Fall 2018 French

[HomewardBound]

@Carly Rae Jepsen and @madamoiselle I'm so with you on this. Everyone has been beyond sweet at the universities, and knowing that I have to refuse 4/5 of them (soon to be 5/6, rumor has it) is lousy. However, my POI at Penn State did mention, "It's difficult, but these are the good kinds of problems to have!" Which is true, but eeek!

[Yanaka]

8 hours ago, madamoiselle said:

moi je voulais dire la même chose... Bonne chance à tou.te.s cette semaine, et mes meilleures pensées !

Are you seriously using l'écriture inclusive?! omg. Haha! Love it

[madamoiselle]

@Yanaka yes!!!! All about that écriture inclusive  in fact, one of my first French professors from France introduced us to it, and then a lot of the students I worked with in Paris use it. It's cool! 

[Yanaka]

15 minutes ago, madamoiselle said:

@Yanaka yes!!!! All about that écriture inclusive  in fact, one of my first French professors from France introduced us to it, and then a lot of the students I worked with in Paris use it. It's cool! 

Yes! Unfortunately it's widely mocked (of course). I know my circle uses it a lot on social media, but that's only the reflection of my entourage, not of society. I also read that using the - instead of the . was more appropriate for people with dyslexia and vision impairment!  

[madamoiselle]

@Yanaka sweet, thanks for the heads up! I think working in Gender Theories definitely has something to do with my usage of it, and my cohort's usage as well  

[palabra45]

11 hours ago, Yanaka said:

Yes! Unfortunately it's widely mocked (of course). I know my circle uses it a lot on social media, but that's only the reflection of my entourage, not of society. I also read that using the - instead of the . was more appropriate for people with dyslexia and vision impairment!  

* is also an interesting choice, but it works better in some languages (e.g. German) than in others (example above, it'd be tou* or tou*s). Of course, the implicit problem with this type of writing is that one might forget all the other instances where gender is displayed. It's not enough to use it with nouns, adjectives and participles, but you should also change articles and entire suffixes. Concretely, if "la paternité d'une oeuvre" is sexist, changing it to "la genitorialité d'une oeuvre" doesn't solve the problem, because it has "geniteur" as root, and not "genitrice". The solution might be "genit*é" but then it gets unreadable, apart from recalling "génital".

[Yanaka]

15 minutes ago, SkunkStyle77 said:

* is also an interesting choice, but it works better in some languages (e.g. German) than in others (example above, it'd be tou* or tou*s). Of course, the implicit problem with this type of writing is that one might forget all the other instances where gender is displayed. It's not enough to use it with nouns, adjectives and participles, but you should also change articles and entire suffixes. Concretely, if "la paternité d'une oeuvre" is sexist, changing it to "la genitorialité d'une oeuvre" doesn't solve the problem, because it has "geniteur" as root, and not "genitrice". The solution might be "genit*é" but then it gets unreadable, apart from recalling "génital".

Hmm okay, lol. Thankfully we’re working on all linguistic manifestations of gender including expressions in the law etc.  

[madamoiselle]

1 hour ago, SkunkStyle77 said:

* is also an interesting choice, but it works better in some languages (e.g. German) than in others (example above, it'd be tou* or tou*s). Of course, the implicit problem with this type of writing is that one might forget all the other instances where gender is displayed. It's not enough to use it with nouns, adjectives and participles, but you should also change articles and entire suffixes. Concretely, if "la paternité d'une oeuvre" is sexist, changing it to "la genitorialité d'une oeuvre" doesn't solve the problem, because it has "geniteur" as root, and not "genitrice". The solution might be "genit*é" but then it gets unreadable, apart from recalling "génital".

You raise an interesting point here! It's fascinating when you consider genital-isms in French as well, for the physiological term for the female sexual reproduction organ** is masculine and a large amount of euphemisms for the male counterpart are feminine. Of course, that all goes back to utilitarian etymology in Latin (vag***a meaning "sheath", etc.) so there's a lot to unpack there in merely a longitudinal sense. 

As for myself and inclusive language -- and I must warn that I'm not a linguist haha -- I've been taught to use it almost exclusively in a second person sense (person addressing a person and/or group of people) and that's the only way I've ever encountered it. I see what you're saying about it applying to entire suffixes and the inherent inclusion of gender in French, and most romance languages. But the way I'm seeing it be used at the present moment tends to revolve around a more sender-receiver sense (the person receiving the modified statement) as opposed to modifying French words as a whole.

Of course, sexisms in gendered language have been a hot topic, especially when considering adjectival phrases and perceptions of masculine/feminine nouns. It's so interesting seeing the way inclusive writing is heading. I went to a seminar on LGBTQ studies in Paris last year, and one of the largest questions was how French society is trying to tackle such a gendered language that runs on strict dichotomy, in an era where the gender binary is shifting and use of third-person pronouns is picking up in anglophone countries (or neuter pronouns in countries where they were already established). 

 

**I'd type it out, but I don't know if gradcafe would like that lol

[HomewardBound]

This is probably the best French grad application forum in the history of French grad application forums. You all rock. : D

[Yanaka]

7 hours ago, madamoiselle said:

You raise an interesting point here! It's fascinating when you consider genital-isms in French as well, for the physiological term for the female sexual reproduction organ** is masculine and a large amount of euphemisms for the male counterpart are feminine. Of course, that all goes back to utilitarian etymology in Latin (vag***a meaning "sheath", etc.) so there's a lot to unpack there in merely a longitudinal sense. 

