{"product_id":"flirting-with-french-how-a-language-charmed-me-seduced-me-and-nearly-broke-my-heart-paperback","title":"Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eWilliam Alexander\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A delightful and courageous tale and a romping good read. \u003ci\u003eVoila!\u003c\/i\u003e\" --Mark Greenside, author of \u003ci\u003eI'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e William Alexander is more than a Francophile. He wants to \u003ci\u003ebe\u003c\/i\u003e French. There's one small obstacle though: he doesn't speak \u003ci\u003ela langue française.\u003c\/i\u003e In \u003ci\u003eFlirting with French, \u003c\/i\u003eAlexander sets out to conquer the language he loves. But will it love him back? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Alexander eats, breathes, and sleeps French (even conjugating in his dreams). He travels to France, where mistranslations send him bicycling off in all sorts of wrong directions, and he nearly drowns in an immersion class in Provence, where, faced with the riddle of masculine breasts, feminine beards, and a turkey cutlet of uncertain gender, he starts to wonder whether he should've taken up golf instead of French. While playing hooky from grammar lessons and memory techniques, Alexander reports on the riotous workings of the Académie française, the four-hundred-year-old institution charged with keeping the language pure; explores the science of human communication, learning why it's harder for fifty-year-olds to learn a second language than it is for five-year-olds; and, frustrated with his progress, explores an IBM research lab, where he trades barbs with a futuristic hand-held translator. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Does he succeed in becoming fluent? Readers will be as surprised as Alexander is to discover that, in a fascinating twist, studying French may have had a far greater impact on his life than actually learning to speak it ever would. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A blend of passion and neuroscience, this literary love affair offers surprise insights into the human brain and the benefits of learning a second language. Reading William Alexander's book is akin to having an MRI of the soul.\" --Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of \u003ci\u003eSleeping Arrangements\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Alexander proves that learning a new language is an adventure of its own--with all the unexpected obstacles, surprising breakthroughs and moments of sublime pleasure traveling brings.\" --Julie Barlow, author of \u003ci\u003eSixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A delightful and courageous tale and a romping good read. \u003ci\u003eVoila!\u003c\/i\u003e\" --Mark Greenside, author of \u003ci\u003eI'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e William Alexander is setting out to master the Art of French Speaking. In this entertaining amble through the French language and its colorful history, through linguistics and brain science, what Alexander discovers while \u003ci\u003enot\u003c\/i\u003e learning French is its own reward. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A blend of passion and neuroscience, this literary love affair offers surprising insights into the human brain and the benefits of learning a second language. Reading William Alexander's book is akin to having an MRI of the soul.\" --Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of \u003ci\u003eSleeping Arrangements\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Reading \u003ci\u003eFlirting with French \u003c\/i\u003emotivates me to continue courting the language, no matter how often I'm stood up midsentence!\" --Kristen Espinasse, author of \u003ci\u003eWords in a French Life\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Alexander proves that learning a new language is an adventure of its own--with all the unexpected obstacles, surprising breakthroughs, and moments of sublime pleasure that traveling brings.\" --Julie Barlow, author of \u003ci\u003eSixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Wry and warmhearted . . . A charming memoir by a passionate Francophile.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWilliam Alexander, the author of two critically acclaimed books, lives in New York's Hudson Valley. By day the IT director at a research institute, he made his professional writing debut at the age of fifty-three with a national bestseller about gardening, \u003ci\u003eThe $64 Tomato.\u003c\/i\u003e His second book, \u003ci\u003e52 Loaves, \u003c\/i\u003e chronicled his quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread, a journey that took him to such far-flung places as a communal oven in Morocco and an abbey in France, as well as into his own backyard to grow, thresh, and winnow wheat. The \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e called Alexander \"wildly entertaining,\" the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e raved that \"his timing and his delivery are flawless,\" and the \u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e observed that \"the world would be a less interesting place without the William Alexanders who walk among us.\" A 2006 Quill Book Awards finalist, Alexander won a Bert Greene Award from the IACP for his article on bread, published in \u003ci\u003eSaveur\u003c\/i\u003e magazine. A passion bordering on obsession unifies all his writing. He has appeared on NPR's \u003ci\u003eMorning Edition\u003c\/i\u003e and at the National Book Festival in Washington DC and is a frequent contributor to the\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e op-ed pages, where he has opined on such issues as the Christmas tree threatening to ignite his living room and the difficulties of being organic. Now, in \u003ci\u003eFlirting with French, \u003c\/i\u003e he turns his considerable writing talents to his perhaps less considerable skills: becoming fluent in the beautiful but maddeningly illogical French language. \u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 8.1 x 5.7 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 16, 2014\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53335513661805,"sku":"9781616200206","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1001\/0823\/9213\/files\/VSs0VTY0ZTVTNlYzT1Y2L0lFd3Ntdz09.webp?v=1778897182","url":"https:\/\/cleanfreaklab.myshopify.com\/products\/flirting-with-french-how-a-language-charmed-me-seduced-me-and-nearly-broke-my-heart-paperback","provider":"Clean Freak Lab","version":"1.0","type":"link"}