Trekkin' Along and Making Progress

Salut Mon Amis

Just a quick hello and update. My French class is still merveilleux. I love my instructor so much. She explains everything so thoroughly and gives great history lessons which help tie in why a word is a certain way. She's also hilarious which makes class really fun. I look forward to class every time. 

It has been hard to find the time to keep up with my self study and to do other hobbies. I haven't played my banjo since starting my class (see previous blog post on learning two new things at once). While doing homework for my French class is of course good French practice I miss the extra self studying I was doing. It's really hard to find the time to do it though. I work full time and have the usual busy adult life. With my new class being twice a week that means 4 nights a week are either dedicated to attending class or doing my homework for the next night's class. My weekends have been filled with chores, date nights (trying to have some fun), and babysitting (I have two baby nephews), so French practice is also hard to squeeze in on the weekends. 

Despite feeling behind on my self study I can definitely tell I am getting better, or at least more comfortable and relaxed with learning French. At first French was super overwhelming. The words are just pronounced so different than English or Spanish. I hadn't been in school in a really long time and so the adjustment to being back to learning something new was challenging. I can tell I am feeling more at ease and am actually enjoying learning (the initial stress and panic has subsided). It also feels SO amazing when you have those moments of realizing wow I know more than I thought. My brother recently showed me a French letter he received from an association in Canada and I was super surprised to find that I understand almost the entire letter. Granted it was pretty basic French since it was a just letter about an annual event, but still it felt really good to see that my hard work is paying off. 

Like most foreign language learners my weakest area of study is still verbal. I can get lots of reading and even listening practice in at home or in class, but getting to practice speaking out loud by yourself is hard to do. I need a study buddy! It's hard though because I don't really know anyone in my class very well yet and we are all busy adults. It would be so much easier if one of my family members or friends was learning French with me, but alas I am all alone in this endeavor. 


au revoir pour le moment