kmerenkov

“je veux pas que tu penses que je me moque de toi” <- I could read and understand it (“I don’t want you to think I am laughing at you” – right?) without much problems!
Didn’t know only two words: veux (vouloir = to want) and penses (penser = to think).
Practice leads to success, in a very short way! :O

Three days ago I’ve met a new friend. She’s from France and, well, for some reason she likes to talk to me. I like to talk to her too :p
What is good is that we have a language barrier between us. She doesn’t speak English very well and I almost don’t speak French. Thus, we both mixing languages together in our sentences. I am listing paper dictionary, looking up words in electronic dictionary, reading grammar references, phrases books and using google at the speed of light! Never chatted like that before.
After three evenings of non-stop chatting with her I have actually improved… a bit. Now I am less afraid of her messages in French and I can actually understand something without a dictionary, not much but still, my vocabulary grows. Though, sometimes I regret I can’t speak French very well, it causes misunderstanding what is not a very good thing.
I feel very motivated! I bought a phrase book today, yay! It helped me a lot today – I looked up common sentences there and just substituted words. I don’t know whether it worked or not (I mean correctness of sentences) but at least she could understand me and we had longer conversation in pure French. :))
I’m feeling great \o/

Last time I had a real language barrier was about 3 years ago, when I came to a Japanese IRC network and tried to speak English with people who are interested in Japan. With time as I have seen messages and I could see common patterns there. Some people (thank you, Kaens) also helped me a lot by correcting my grammar. Now I can deliver my thoughts to people in English, though in a not very correct way :P

I just hope it will be the same story with French.

This night I watched NHK educational video about japanese language. Where people ask directions, want to buy stuff or do something, and then narrator explains their dialogue.
Well, one person wanted to buy a beer, and I immediately came up with a phrase “vous avez de la biére?”... I think it is a correct one and.. I am actually glad it happened :P It means that my today’s studying weren’t waste of time.

Oh, and yes, today I opened my French textbook again. And I’ve completed 8 exercises there… Average score is kind of bad, but still percent of correct answers is greater than percent wrong answers :>

Feeling good about it.