Je Suck Beaucoup

Back in April, I decided that I was going to take French classes. I've always loved the language, and some of the best friends I've made while living in Germany were French, so deep inside I've always had this itch to learn the language. So when Diesel got us tix to go to Paris, I felt it was the right time to sign up for a French course.

I even got work to pay for it, since we have a French site, and I claimed I would be able to cover for the French producer should he ever go on vacation.

Anyhow, I decided to go with Seattle Languages International. I had taken a 3-month intensive course some six years ago, but I was surprised at how much I didn't remember. However, my newfound motivation to learn French made the first two months very enjoyable. I felt like I was learning a lot, and I felt confident that if anything, I had acquired the survival skills necessary to order food, ask for directions, and understand some stuff by the time our trip came around.

But somewhere along the way, I kinda lost my motivation. I felt a bit burnt out with two classes a week, right in the middle of summer plus a few hours more doing homework throughout the week.

I got so lazy that I started making up words to expedite homework completion. No dictionary needed. I would just take a word in English, add a French-sounding ending and precede it with a "le, la or les" depending on the gender and number of the said newly-created word. The problem with making up words is that it only works about 50% of the time, if not less. It can work for "Je faire DU CAMPING" (I go camping), but it does not work for "J'ai PLANEJE un voyage" (I planned a trip). And this practice's less than favorable odds amount to a lot of embarrassment when you're in a class of three students and get called on all the time. Embarrassment that was, nevertheless, eased by the fact that the other two girls started taking the same tragic learning path that I was taking.

I should have known better. Made up languages do not survive. Take Esperanto, for example, an artificially-created language with no social history that died in the academia circle before it even made it out. Wikipedia will rebuff my previous statement--it says there are up to 2 million Esperanto speakers in the world, but seriously, have you EVER met anybody that speaks it???

But I digress...anyhow, the point is, I need a break. My class ends next Monday, so I'll take a break, review what I've learned so far and go full-on again next fall.