Salut!
Hey, for those of you who’ve been following my progress in learning French for the past few weeks, you may be interested to know that I reckon I’ve nearly cracked it! With one week to go before take-off to Paris, I feel as though I can just about hold my own in a variety of situations which should see me through my 4 day French business trip. Of course, I’m hoping that once my company sees how well I get on in France, these visits will become a very pleasant permanent feature of my work.
I’ve found that I learn French quickest when I’m really interested in the particular subject that I’m listening to or talking about. This week, there was a report on a French news channel about how people are cutting back on the little luxuries of life due to the current financial situation. I almost forgot about the less familiar words which I couldn’t understand as there were enough bits which made sense, and the images helped me to grasp what was going on too. The next day, I was discussing it with my colleagues and didn’t realise that my boss had overheard me – she was so impressed, and said she’d happily invest in more French learning software if this was the result. I’m so proud of myself.
The evening French class is now quite competitive, in the nicest possible way, and I’m going to sign up for the Intermediate classes once they start. I don’t want to let things slip, and although the online learning resources are ideal for learning at your own rate, it’s good to be pushed sometimes by participating in a “live” situation.
The big test comes next Wednesday quand je vais a Paris, but I’m feeling pretty confident. I’ve made some little flashcards based on what I’ve found on Fluenz French and Rocket French just as a quick refresher for the memory before I go into different situations such as meetings and restaurants over there, and I’m talking to myself in the car – the CD’s which I found pointless at first are now making a lot more sense. Not long now, I can’t wait!
A bientot,
Nic