Leaving Your Dog Behind

When you are gone your dog misses you so much that his heart is sick. When you are gone his love for you is killing him. When you leave his life stops. He is howling, but no one can hear him.

A photo of a dark brown and white mini-Australian shepherd sitting behind a window looking out.
Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd is looking out the window. He is watching the neighborhood and waiting for us to come home.

“Rollo go look out the window” is what we tell our dog Rollo when we leave. He runs to the window, and he looks out the window. We used to have two other dogs, a large Leonberger dog called Bronco, and a little Pug named Daisy. Bronco and Rollo were best friends, and he loved his little sister Daisy. They both died and now Rollo is alone. Now he is alone looking out the window when we leave. However, he does not accept any other dogs so there is not much we can do.

Are you leaving your dog to face his despair all by himself?

Are you going to leave your dog at home, sitting by the window all alone waiting for you? He is looking out the window, looking for you. It is like he is in a dark train station at night. There is only emptiness. When you are gone, he is like an orphan, like a stupid lonely kid singing to himself, howling into the emptiness. He does not have a life anymore. After you leave him, he cannot dream. He feels ugly without you. He feels dirty without you. He feels sick without you. Are you abandoning him? You should be happy dogs don’t drink whiskey to comfort themselves.

I wrote the above with the song below in my mind. It is a French song called “Je suis malade…” (I am sick…) by Lara Fabian about a lover leaving his beloved. However, I think it fits the way the dogs seem to feel when you leave them. We listened to it in French class. That’s how I came across it. I am learning French as a hobby. It is the saddest song I’ve ever heard but it is also a very beautiful song, so you may want to get your tissue box out. There are English subtitles.

Sometimes you have to leave your dogs for a little bit, and it is difficult. They are not happy. We cannot get a dog sitter every time we leave for a short bit, but we try to take him with us as much as possible. We are lucky. We have found a very professional dog sitter willing to stay almost 24/7 with our Rollo when we go on vacation. She is a veterinary assistant and Rollo loves her.

French Song Lyrics for « Je suis malade »

Je ne rêve plus, je ne fume plus
Je n’ai même plus d’histoire
Je suis sale sans toi, je suis laid sans toi
Je suis comme un orphelin dans un dortoir

Je n’ai plus envie de vivre ma vie
Ma vie cesse quand tu pars
Je n’ai plus de vie et même mon lit
Se transforme en quai de gare
Quand tu t’en vas

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Comme quand ma mère sortait le soir
Et qu’elle me laissait seul avec mon désespoir

Je suis malade, parfaitement malade
T’arrives on ne sait jamais quand
Tu repars on ne sait jamais où
Et ça va faire bientôt deux ans
Que tu t’en fous

Comme à un rocher, comme à un péché
Je suis accroché à toi
Je suis fatigué, je suis épuisé
De faire semblant d’être heureux quand ils sont là

Je bois toutes les nuits, mais tous les whiskys
Pour moi ont le même goût
Et tous les bateaux portent ton drapeau
Je ne sais plus où aller, tu es partout

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Je verse mon sang dans ton corps
Et je suis comme un oiseau mort quand toi tu dors

Je suis malade, parfaitement malade
Tu m’as privé de tous mes chants
Tu m’as vidé de tous mes mots
Pourtant, moi j’avais du talent avant ta peau

Cet amour me tue, si ça continue
Je crèverai seul avec moi
Près de ma radio comme un gosse idiot
Écoutant ma propre voix qui chantera

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Comme quand ma mère sortait le soir
Et qu’elle me laissait seul avec mon désespoir

Je suis malade, c’est ça, je suis malade
Tu m’as privé de tous mes chants
Tu m’as vidé de tous mes mots
Et j’ai le cœur complètement malade
Cerné de barricades
T’entends, je suis malade

Song lyrics English Translation for “Je suis malade”

I no longer dream, I no longer smoke
I don’t even have a story anymore
I’m dirty without you, I’m ugly without you
I’m like an orphan in a dormitory

I don’t want to live my life anymore
My life ends when you leave
I no longer have a life and even my bed
Transforms into a station platform
When you leave

I’m sick, completely sick
Like when my mother went out in the evening
And she left me alone with my despair

I’m sick, perfectly sick
You arrive, we never know when
You go back, we never know where
And it will be almost two years
That you don’t care

Like a rock, like a sin
I’m clinging to you
I’m tired, I’m exhausted
To pretend to be happy when they are around

I drink every night, but all the whiskeys
To me they taste the same
And all the boats carry your flag
I don’t know where to go anymore, you are everywhere

