Salut!
Well, this is it – I’m finally taking the plunge and putting aside my fear of foreign languages to have a go at French. Why? It’s not really something that’s been top of the agenda before, but for my new Sales job with a major cosmetics company, I need to be able to use a bit of the lingo. To be fair, I will get some nice all expenses paid trips to Paris in return for all my studying – it’s more of an incentive than I ever had at school!
Question is how to go about this mammoth task? A friend of mine swears that her father learnt from some of those language tapes; he just used to switch one on every night before he fell asleep, and snore his way through the whole thing! Bet the sleep talking was quite entertaining.
I’ve checked out a few online French learning materials, and I’m feeling a lot happier now that I’ve played a few vocabulary games. It’s pretty surprising how much I remembered from my time in the classroom. The flashcards and word searches helped to jog my memory on the French words for members of the family, everyday items around the home, and colours – especially handy for the lipsticks and eye shadows I’ll be selling!
I reckon I’m going to do some more visual stuff before moving on to listening and – horror of horrors – speaking! Thing is, I’ve only got 8 weeks to learn enough French to get me by on my first business trip to Paris, so I’m going to have to start learning quickly. I might enrol in an evening class to get accustomed to the sound of French again and give me a bit of a lift with the oral activities. I’ve also seen a couple of online courses which would be good because I can fit them in around my work…I’ll keep you posted on my progress!
A bientôt!
Nic