Unstoppable

It's early.  Why is it so early?  I always wake up early, but this morning I had company. Sachiko (my mother-in-law) and Hitomi (my niece) have been visiting from Japan.  Today Tomoko is taking them out to see Mont Saint Michel, which is this little island near Normandy which houses a huge monastery and is of great historical significance.  It's also very photogenic. The trip involves leaving at 6:30 in the morning, catching a tour bus, riding to Normandy, a lot of walking around, riding the bus back and getting home at 9:30 tonight.  Sachiko is 78 years old.  She is unstoppable.  The Louvre did tire her a little,  but the Louvre is designed to exhaust anyone.  She is truly impressive.

I feel like I've hit a plateau with French or the past couple of weeks.  I'm pushing through it, but it's tough.  My biggest challenge is finding people outside of class to speak French with.  Seriously.  Mostly everyone at work speaks excellent English and they would rather speak English than hear my tortured French.  When I go out, as soon as the person I'm trying to talk to realizes I'm not French, out comes the English.

This led to a funny exchange with one of my co-workers the other day.  We bumped into each other on the Metro platform on the way to work.  I greeted him in French and he greeted me in English.  We continued on that way the entire 5 minute walk to work.  I was very happy that I managed to stay in French the whole time and he had fun, but I really need to practice actual French conversations.  Maybe today I'll institute a no English policy at work.  French only.  It won't work.  Something will come up that needs to be discussed in detail and I'll have to switch to English, but I'm going to try. Let's see how long I last.

"Uh uh uh uh..."

In addition to the classes I'm taking, I am studying with 3 aids, Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and Duolingo.com.  They are all good systems and I get something different out of each one.  With all of that and and 6 months of study you would think that I would be able to deal when someone in a shop says something I don't quite catch or understand. No,  I still turn into a blithering idiot on occasion. "Uh uh uh uh."  The person usually smiles and shifts to English of varying quality.  Why can't I just say, "Pardon, repeter un peu plus lentement, s'il vous plait."  It's easy.  I've practiced it.  French in the real world is not French in the classroom or online.

My First Post

So I've been in Paris for a bit over a year now and this is my first post. So sad. So pathetic. In an effort to make something out of this I've decided to use it as a little diary of my progress with the French language. I started studying soon after I got here, but really only got serious about it at the beginning of this year. Since then I've actually started to really learn and use the language. So how am I doing this?

 I'm talking 2 classes. One class is provided by OFII , Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration. It's 2 hours twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 after work. It's a basic starting level class and I'm a bit beyond that at this point, but I'm still getting a lot out of it and it's 4 hours a week of pure French. No English spoken.

 The other class is provided by my wonderful employer, Quantic Dream, and is from 8:30 - 10 on Wednesday morning before I start working. I get a lot out of this class and have contracted with the teacher to give private lessons to my wife as well.

 I'm also making an effort to speak French at work as much as possible. It"s tough. French slows me down and the pace of the day can be pretty fast. It's also kind of pointless because most of the people I interact with speak good English, mush better than my French. Still, I really do want to learn the language. I studied it in college, but really don't remember much from that, but it has been a interest of mine for along time.

 I also have to pass a French language test when I go to renew my visa at the end of my first official year hear, which will be around the beginning of July. So I have incentive.

 The point of all of this is that I will be sharing what I learn each week in class, at work, at home and on the mean streets of Paris in an effort reinforce what I'm taking in. At least once a week, but hopefully more often. That's the theory at least.

 Bon journée.

 Kenn