bonjour !!!
I took french in high school and did ok - I think the mark I received was credit. My favourite subject however was the french country. We had to choose an area and do a project on it - I chose Brittany *Bretagne*
so I left school and never spoke a word of french again and forgot all that I knew. Until a year or so ago and my friend and I had a blood rush to the head and decided to go to adult night school to learn french. first night we repeated our name - Je m'appelle Robyn - over and over til we were sure who we were. The next week Monsieur Robert taught us a few phrases so that if we ever travelled to France - we would know how to ask for a glass of wine, a light for our cigarette ( I don't smoke) and the word le constipation (if we ever were) . Have no idea why he taught us that...... so we repeated and repeated once again. He was so passionate about the language and at the end of lesson two he told us that we were so good that next week if we did the same we would get to listen to Edith Piaf singing Le Marsellaise..... yippee !!!
The next Wednesday night, I picked Laraine up and drove off to our french class. Half way there - I looked at Laraine and said - 'do you really want to go?' and she replied ' not really, it's too hard' - so we drove on to a bottle shop and bought ourselves a good bottle of red, some cheese and bread and had a french supper and laughed and laughed about our french lesson failure...... well I guess, if we ever visit France and we hope to oneday - at least we can ask for a glass of wine *un verre de vin* and a light for our cigarette *une lumière pour ma cigarette* - I wonder - does that mean I must take up smoking?
and that my friends is the extent of me speaking the french language.
actually I only the other day, I asked Laraine if she were interested in learning spanish!
posted by Miss Robyn | 10:42 am
7 Comments:
What fun! I have longed to learn the language since my first trip to Paris. It IS too hard! All the fems and masculines....argh. I DO know how to fluently ask for an American coffee with cream and no sugar, thanks to a lovely exchange student who very patiently taught me while standing on a street corner of Bastille. Bless her! I could not drink another heady espresso. "Une cafe' au lait, pas espresso, tres lange, sans sucre', merci!". I can say it but not sure I can type it.....Funny how that phrase was the most important one to me.
Such a fun story :) I loved learning French in high school and can still see our funny young Italian French teacher saying 'Bonjour Les enfants', etc. I only have one phrase that stuck in my head....and a few words here and there. The phrase...Marie es sur las plage avec Jacque...Mary is on the beach with Jack. Now isn't that a helpful phrase to know?
Enjoyed reading all your recent posts :)
Richard and I tried to learn German a few years ago. We didn't make much progress; I mean, it was like trying to learn a foreign language, for heaven's sake...lol
I've asked the grandchildren to teach me but they just think it's more fun being able to speak a language that Grandma can't understand.
A great story Robyn!
I took French in high school too (and Latin?), and I can count to 10 in French, German and Maori, but that is the extent of my linguistic capabilities, I'm afraid.
It is such a romantic language when you hear it though isn't it?
This is such an amusing post to read through! I've never been to France (or anywhere in Europe), but I have always loved their language and accent on the movies...Brigitte Bardot was my favorite actress for many years. My only attempt at learning another language was when my Japanese penpal came over here to stay for 2 weeks, so I did a crash course (8 weeks) in Japanese, to help me communicate with her. Aiko actually speaks English very well, but she was touched by my efforts to speak her language, and taught me a lot while she was here. But as somebody else here said, if you don't use it you lose it, and as I haven't practiced speaking Japanese on a regular basis, I am forgetting most of what I learned.
Spanish is a much easier language to learn, and one that makes more 'sense' to English-speakers, at least it did to me!
I often think about doing a night-course, perhaps something less taxing - pottery maybe? :-)
As a Canadian, I'm supposed to be bilingual. Ha!
Ms*Robyn, just wanted to let you know how much I adore your blog. It's the first one I check on my ever-growing list.
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