My experience in France has officially and tearfully come to an end. After four months living in Paris, I took two weeks off to travel Europe, came back to Paris fora couple of extremely bittersweet and strange days, and finally made my way back to the USA. I’ve been home for two weeks now, and I must say, it’s been bizarre.
When I first embarked on my study-abroad journey, I thought I would certainly be fluent at the end of four months of being constantly surrounded by the language. Turns out, fluency takes a lot more practice and time than four months. I think if I had truly spoken nothing but French during my time there, I would have been forced to learn the language more thoroughly, but at the same time, I think I would have gone insane without the option to speak English.
I really pride myself on my accent. While I lose it a bit when I’m speaking quickly or struggling with grammar, I feel like I have developed a really strong French accent, mostly just by listening to and observing real French people, the way they talk, the way they physically move their mouths, where they place their sounds, etc.
Vocabulary – ugh. I just have trouble retaining it. Something more to work on while I’m back in the States. I’ve been trying to read Le Monde, the French liberal newspaper, at least once a day online. I’m also looking into finding a conversation group in Boston or Cambridge so I can practice speaking with real Francophones. Meredith and I like to speak with each other for practice, but of course that’s never the same as speaking with real French people. So we shall see.
