University of Paris class

Hi! I've been meaning to post this for awhile (since Tuesday actually) but as I'm sure you guessed, I was really busy.  

So as you probably remember, I'm taking a course at the University of Paris on American Literature.  Right now we're reading Huck Finn, which is pretty easy for me (especially since I've read it before), but I've realized while rereading it,  that it must be incredibly difficult for a native French speaker.  Pretty much the whole book is written in the slang, with the runaway slave, Jim, speaking only in a slave dialect.  I can't imagine trying to read a French book that wasn't written in perfect, present-day French! 

Anyways, my professor writes words on the board while he's talking that he thinks the French students might not know, which I always find really interesting.  Last class, I wrote them down for you to see what kinds of words you might not readily know in another language.  Kind of makes you think about things a little differently, since we totally take for granted our ability to speak a language perfectly (I don't know most of these words in French):

-To loot

-To ransack

-Wreck

-To haul

-Lift (as in, to steal)

-Dilemma

-Qualms

-Villain

-Apprentice

-Feud

-Ends/means

-Debate

-Rummaging

All right, I've got to go, I'm late for my first meeting with my American/French Language exchange person.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog later tonight about it and about my weekend trip with school to Burgundy (it was amazing and beautiful!)