clinic nurse came to receive my documents, she expressed some surprise that I was already there for an appointment at 14h15, or as she put it “deux heures quinze”.
Yes, I had the luck to wait almost two extra hours for my chance to get a post-operative control (and some more stitches, but that was just a bonus).
In the real world, Japan is still shaking, one month later. The only thing is that the geological timescale doesn’t include “one month anniversary” as a tick on the timeline. If the aftershocks are being felt, it has nothing to do with our need to mark things on the calendar. It’s just one more tremor, among many. No need to make a news headline.
