Tuesday, October 5, 2010

French Class

So I spend an insane amount of hours each week in French class and you would think that after a year of this I would be able to speak at least a little French-it is not true!

Last year I had an AMAZING teacher-Dominique-
she was lovely in every sense of the word- she was patient, hysterically funny- at least i think so- the fact that I didn't understand a good 70% of what she was saying may have made her funnier.
This year I have a teacher who does not know how to teach. I hate going to class every day and I am holding out because supposedly our regular teacher is on maternity leave and will be back in November-so just 3 more weeks of Brigitte!!
SO my strategy so far is to keep my mouth shut-because not only does Brigitte not know how to teach-she is also not very patient. But sometimes I do get called on and in those cases I hope for the best. Today was a day I could not avoid being called on. SO we were supposed to tell about someone famous. Problem is-we're all from different countries so one person's idea of famous might not be another's. So the first couple of people were speaking of some old French man-still don't know who that was. I decided that when it got close to my turn I needed a bathroom break-in the sincere hope that by the time I got back it would already be past me:) Well I got back just in time- lucky me-and found out they had changed people and now I was to tell about Shakira. Well obviously i know who that is but LITERALLY the ONLY thing I know about her is that she is a singer. And so I told my not so patient teacher that and she told me I could pick anyone. BRAIN FREEZE! I couldn't think of anyone. SO I picked Obama-problem being I know NOTHING about his childhood either. So I decided to make it up:) And said that he had gone to private school-at which point I was corrected by no less that 50% of my class! so then I decided to say he had been the senator for illinois. My teacher said -what?!" I said "illinois" she said "what?" I said the "l'etat illinois" and she said "oh illinois" with a french accent!! Seriously!! since it's an american city you'd think I could at least get that right- but NO!

Viva le francais!!

No comments: