I write some English sentences : To begin with

Since several weeks yet, I have had the idea to write here in English. By the fact, I live in Brussels and meet consequently lots of English people or expatriates, it would be a good thing if I expand (or try to expand) my blog audience. My english is far from perfect, but I dare to follow the reverse path of Rossbeef. Besides, it will be fun to gauge the improvement.

For newcomers, I should explain you first why our level in English is a kind of "Sorry, my angliche is terrible- on-peut-parler-français?". I barely concede to a friend how many years I spent in English class. Decades. In comparaison to Swedish, Portuguese or German people, I feel ashamed, only Spanish and American people give me some relief. So, why have the French people got some trouble in la langue de Shakespeare?  Teaching methods, groups of thirty sleeping students who never say one word out loud and learn torrents of useless words. Most of our English teachers are French, they're not surprised by our accent and understand everything we believe to say : Ello, I ave biutifoul ouz. I was often embarrased by the fact that nobody understood me, even in a simple sentence. I was thinking that English is French with other words. Besides, I had few consideration for the language itself. German seemed to be serious and educated and English like a worldwide dialect. I could not imagine that we could read the Bible in English, I could not imagine John saying to Matthew : "where is Luke?" like in a soap-opera episod. We believe that French is enough to be understood and heard, we believe too many often that people will learn it whatsoever. When I travelled in USA, I was crushed by the fact that Spanish or English are necessary and French releguated to a rank like Slowenian or Flemish.

For the moment, I read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. For whom it may interest, I can explain how I reach this book. Some weeks ago, I read in French The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by E.Poe. In French? Yes, I was convinced by the fact that Charles Baudelaire, one I consider the best poet of French poetry (ever, ever), translated the book and it desserved to be read. It was a gorgeous reading experience, if I may use the expression. I tried afterwards to read in English, Selected Tales and Poems, by Poe but I failed in the very first pages of the first tale :  The Gold Bug. A few days later, I heard in a podcasting program M.Pebereau, a former CEO of BNPParibas, but a Science-Fiction fanatic, talking about the last Dan Simmons'book which introduces the ghost of Dickens in the plot. So, I thought to a Dickens'book and A Christmas Carol was the shortest, the quickest and the most-understandable-first-pages I found. That's the genesis.