Those of you who know me, know that my sister-in-law is from Syria. For the past 10ish years, Rana's mom, Laura, has made the long (and now dangerous) trip to spend summer here in the U.S. with her. Laura is fluent in Arabic, French & Greek...but speaks no English. This means that every summer we spend a lot of time with this sweet lady just smiling & nodding. While I do know a few Arabic words, I'm sure it isn't humanly possible for Julie to learn to speak Arabic (let alone read or write it). Heck, you know me.
So....for the past few weeks, I've been spending an hour a day studying French with the Pimsleur method. I'm pretty sure that I've learned more in the past 2 weeks than I learned in both years of high school French. I've even started trying out some of my new skills with Rana's mom. Unfortunately, I discovered via my favorite French learning blog, "Comme Une Francaise" that I recently made a major faux pas while speaking with her. I was so stinkin' proud of myself for speaking French and I wondered why she was ignoring me!!! Ugh...how embarrassing.
Some of you may remember Rana's niece, Christel, who has spent a lot of time here taking care of my niece & nephew. Christel is from Marseille, France, where she lives with her family. If I start having problems with my homework, I will call Christel and ask her for the answers. :-)
Sidebar: Christel's mom, Yolla (Rana's sister), came here for Kevin & Rana's wedding. Yolla doesn't speak any English either, so while the two of us were waiting on Rana at a hair appointment, I recited to her every French word I knew while she nodded and smiled. I told her the alphabet, months of the year and counted as high as I could. I think she understood that I was trying.... Oh gosh, now that I think about it, I probably told her that embarrassing thing that I told Rana's mom. Ugh.
Here's what's next:
I have signed up for French 1 and the corresponding lab at Central Piedmont Community College. My class starts August 17th. While I could have audited the class, I chose to get the full experience and try to get a good grade.
Sidebar: Christel's mom, Yolla (Rana's sister), came here for Kevin & Rana's wedding. Yolla doesn't speak any English either, so while the two of us were waiting on Rana at a hair appointment, I recited to her every French word I knew while she nodded and smiled. I told her the alphabet, months of the year and counted as high as I could. I think she understood that I was trying.... Oh gosh, now that I think about it, I probably told her that embarrassing thing that I told Rana's mom. Ugh.
Here's what's next:
I have signed up for French 1 and the corresponding lab at Central Piedmont Community College. My class starts August 17th. While I could have audited the class, I chose to get the full experience and try to get a good grade.
Here's my challenge to myself:
When the class gets hard, I will not drop the class.
I will try to make a good grade so that my grade point average will improve and I can finally get into Harvard
Lose 10 pounds
If any of you speak French, let me know! I will keep you posted on how class is going and whether or not I have withdrawn from it yet.
Native French speaker here. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of what I knew and what I knew was not current even then. That's what happens when you live in an area where nobody else speaks your language. Your immediate language unit (i.e., family) perpetuates grammatical errors and outdated expressions so that when you do go to a French speaking area, few people can understand you. I applaud 100 percent your efforts to learn French and I know Rana's family will appreciate it. You GO girl!
ReplyDeleteReminder to myself: Make it a point to watch the French TV station out of Montreal. Language skills do come back when you immerse yourself.
Love Love Love this!!!! So proud of you for learning a new skill! Can't wait to hear how the class goes!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the goals - I think each time you complete a class or assignment, we should go to Amelie's for a brownie! Granted, this negates the whole "lost 10 pounds" thing, so maybe we can walk there :)