So in the past I have done lots of complaining about having a hard time with the language in France and how some people don't do anything to make it easier to communicate regularly. Well, I should also be honest and say that there I think I would be frustrated no matter what. In the last couple weeks I have noticed that when I go to lunch with my co-workers and have a hard time understanding french in the loud cafeteria (and to be honest I have been working really hard and been stressed so I am usually really tired at lunch so I don't try that hard (recently- before the last three weeks this is not true)) and I get frustrated, but when someone switches to english to speak to me after i speak french to them I feel like they are saying that my French isn't good enough. Which might or might not be true in some circumstances. However I know in some cases that this is not true. A nice older lady asked for help picking avocados at the store on monday and I tried to help but when she heard my French she switched to English - I think this was just her being polite and trying to practice her English. So it seems that the french are damned if they do and damned if they don't in my book - sigh.
Of course then there are a few people who go out of there way to speak slowly to me in French and are patient when I screw up. These in particular are the people that make learning French and living in France fun and worthwhile. So I don't know what the point of this post was but there it is.
vendredi 14 octobre 2011
dimanche 2 octobre 2011
neutrinos and graphene
So I just wanted to post something that I thought was very interesting. As a physicist I have seen a lot and gotten a lot of questions about neutrino's traveling faster than the speed of light. Though I have not read the paper my response as a theoretical physicist was about the same as when I read an experimental paper in my own field that is exciting: Hey - that would be cool (in this case ground breaking) if it pans out, and then I proceed to wait for the next paper (or three) to confirm it one way or another. Because one of the key things that little Scientists (cough- undergrads/gradstudent) learn as they grow up is that science is a process of discovery, check, re-check, confirmation, and validation. So if a single paper stands out it must be proven by others before we are confident in it.
This is the case of the recent Nobel prize winners who discovered graphene using scotch tape. Everyone was amazed (for nearly 60 years graphene had been proposed to possibly exist (and be heavily studied experimentally) but no-one could create it or any other purely 2-D materials), but they didn't win the Nobel prize until graphene could be recreated by other groups with the same and other methods. And now graphene is one of the most exciting materials that people can study. Going further on a tangent - I just want to say to those who say Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov and got their Nobel Prize early, that graphene only has potential but hasn't been proven to be as important as everything thinks it will be: They proved 2-D structures can exist after 60 years of debate about the subject USING SCOTCH TAPE!!!!
But anyways getting back to the neutrinos going faster than light. Some theory (some versions of string theory leave the possibility open) and experiment already exist (according to the blog I am going to link to below) but they are a little contradictory and also the experiment was for a different "flavour" of neutrino. So this is all a big build up to link to a friends blog who read the paper and gave a nice analysis of why Scientists look for confirmation from other sources before they believe new break discoveries. So I suggest that you go look at Miss Atomic Bomb's post.
This is the case of the recent Nobel prize winners who discovered graphene using scotch tape. Everyone was amazed (for nearly 60 years graphene had been proposed to possibly exist (and be heavily studied experimentally) but no-one could create it or any other purely 2-D materials), but they didn't win the Nobel prize until graphene could be recreated by other groups with the same and other methods. And now graphene is one of the most exciting materials that people can study. Going further on a tangent - I just want to say to those who say Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov and got their Nobel Prize early, that graphene only has potential but hasn't been proven to be as important as everything thinks it will be: They proved 2-D structures can exist after 60 years of debate about the subject USING SCOTCH TAPE!!!!
But anyways getting back to the neutrinos going faster than light. Some theory (some versions of string theory leave the possibility open) and experiment already exist (according to the blog I am going to link to below) but they are a little contradictory and also the experiment was for a different "flavour" of neutrino. So this is all a big build up to link to a friends blog who read the paper and gave a nice analysis of why Scientists look for confirmation from other sources before they believe new break discoveries. So I suggest that you go look at Miss Atomic Bomb's post.
optimistic follow up
So over the next day or two after I posted about the two ratings of my French ability I came to a realization that how you are "rated" is dependent on your level.
That sounds weird but let me explain. When I lived in England for a school year in undergrad I had a bunch of non-English speaking friends and flatmates. So one day one of my friends (left call her "A") commented on how people rated her English. She said that whenever she asked someone how her English was we would say it is "good" (my self included), but that A thought that another mutual friend (lets call her B), who spent most of her time with her friends of the same nationality, had worse English than she did though everyone told B that her English was also "good." Well it was true that's A's English was significantly better than B's. That is when I realized that A's English was "good" in regards to someone how is basically fluent, while B's was "good" in terms of someone who is learning and struggling a bit. Now we weren't intentionally being confusing we were just naturally putting them in categories/levels before we then rated them. Therefore, when I am at the level of "tourist" I am rated really well, but when I am rated as "someone who uses French daily and 'should' be fluent" I have some work to do. So my optimistic realization was that I had made the transition from "tourist" or "short-term visitor" to the next level up and in accordance to the next level I am only sorta so-so (comme-ci comme ca). So hurrah!! my French is improving (which I know but it is nice I have some confirmation).
On a related note - I am also trying to pick up some habits that are going to improve my French. The first is I have started to read the second Harry Potter in French - sans le version original. So far it is going pretty well. I don't understand everything but I was able to work things out.
That sounds weird but let me explain. When I lived in England for a school year in undergrad I had a bunch of non-English speaking friends and flatmates. So one day one of my friends (left call her "A") commented on how people rated her English. She said that whenever she asked someone how her English was we would say it is "good" (my self included), but that A thought that another mutual friend (lets call her B), who spent most of her time with her friends of the same nationality, had worse English than she did though everyone told B that her English was also "good." Well it was true that's A's English was significantly better than B's. That is when I realized that A's English was "good" in regards to someone how is basically fluent, while B's was "good" in terms of someone who is learning and struggling a bit. Now we weren't intentionally being confusing we were just naturally putting them in categories/levels before we then rated them. Therefore, when I am at the level of "tourist" I am rated really well, but when I am rated as "someone who uses French daily and 'should' be fluent" I have some work to do. So my optimistic realization was that I had made the transition from "tourist" or "short-term visitor" to the next level up and in accordance to the next level I am only sorta so-so (comme-ci comme ca). So hurrah!! my French is improving (which I know but it is nice I have some confirmation).
On a related note - I am also trying to pick up some habits that are going to improve my French. The first is I have started to read the second Harry Potter in French - sans le version original. So far it is going pretty well. I don't understand everything but I was able to work things out.
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