Psychological testing en francais tomorrow to see if I get into carpentry school! If not I can still look for some professional carpenter to take me on as an apprentice. Meditation retreat on wednesday! I will be silent from Feb. 24 to March 7. It will help me adapt to this land and this culture, and give me some insight into the kinds of French inbalances (or Sankaras). If I get into the school, it turns out that the school in Brittany will be the more logical choice than the one in Bayonne. It's still near the ocean, I haven't connected with the ocean much before (The Mediterranean yes, but when I was insensitive towards subtle energies). Brittany has Celtic roots, and so it would be the closest physically and culturally that I have ever been to my Welsh Celtic roots. Anyways, chi doesn't have a culture or ethnicity. I am curious about the type of rock along the rocky northern coast of Brittany (St. Malo, the town with the carpentry school, is right on the coast), and what residual energy has accumulated there. There seem to be many churches and monasteries in France built in spaces or on spaces of high and auspicious chi (by auspicious I mean one that can be interacted with by a human organism healthily, the opposite type of 'high energy' might be a power plant).
Europe is a land which has been grasped by human hands and tread over by human feet so intensively and for so long. Long gone are the times when prides of lions roamed Greece and the Balkan valleys. Long ago are the times when mastodon roamed the cold fringes to the north. Long ago were the all-encompassing forests cut down (except in Belarus, where apparently 40 percent of the land is covered in forest!). There is still much wilderness to be found, a lot more than I imagined!
As Western Europeans migrate more steadily to major cities, these obsolete, economically decaying parts of the land will perhaps be the grounds for ecosystem regrowth, with patient, helping human hands.
As a response to Dave for the last post: I think it is because it is an adult school, and they want to ensure that someone who has strayed from the normal (or 'catholic', as they call it here, where we would use the terms 'orthodox' or 'kosher') path, and also because they pay students to go to these schools, and they want to weed out those who would ruin their investments.
Another thought about Latin and non-Latin languages. In French, the subjects and objects are in the opposite order than in English. By the end of the sentence, the message communicated is more or less the same (depending on how significance the difference is between French and English in how each language can be used to express thoughts, if you remember my earlier post on how different languages applied to thoughts transform thoughts in different ways). But in mid-sentence, what does the Frenchman already know that the Englishman has yet to understand? Polar bear/oarse polaire. Un maison en bois/a wood house. Je voudrais un carte de banc/ I would like a bank card. If you started to speak this sentence in either language, and were interrupted mid-sentence right after you said 'carte' or in English 'bank', the French audience would have a different picture than the English. A bank what? A bank statement? or you would like to own a bank? What carte? Un carte de credit? A business card?
Interesting, no? How many messages have been misunderstood because the end wasn't received? Many, surely. French sentences seem to go from general to specific (bears, then the polar type. Cards, then the bank type) and English from specific to general (polars, the bear type. Banks, the card type). For where this rule holds true, it seems like the French language has an advantage, if the message is not fully received with a period at the end. I will have a better understanding of the context of your message if the last word I hear is 'bomb', rather than 'nuclear'. You could be talking about a nuclear atom, or plant.
Anyway, I will try to write again before retreating through my bodily orifices into my inner world (on wednesday).
Cheers,
Maurizio
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4 comments:
Thanks for explaining why. Do you know what kind of test they give? Is it a generalized one (e.g. IQ) or a homemade one? I know that France has a history of using testing for entry to its advances écoles, but I wasn't aware that intelligence tests were used for anything. Anyways, good luck on it! :)
Hey Bud! I see all these words on the screen and after all the work hours I'm pulling in front of the computer I can't bring myself to reading it all! Send me your number on facespace or edork and i'll call you. Remember you much and love you lots.
It is a standardized aptitude test, not sure what it consists of (except logicl questions, basic arithmetic and geometry questions) because I didn't get past the interview, as we discovered that there are slim chances I can get into this school AFPA because it has gone from a national organization to regional ones, and there are no schools in the region I reside in, therefore I was introduced to another organization which offers a course in carpentry, so I think I will try that one.
Sorry to here, hope this new organization works out better. And great new post, sounds like you have some important decisions up ahead. Keep it real!
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