I’m sick, completely sick
I pour my blood into your body
And I’m like a dead bird when you sleep

I’m sick, perfectly sick
You deprived me of all my songs
You emptied me of all my words
However, I had talent before your skin

This love kills me, if it continues
I will die alone with me
By my radio like a stupid kid
Listening to my own voice that will sing

I’m sick, completely sick
Like when my mother went out in the evening
And she left me alone with my despair

I’m sick, that’s it, I’m sick
You deprived me of all my songs
You emptied me of all my words
And my heart is completely sick
Surrounded by barricades
You hear, I’m sick

Comics about Dogs love for you and you leaving them

Speak 25 Languages in One Hour

I’ve got a number of hobbies, one of them being learning French. Back in December I took and passed the DELF / CEFR B1 level language test in French. The CEFR is a European standard for assessing an individual’s language proficiency that is being adopted around the world. It includes all European languages as well as other languages. The A1 & A2 tests are for beginners with A2 being more challenging. The B1 and B2 tests are for independent speakers, meaning you can get around without help, listening to the news, having conversations, etc. C1 & C2 are advanced levels, like native speakers and experts. If you immigrate to France, you need to pass the B1 test to become a citizen. Most countries do not have such a language requirement for citizenship. The A1, A2, B1, B2 tests (and maybe C1 & C2) consist of four parts but the different tests have different difficulty levels.

  • Oral comprehension: Listening to recordings like a conversation or a radio broadcast and answering questions about what was said. 
  • Reading comprehension: Reading articles and answering questions  
  • Writing: Such as writing an essay, and for A1 it is just filling out a form or writing a 40+ word post card  
  • Oral production: Participating in conversations and doing presentations on topics decided on at the exam. 
Picture of the Eifel tower in Paris, France
Photo by Silvia Trigo on Pexels.com

To pass the test you need 50 out of 100. As mentioned, the test is designed to assess your level. It is not like a test you take to get a grade at school. Therefore, if you do what is expected of you at the B1 level you may get 50-60 points and more if you can do more. If you get 80+ on the B1 test, then you probably should have taken the B2 test. There are no A, B, C, D or 1,2,3,4,5 grades.

My DELF B1 test results
My B1 test results

There are a couple of things that come to mind regarding these tests.

Learn to Speak 25 languages in one hour!

Yesterday I saw an advertisement on Facebook for the Pimsleur approach that stated, “start speaking a new language after just one lesson”. Well, I used the Pimsleur approach for French for a short while and I remember the first half an hour lesson. You learned to repeat one short sentence. That’s not speaking a new language in my opinion. The advertisement sounded like there should be more to it. I should say I think the Pimsleur approach is a good approach. It is the ad I have a problem with. I’ve seen other language program commercials stating that you will become fluent in 24 hours, or become conversant right away, and many other ads that are just BS.

There are some language geniuses but most of us need a lot of practice to learn a second language regardless of method. There is no way around the fact that you need to know a few thousand words, internalize sentence structure and grammar, etc., before you can be fluent. I think one reason these language companies get away with unrealistic promises is that many people expect ads to be BS and another that many language learners greatly overestimate their proficiency. These universally accepted tests are great for assessing true proficiency.

Our son wearing a white Tae Kwon Do suit with a black belt. He is holding his diploma.
Our younger son with his black belt in Tae Kwon Do

When our younger son (pictured above) was 6-7 years old my wife used to play a song in the car that featured Hello and Goodbye in 25 languages, and he learned that song. One day I was having a conversation with a waiter at a restaurant who noticed that I had an accent. He was curious about my native language Swedish. That’s when my son told him “I speak 25 languages”. So, the waiter started asking him questions about how to say hello and goodbye in the various languages he claimed to speak, and he knew. So, the waiter asked me, “does he really speak 25 languages?”. I said, well that’s what he says. Perhaps, the language companies could put this song in the first lesson and then claim, not entirely incorrectly, that with their method you’ll speak 25 languages in one hour.

Proficiency assessment for other subjects

I sometimes wonder if rather than assigning grades to students it would be more practical to allow people to attain certain levels in one or more fields that they are interested in. Naturally, people could reach their levels any way they like, and not necessarily through the university system. Considering the many failures of modern universities, extremely high tuition, student loan issues, grade inflation, crazy partying and drugs, failures to protect girls from sexual assault, political indoctrination, antisemitism on campuses, fewer people going to college, parents losing faith in universities (including myself), and the list goes on, maybe it is time for something new. What should replace it I don’t know. Perhaps assessing proficiency levels instead of class grades could be part of it.