I made a new friend in French class. She’s from New York and is here with her French fiance. We sat a free test yesterday, which was put on by Alliance Francaise for students of all levels.
It was touted as a way to measure our level of understanding of spoken and written French, and wasnt an exam. So in an auditorium full of students from all around the world, we listened to conversations in French, read some newspaper/magazine articles, and answered questions about them.
We were told that the test would start at a very easy level, then progressively get harder. Thinking that the test would include questions that could be answered by absolute beginners, we felt comfortable that we could complete at least the first part of the test.
Ha!
What a suprise when the test started at our current level (which we are still struggling with) and got harder from there. And it went for 2 hours (after we’d just spent 4 hours in our morning class.) we were so tired, but struggled on til the end, understanding very little but trying to make sense of what we did.
Mary left first and sent me a text: “I bombed that!”.
I was so buggered afterwards I couldnt even speak English.
Today, in our break, Mary said the test had destroyed here confidence. “Why have I been studying all this time when I still cant understand this fucking language??”
We both agreed that expectations that we would be fluent in a month just didnt have any basis in reality. It is not possible to be fluent in a language after just being in the country after one or 2 months. You can get around, have some basic interactions (note: not conversations) in specific circumstances (eg ordering food in a restaurant) or on a specific topic (nationality, profession etc). But thats about it.
Today in class we were asked about our favourite films. I said mine was Gattaca (see below for a link to a cool site that has all the best quotes from the film!). I had to explain what the movie was about. Then, lucky us, the teacher used the themes in the film as a prompt for class discussion about whether we would “choose” certain things about our unborn children if we could. Fuck me. Try to explain a science fiction film about genetic modification, with an underlying theme of struggle and success against the odds: in French. Happily, the teacher and class seemed to understand me, but the horrid “3 year old child”-equivalent mangled sentences that came out of my mouth were truly appalling. Getting every word out was like verbal chin-ups: and I’m crap at chin-ups! Exhausting!
I’ve had many more compliments on my French this time around, which I think is very kind of the French. In their shoes, I certainly would not be so forgiving of the desecration of their language.
Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and maybe that will be the day I will start to speak like an adult!
I hit a local boulangerie for lunch today. Boy, what a great place to learn some conversation! All the staff were yelling across the store to each other, teasing a man (obviously a regular) having a coffee at the bar about whether he had a girlfriend, whether the girls in the store could be his girlfriend, about a woman they knew who might be suitable and how “everyone should try new things in life” before falling into rolling laughter and one woman sauntering across the floor towards him. Too bad that the place had customers who heard and saw everything! Hilarious place. Will be back for the food and the “conversation”!
Boulangerie Thevenin
5, Rue Notre Dame des champs – Paris 6e
http://www.boulangeriethevenin.fr/
Gattaca Quotes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/quotes