As for myself and inclusive language -- and I must warn that I'm not a linguist haha -- I've been taught to use it almost exclusively in a second person sense (person addressing a person and/or group of people) and that's the only way I've ever encountered it. I see what you're saying about it applying to entire suffixes and the inherent inclusion of gender in French, and most romance languages. But the way I'm seeing it be used at the present moment tends to revolve around a more sender-receiver sense (the person receiving the modified statement) as opposed to modifying French words as a whole.

Of course, sexisms in gendered language have been a hot topic, especially when considering adjectival phrases and perceptions of masculine/feminine nouns. It's so interesting seeing the way inclusive writing is heading. I went to a seminar on LGBTQ studies in Paris last year, and one of the largest questions was how French society is trying to tackle such a gendered language that runs on strict dichotomy, in an era where the gender binary is shifting and use of third-person pronouns is picking up in anglophone countries (or neuter pronouns in countries where they were already established). 

 

**I'd type it out, but I don't know if gradcafe would like that lol

If you’re still in Paris you can check out La Baffe, it’s a feminist student organization that I helped start with people at Paris 4. We have some stuff going on!

[madamoiselle]

@Yanaka I'll totally look into that and let you know if I can stop by!!  

And... it's a no from Harvard! I'm surprisingly not disappointed at all, but kinda peeved because they encouraged me to apply (even though my advisors told me not to, but the fit was too good.)

However, the minute I submitted my results to the page, I got a super nice email from Cornell about visitation scheduling so I guess I'll be ok  

[Yanaka]

9 minutes ago, madamoiselle said:

@Yanaka I'll totally look into that and let you know if I can stop by!!  

And... it's a no from Harvard! I'm surprisingly not disappointed at all, but kinda peeved because they encouraged me to apply (even though my advisors told me not to, but the fit was too good.)

However, the minute I submitted my results to the page, I got a super nice email from Cornell about visitation scheduling so I guess I'll be ok  

Congratulations!

[awhiterussian]

27 minutes ago, madamoiselle said:

@Yanaka I'll totally look into that and let you know if I can stop by!!  

And... it's a no from Harvard! I'm surprisingly not disappointed at all, but kinda peeved because they encouraged me to apply (even though my advisors told me not to, but the fit was too good.)

However, the minute I submitted my results to the page, I got a super nice email from Cornell about visitation scheduling so I guess I'll be ok  

Also got my response.  Annoyed at how generic it is lol 

[Green.Mango]

A no from Harvard for me too. It was a long shot but anyway. Waiting for the last few now. 

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Guys, if a school doesn't mention a recruitment/visit day...is it safe to assume they don't have that option?

[Saltshaker]

48 minutes ago, Carly Rae Jepsen said:

Guys, if a school doesn't mention a recruitment/visit day...is it safe to assume they don't have that option?

One of my accepted schools never mentioned one, so when a professor called I asked him about it...and he said, “We can offer you one, but we want to make sure it’s not for sightseeing.” *shrug*  Yes, I definitely have unlimited days to take off at work to run around and do as I please. 

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

8 minutes ago, Saltshaker said:

One of my accepted schools never mentioned one, so when a professor called I asked him about it...and he said, “We can offer you one, but we want to make sure it’s not for sightseeing.” *shrug*  Yes, I definitely have unlimited days to take off at work to run around and do as I please. 

That was rude of them, I'm afraid of a similar response  I guess emails with professors and YouTube tours of those schools will have to do 

[madamoiselle]

@Saltshaker  that's really rude of them. Even if funding is low, I feel like there should be SOME level of, "please come see/feel free to ask more about where you're gonna spend the next 5+ years of your life, working for us."

Edited February 21, 2018 by madamoiselle

[awhiterussian]

Is it safe to say that if I have yet to hear back from Stanford and NYU, that I've been rejected, or am being rejected?  They've already released their visiting days invitations...

[Yanaka]

I think you can ask if there is a visiting day, and if not if there is a way you can go visit (insert day here if you have something in mind)? We’ve been receiving prospective students at my school so it seems it’s a possibility. 

Is that Professor French, @Saltshaker?  Maybe a little too honest!

[madamoiselle]

And I'm out of Stanford -- Bummer, but fit wasn't amazing, and I'm glad to have all my results! 

@awhiterussian wait on NYU because they have a silent waitlist after visiting days and a lot of people seem to get admitted afterwards! 

[Saltshaker]

1 hour ago, Yanaka said:

I think you can ask if there is a visiting day, and if not if there is a way you can go visit (insert day here if you have something in mind)? We’ve been receiving prospective students at my school so it seems it’s a possibility. 

Is that Professor French, @Saltshaker?  Maybe a little too honest!

I don’t think so, his name definitely isn’t French... but maybe he absorbed the culture, who knows? 

[Yanaka]

39 minutes ago, Saltshaker said:

I don’t think so, his name definitely isn’t French... but maybe he absorbed the culture, who knows? 

Haha! Maybe he's just blunt and in a hurry haha

[Saltshaker]

20 hours ago, Carly Rae Jepsen said:

That was rude of them, I'm afraid of a similar response  I guess emails with professors and YouTube tours of those schools will have to do 

I think my situation was atypical, I’d go ahead and ask! Worse they can do is be rude, which would raise red flags and make you reevaluate that school. 

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Counting down the days for my first 2 visits. What are you guys doing for visit prep? I bought a couple shirts and am thinking of what to ask. Reading articles by professors and just patiently waiting for my visit schedules.