{"id":316,"date":"2015-09-17T13:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/?p=316"},"modified":"2015-09-17T13:01:36","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:01:36","slug":"episode-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/episode-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tardis-round\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The organizer of Doctor Who events in Derby, Stephen Hatcher, is a teacher of foreign languages and I moaned to him about my inability to speak and read French well. Some of my favourite writers are French \u2013 Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Proust, Cocteau, Genet \u2013 and I prefer French mystery writers like Simenon and Leo Malet to English, but I can\u2019t read them in the original. I said a sentence or two to Stephen \u2013 \u201cAvez vous un chambre avec salle de bain?\u201d and he praised my accent. I am sure my accent is okay. In Italy I once spoke a few sentences to a Venetian tour guide, who embarked on a long discourse in her native language, assuming I was fluent, though I had used up all my knowledge. <\/p>\n

\tI have been going through papers at my late father\u2019s house, hundreds of them across all periods of my life, and a few days after speaking to Stephen Hatcher I came across a stab at a French essay, written when I was thirteen or so, which I reproduce below. The words and fragments in brackets were struck out in the original. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t*<\/p>\n

1.\tA Memorable event<\/p>\n

Tom Baker est un tres bien acteur, et il travaill\u00e9 en le series \u201cDocteur Qui\u201d. Aussi, ma tante travaille pour le BBC. (Elle in in) Elle m\u2019invit\u00e9 \u00e1 (la) les studios rencontre Tom.
\n\t(J\u2019arri J\u2019ai) Je suis arrive \u00e1 (six) trois heur et demi. Tom et ma tante (m) ont me vu. (Je) (Je suis) (je suis) (all\u00e9 va) J\u2019ai \u00e9t\u00e9 aller autour les (studious) studios de \u201cDocteur Qui\u201d. Le seri\u00e9s \u201cSoftly Softly\u201d (\u00e9) (as) (\u00e9t\u00e9) (fai) est aussi \u00eatre fais dans les studio(u)s.
\n\tIl \u00e9tait neuf heures et demi quand nous (avons) sommes all\u00e9 (de) (de) d\u2019apres les studios. Le train (je suis) j\u2019ai \u00e9t\u00e9 prise le train me prendre \u00e0 (la) ma ville. <\/p>\n

2.\tFuture Plans<\/p>\n

je desire \u00e9tre un actuer dans la future. Il est tres difficule representer, pace que (le) la competition est ne petit pas. Mais, filles ont tres beaucoup plus commun que garcons.
\nIl y a un tres grand montant (de) d\u2019acteurs (qui) de (nemoi) renomm\u00e9e pas, mais un sombre vie.
\nMon fr\u00e8re est un acteur, et il est (sur le) sans travaille. Mais il \u00e9tait employ\u00e9 pour trois (mon) mois \u00e0 noel. Il est tres heureux. Pour les raisons (j\u2019ai) je mentionn\u00e9, je desire \u00eatre un acteur en (pour) ma (p) vie. <\/p>\n

3.\tHobbies and pastimes<\/p>\n

Dans (man) ma passtemps, j\u2019aim\u00e9 ecrire et aussi j\u2019aim\u00e9 dessin. Je tire des magazines, et (je) j\u2019ecrire histories en (sujets) beaucoup sujets. Pour example, j\u2019ai cri\u00e9t\u00e9 le \u201cRobo-Man\u201d et les ennemies, \u201cCrusher,\u201d \u201cCollosus,\u201d (\u201cBlackburn Morbius\u201d) \u201cPhantom\u201d nommer mais trois de la variet\u00e9 des ennemies.
\n\tAussi, j\u2019aime represent\u00e9r dans (man) ma passtemps. Bientot, j\u2019ai faire \u201cThe Browning Version.\u201d
\n\tJe rais \u00e0 les classes de drame, et, pour les examines, (je) j\u2019obteni les distinctions. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t*<\/p>\n

Ten out of ten, Stephen?
\nIt is true I had an Aunt who worked at the BBC but the meeting with that \u2018bien acteur\u2019 is fictional. My older brother really was an actor for a while. I did create a superhero called Roboman. He looked a bit like Spiderman but robotic. I only ever designed a single cover and wrote half a story before becoming bored with him. I have no clue what I meant by \u2018Blackburn Morbius\u2019 but he\/she\/it sounds kind of interesting.
\nI was indeed in an am-dram production of Rattigan\u2019s \u201cThe Browning Version.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tOnce during practice for oral French my teacher asked me what my favourite TV programme was and I said Docteur Qui. She then asked me to describe it. Docteur Qui is difficult enough to explain in English and I\u2019m afraid my sparse French didn\u2019t suffice. She suggested if asked this question during the exam I should tell a white lie and pick something simpler. I chose Roobarb and Custard, a cartoon about a chat et un chien, which seemed more straightforward, but it didn\u2019t help because I failed oral French anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The organizer of Doctor Who events in Derby, Stephen Hatcher, is a teacher of foreign languages and I moaned to him about my inability to speak and read French well. Some of my favourite writers are French \u2013 Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Proust, Cocteau, Genet \u2013 and I prefer French mystery writers like Simenon and Leo Malet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blue-box-blog","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewwaterhouse.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}