Learning French

'Oh, you know, a nice tour round the library.'he answered smiling before heading off to the shelf nearest the door. He suddenly spotted the librariana nd ducked behind one of the shelves. 'Elle,'he told Andy, 'travailles comme bibliothécaire' Before pointing to the librarian. Smiling, he checked she hadn't seen him before continuing his little 'trip'. He pointed to a book. 'Un livre' he told Andy wondering if she was even getting any thing from this. If not, well, Alex was gonna be the one giving up.
 
Andy stood up to follow him on this tour of the library, she didn't know why she needed one seeing as she spent so much time in here to begin with. She watched fascinated as he ducked behind a shelf and grinning she did the same.
"Oh wait, bibliothécaire that's like librarian or something right?" she had seen her of course and wondered why he was ducking her but hopefully she got the word right, which slotted with the others he had just said could mean something to the effect of 'the librarian is coming'. She bit her lip and turned to him, feeling like some spy or something.
"The librarian is coming?"
She saw him point to a book and say 'un livre' and Andy realised what he was doing.
"You're a bloody genius Alex Cullen. Book, livre is a book right?"
 
Alex shook his head as she guessed wrongly. 'No, She works as the librarian'he told her before smiling at his compliment.
Walking a bit more, he saw a flower on a book and pointed to the flower. 'Un fluer.' He pulled the book out and flicked through it before coming to picture showing lots of flowers together. 'Les fluers roux' he said showing Andy the red flowers. 'You getting any of this yet?'he asked her, hoping she would say she was.
 
Andy frowned and rolled her eyes, at least she got the librarian part right. The least he could do was acknowledge that part, but he didn't and Andy moved on regardless. He picked up a book and pointed to a flower. After saying a word, she figured he was saying 'flower' but after getting the last sentence wrong she wondered a bit.
"Maybe if you say the French word and back it up with the English word, then its not so much a guessing contest but an actual learning experience" she told him, hoping he wouldn't get ticked off with her and decide to walk away again.
 
Alex smiled, holding back the laughter. He had thought it was so obvious but if she didn't think so, then he would say the english for her. 'The red flowers' he added, smiling at her. He closed the book and replaced it. Seeing another book, he picked it out and found a broom. 'Un balai, A broom' he told her smiling.
 
Andy stuck her tongue out playfully.
"Well ok smarty pants" she grinned and followed him further as he picked up another book and flicked through it. He came to a picture of a broom and said it fisrt in French but as he said the English she said it with him.
"A broom. That I will remember... ok, un balai. Bal..ai" she smiled, her pronounciation hadn't been bad either, " way to go Einstein, next!"
 
Alex replaced the broom before grabbing out another book at random. He flipped it open and it landed on a fox. 'Un renard,'he stated, before remembering to say the english. 'A fox' he added. He flipped a few more pages coming to a griffin. 'Umm, un griffon' he guessed, not sure if that was completely correct.
 
"Un renard" she mumbled after him and then repeated the word for griffon before putting her hand over his on the book and whispering so the librarian wouldn't hunt them down and toss them out.
"Ok, now what is the french for book? for shelf? for boy? for girl? when am I going to use the word fox for crying out loud?" she laughed, smiling her amber eyes up into his.
 
Alex smiled. 'Well, maybe when you see one trying to eat your food on your wedding picnic,'he told her before remembering that he had already told her book in french. 'I told you what a book was anyway.'he added, raising an eyebrow at her. He replaced the book and pointed at himself. 'Un garcon et une fille' he stated, ending up to point at her.
 
Andy rolled her eyes at him.
"There you go mentioning weddings again - every time we meet you do that. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were fishing ... for an invite" she grinned, "yeah yeah, un livre. See I even remembered."
She watched as he first motioned to himself and then to her, she figured it could only mean one thing.
"'Un garcon et une fille, a boy and a girl?" she turned her smiling amber eyes up at him delighted she was finally making progress.
"I'll be fluent at this rate" she laughed.
 
Alex was a little surprised before smiling. He hadn't realized he had done that. Must be something that seemed to crop up in the situations with her. 'Well, maybe I am'he replied, not serious at all. 'Of course, told you you would,'he said patting her on the head. 'La tete (sp?)'he added smiling. 'One's head'
 
Andy laughed and shook her head.
"And I'm sure I've already told you that I won't be getting married, so you'll have to go fish from someone else" she stuck out her tongue at him and then frowned when he patted her on the head.
"Hey... oh, ok but lay off the head yeah. La tete, the head" she grinned looking about her to see if there was anything else and then stopped.
"How do you say something like... I don't know ehrm... I love you?" she blushed a bit hoping he wouldn't laugh at her for asking this type of thing.
"And I'm not telling you that I love you, I just want to know".
 
Alex stuck his tongue out at her in return before smiling. 'Ah, wondered when you'd ask that' he told her before thinking about it. 'There's lots of ways to say it actually. Je t'aime, probably the best way actually. it's in a lot of their songs'
 
Andy looked at him and nudged him playfully.
"What do you mean you were wondering when I was going to ask that?" she wondered was she that transparent or predictable. She had certainly never thought herself so.
"J'taime... it sounds kind of funny doesn't it? Italian is much nicer L'amo ... breaking it down it's phonetically le a - mo. I just think it's sweeter".
 
