French Lessons

Yesterday, I had my first French lesson with my new French teacher. It was interesting to return to the Washington D.C. Alliance Francaise. I haven't been there in at least 5 years. I remember looking them up when I first arrived in the D.C. area. I had taken French lessons at the Alliance Francaise Bahrain branch and I had been very pleased with them. So, I checked into and found out they had a branch in Washington D.C. Because of the unpredictability of my work hours, I had to do one-on-one lessons then like I'm doing now. My teacher then was a lady named Dominique (I don't remember her last name). I was making good progress but, I decided to get back to college so I could finish my Bachelor's degree (which I still haven't done). Because of college and work, I stopped the lessons though I continued to study French with various computer programs. The best one I found was Rosetta Stone which I still have. Still, Rosetta Stone can't take the place of a teacher.

My tour of France wettened my desire to properly learn French again. I really enjoyed trying to speak French but, I was having difficulties. I didn't know enough vocabulary and I couldn't translate fast enough to understand every thing people would say back to me in French. One of the biggest problems with a computer program is you can't ask it questions about the language your studying. I realized that I wanted to seriously study French again, I was going to have to study with a teacher. The one place I knew where they have good French teachers was the Alliance Francaise. I had their website bookmarked so it was easy to look them up and find out what I had to do to start lessons again with them. The only problem I had this time was finding a teacher who would teach me on Sundays.

My hours at the Post Office are extremely unpredictable. I can be scheduled to be off a certain day and end up working 12 hours. Last week, I was supposed to work 31 hours. I ended up working over 50! I had 3 days where I worked over 11 hours each day! Because of such crazy hours, the only day I knew that I could absolutely do a lessons and not have to change them or cancel them at the last minute would be Sunday. The Post Office doesn't deliver mail on Sundays so I was safe there.

I spoke with the academic director at the D.C. Alliance and she told me she'd work on finding me a teacher. It would've been easier to find one during the weekdays or Saturday but, I told her that wasn't possible. To my delight, I heard from my new teacher the Sunday before last (I think). It turned out she was a lady in her 60's I would guess who is more knowledgeable about French than English. I guess she comes from France. Anyway, we got together for the first time yesterday. The lesson went well though it was challenging for me. With French, some words can mean multiple things so you have to listen or read the entire sentence to find out what the word may mean. An example would be the French work Ou. Ou can mean where or "or." It all depends on how you emphasize it. If you emphasize it at the beginning of a question, you're likely asking where something is. If you don't emphasize the word, they're probably giving choices ex. Martin or Andrew and they're using it as or. Another thing that makes French challenging is that they'll have letters that'll carry over into the next word when you speak it. Ex. Vous etes Italienne. When you speak this sentence, you would say vous zet zitalienne. The s's carry over into the next words and have a "z" sound. This can make it very hard at times to say the words. It can also make it hard to translate what is spoken as there isn't any French word zitalienne. There is an Italienne word so you have to figure out that the "z" is being carried over but, it isn't part of the word. I suspect this is one of the things that makes it so hard for me to translate spoken French.

Nadya worked to develop all the aspects of French i.e. I need to be able to speak it, understand it when it's spoken, write it and read it. So, we practiced on all 4 aspects. I got to read various sentences aloud and translate them. I received practice translating spoken French when she spoke it and I started figuring out how I would write in French. She gave me a homework assignment where I'll have to write 2 to 4 sentences in French. Thankfully, I get to use a French-English dictionary if I need to (and I will). Also, I'm supposed to read 1 or 2 paragraphs of something written in French. She gave me a newsletter that tells of things in the French-American community in the U.S. as well as having articles on wine and food. I plan to use that for my reading assignment.

Overall, the lesson went well. Nadya gave me the options I had as far as how long the lessons could be. They can be 1, 1 and 1/2, 2 or even 3 hours long. I opted for 1 and 1/2 hour lessons. That'll give us enough time to cover a good bit of material but, my brain won't get too fried from trying to think of the various French words and put them in the correct order. The lessons will be challenging and fun. The only hassle I'm going to have is driving down to D.C. and finding a parking spot close to the Alliance. Ironically, I had to park in front of the French embassy or Ambassador's house. I thought it appropriate considering what I was there to do. I look forward to learning more French and getting to use it when I return to France for another Globus tour in 2010. Au revoir!