Sunday 13 April 2008

Je peu parle Francais!


Not entirely in keeping with the sentiment of my last 'tagged' post, I managed to spend a little time brushing up on my French. Although I had every intention of working on my language skills on a daily basis for six weeks in preparation for being in France, living life got in the way and I found myself having to do final cramming sessions two days before heading to the airport.
I am pleased to report that whilst in Briancon, I did a very good job!
Although I was able to converse on a basic level with some confidence, I came across lots of people who wanted to practise their English; so I often found myself in conversations that took place in two languages!
I use the Instant French system, which works towards the student learning a bank of words that can be used in everyday situations. I have to admit to paying very little attention to the grammar, which means that I use my word bank to construct sentences as if I were speaking in English. Of course this is not the right way and certainly not the way I was taught at school; but I seem to make sense to the people I'm talking to and that's all that matters, right?
In the future I would like to enrol myself on a course, when I can find a window of time in my very busy life!


3 comments:

N'Drea ~ the Storyteller said...

i need to brush up on my spanish. i'm seriously rusty. thanks for inspiring me.

Anonymous said...

I took French for years and couldn't even have a simple conversation. I hear Rosetta Stone is the way to go!

Mel said...

N'Drea, Spanish and Italian are next on my list. However I will be learning those from scratch so dont don't hold out too much hope!

MM, I think I have had RS recommended before; I might just look into it.