Alex laughed. 'It's a classic thing to ask' he explained, smiling. 'Matter of opinion really. I like the greek way better than anything so far but then that's probably just me.'he added, before starting to walk again. He spotted a nice book and picked it out finding the sun and beach in a picture. 'A la plage. At the beach. Beaucoup de soliel Lots of sun' he told her showing the picture. On the book cover was a picture of the world. 'Le monde. That can mean people or the world, depending on the context' he explained before replacing the book on the shelf.
 
Andy listened and followed on as if under the imperius curse. She nodded her head and repeated the words he told her, repeating them over and over in her head as they moved along. She should probably be writing all of these down and kicked herself for only thinking about it now.
"So what is the Greek for it then?" she wondered was it really a classic thing to ask and sighed at the fact that she was becoming so predictable .
 
Alex smiled as she asked what the greek was for it. 'S'agabaw'he told her, saying very fluently. A girl had taught him that when he had been in london. There were loads of Cypriots there he had found.
He continued walking bored of picking out books. Slipping his shoe off, he held it up. 'La chauseure'he said before replacing it back onto his foot. 'Les chausaurres' he added, smiling. 'Shoes, and shoe'
 
Andy looked at him incredulously.
"And you think that is nicer? wow, if it rocks your boat Alex go with it. Was she nice? The girl who told you she loved you?" Andy smiled as she walked along until he took off his shoe.
"Erhm, I don't think the library has a charm against foot odour Alex put it back on" she stuck her tongue out playfully before copying the word he had said.
 
Alex laughed. 'She was five Ants'he told her rolling her eyes at her. Everything seemed to be related to love..well, almost everything. He heard her insult and sighed, before going HAHA at it. 'Very funny. Well, then they should just make one,'he said before smiling. He pointed to his top, which just happened to be a shirt. 'Une chemise blanc'he stated once more, before pointing to his tie. 'La cravate des hufflepuffs' he added, missing the h in hufflepuff.
 
When Alex mentioned 'ants' again this time as randomly as he had before Andromeda clued in immediately. Doh, but she felt slow. He was actually calling her Ants. She smirked shaking her head at him.
"And how old were you? She seems a tad young don't ya think?" she couldn't help but grin. He began pointing to her shirt after a moment and Andy did the same thing. She took a step forward and pointed to his shirt repeating what he said. When he pointed to his tie she tugged it gently and repeated the same words as he did, not quite as well but she was definitely getting there.
"So when do I get my gold star? And you call me Ants again and I'll kick you in the shins" she said it all in the same smiley voice as if she were chatting amicably about any old thing and not the nicely veiled threat she had just delivered, with a smile no less.
 
Alex smiled. 'Of course, as always and when you buy the god star you might get it' he replied back her, sorting his tie back up. He didn't mind threats, no mater how serious they were, which didn't end up very well half the time. He ignored her comment about the girl. She was only a kid, and any kid that age was into fantasy stuff. They had no idea what half the stuff that came out their mouths meant.
'Oh yeah, shins is les tibias' he added before thinking what else to say. 'Quel est votre couleur de cheveux?' he asked her hoping she would just repeat it to get the pronunciation right first.
 
She laughed when he told her the French for shins.
"Now that is useful what about an arm, a leg, the face..." she went on and when he said something entirely in French with no explanation as to what it was in English, she figured he was getting back at her for tugging his tie. She knew the last word was tie and figured colour in one language was pretty much similar to its French counterpart.
"What colour is your tie?" she ventured but knowing her was probably wrong again.
 
Alex smiled. 'Ye-'he was about o say before he registered properly what she had said. He shook his head. 'What? I thought I told you what tie was?'he asked asked, putting his hand to his face. 'Never mind. Right, I'll go over the question bit by bit. Simple?'he asked her, before continuing nevertheless. 'Quel est. Any ideas what that is?'he asked her, for the hundredth time today probably.
 
It was only when Andy had actually said the sentence out loud that it sounded wrong. Hadn't tie been some other 'c' word... she closed her eyes tight trying to remember and then cursing herself pulled out her muggle studies pen and notebook from her bag.
"Right that's it I'm writing this stuff down. If I'm forgetting things after two minutes I'm going to be utterly useless... cravat... that was tie. Oh thank Merlin I remembered, thought I was losing the plot there" she shook her head and rolled her eyes, "Sorry Alex just can't seem to concentrate. Hope you don't feel like you've been wasting your time now?"

She wanted to make more of an effort she really did.
"Ok so it's what is the colour of something... but what is the something? cheveux? I am saying it right anyhow aren't I? Quel est votre couleur de cheveux?"
 
( so sorry. total forget about this topic. :doh: :) )

Alex smiled, his eyes lit with amusement as Andy started to talk to herself mostly. He didn't interrupt her conversation though, curious as to how far it might go until she stopped.
She stopped though quite soon to his dismay but he just nodded to her questions. 'You know, the first signs of madness are talking to yourself,'he joked with her, starting to walk with a bit of laughter escaping him.
Without turning to face her, he picked a book out at random from the creatures section. He decided to give her a bit of help in figuring it out. He didn't care how much she was going to complain about not giving her the english traslation now. That was just cheating and he was sure Andy would enjoy the 'challenge', some way anyway.
'J'ai les chevaux blonde' he stated to her, though he kept walking, not even sure she had been following him in the first place. Ach, weel, he thought to himself, his thoughts going back to his homeland for some reason.
 
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