I'm doing 43 things
I’ve been studying French for nearly three months now. Here is what I am now able to do:
- I am starting to eavesdrop on conversations successfully. Yesterday, a man on the bus had a conversation with someone in French. I understood! He turned to his companion and translated what he said into English. My comprehension was correct!
- I can, sometimes, launch into a well-formed sentence without thinking about it much.
- Usually, I do this only when I have been drinking something.
- I had a bit of an impulse to write this in French. I consider that a Good Thing.
- I can understand a lot more than I did two weeks ago.
- I can read a newspaper without terrible pain. I can even understand Le Monde, for the most part. A dictionary helps, of course…
- I can get some of what is shown on television. Not everything, but considering this isn’t dialog that’s slowed down for anyone’s benefit, I think I’m doing OK.
- Often, I will start reading English packaging and signs without realizing at first they are in English. The first time this happened, for example, was when I was given an English menu at a chain tourist restaurant about a month ago, and didn’t realize why I found it easy to read at first. It took a full half-minute for me to realize that it was in English! This happens rather frequently now, at least when I see English signs and such when I’m out and about. I always know I’m reading something that is written in French, but then again I’m still trying to figure out what it all means. It seems, however, that brain doesn’t automatically assume it will see English anymore; if anything, it seems to expect French. And that, I think, is a Very Good Sign that SOMETHING might be shifting in my brain.
BUT…here is what I CANNOT do:
- I can’t have a perfect conversation. I always mess up pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary. As such, some shopkeepers will still try to switch to English. This is frustrating, and humiliating, to me. I know they are trying to be helpful, but I mostly feel like a failure for not getting French right.
- I don’t study as hard as I probably should. As in right now…I should be studying, not writing about my 48 things. Bad me!
- I still don’t understand everything I hear.
- I still lack confidence to say many, many things.
- I still rehearse if I have to say something particularly important.
I’m frustrated by my slow progress, but my much smarter friend in Paris is also frustrated. Perhaps this is a normal thing, after three months in country?
