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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Parlez-Vous Français?

I'm taking this intensive French course.

It's really hard. I come home every day exhausted. Just wrung out by it.

It's really amazing how much I've forgotten.

And how many French verbs there are. Hundreds? Thousands?

I think I use about 10.

And how many tenses there are. I think there are 16?

I use 3.

Anyone want to jump in and sympathize or tell me I'm crazy?

I did this exercise this afternoon. Remember what we used to do in spelling class when we were kids, using the word in a sentence? So my exercise was to conjugate the verbs and use them in a sentence. I think we were working on futur simple. And and I felt like every damn word I said needed correcting.

I don't know if the teacher was sorry for me or just disgusted. Maybe some of both. He sent me home early.

6 comments:

  1. I think French is a difficult language - way harder than Spanish (I speak both, but French no where near as well!). The brain takes a lot of practice before it kicks back into languages you haven't been speaking for a while, or at least mine does. Stick at it, you'll get there! (And find some good french language films with subtitles - a good way to get back into the habit of listening but with the safety net of translation)

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  2. Over the years I have tried & tried to learn French but .. well I just suck!

    Sometimes I can almost follow the gists of a conversation but when it comes to trying to speak it my tongue, literally, twists into a pretzel & nothing resembling any sort of language, comes out (and still that is better than my writing).

    Good luck sin!

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    1. My writing is pretty bad, but you can always check things you write... the oral is so immediate.

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  3. My daughter made fun of me when I tried to use my pidgin French in Paris a while back. Pronunciation alone is baffling to this old dog.

    Mick

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    1. hmmm, Paris sounds way better than French class, even with bratty kids along.

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