Yes, Myrtille (my very own French tutor) is still coming twice a week; in fact, she will be here within an hour for our Tuesday lesson. I am dutifully doing my workbook exercises and writing assignments as she asks; fortunately, she remains patient. But I am always torn between sitting at my little table here studying or going out to see more sights, take more pictures, experience more of French life.
Sometimes it’s frustrating, especially when I can’t grasp the lesson or can’t put my thoughts and responses into words. But I keep plugging along at it. Fortunately, I brought with me a French verb book, a grammar book, a “how to speak French tourist” book, and my pocket-sized high school dictionary (really need to get a new one because so many words—like ‘computer’—aren’t in a 50-year-old publication!). I am proud of how much vocabulary I know and how well I can read. However, reading French, for me, is like sight-reading in music. I can get the gist of the written word and guess the meaning because I know so much of the vocabulary. But cold turkey, putting together the sentence structure, speaking, and/or understanding….? That’s another s-a-d story.
I studied on Saturday night at a Starbucks by l’Opera while Tess was cleaning the apartment. Then, because I played most of Sunday, I hunkered down yesterday morning at 9 and studied until around noon and then for another 90 minutes in the afternoon while playing a French CD in the background. (Maybe by osmosis..?) I also studied an hour this morning. Even though I really enjoy completing the assignments in the workbook, I can think of any excuse to distract me from the task. So yesterday I didn’t raise the curtains and was only up and down doing other things about 25 times!! When did I lose my ability to FOCUS?!
I do realize that even when I’m out of the apartment and experiencing life, I am still studying in a sense—reading signs and grocery labels, eavesdropping on conversations, listening to the Metro driver announcing the station stops—I even was able to follow along with the readings at mass on Sunday, although the songs were much more difficult to understand. I haven’t returned to any of the conversation group meetings. I know I should—but my life for 40 years has been made up of “shoulds.” I vacillate back and forth before each scheduled meeting and so far, my lack of confidence wins out each time. Maybe tonight…?
This is a shot of two ladies with their laptops studying on Sunday in la Place de la Sorbonne.
Sometimes it’s frustrating, especially when I can’t grasp the lesson or can’t put my thoughts and responses into words. But I keep plugging along at it. Fortunately, I brought with me a French verb book, a grammar book, a “how to speak French tourist” book, and my pocket-sized high school dictionary (really need to get a new one because so many words—like ‘computer’—aren’t in a 50-year-old publication!). I am proud of how much vocabulary I know and how well I can read. However, reading French, for me, is like sight-reading in music. I can get the gist of the written word and guess the meaning because I know so much of the vocabulary. But cold turkey, putting together the sentence structure, speaking, and/or understanding….? That’s another s-a-d story.
I studied on Saturday night at a Starbucks by l’Opera while Tess was cleaning the apartment. Then, because I played most of Sunday, I hunkered down yesterday morning at 9 and studied until around noon and then for another 90 minutes in the afternoon while playing a French CD in the background. (Maybe by osmosis..?) I also studied an hour this morning. Even though I really enjoy completing the assignments in the workbook, I can think of any excuse to distract me from the task. So yesterday I didn’t raise the curtains and was only up and down doing other things about 25 times!! When did I lose my ability to FOCUS?!
I do realize that even when I’m out of the apartment and experiencing life, I am still studying in a sense—reading signs and grocery labels, eavesdropping on conversations, listening to the Metro driver announcing the station stops—I even was able to follow along with the readings at mass on Sunday, although the songs were much more difficult to understand. I haven’t returned to any of the conversation group meetings. I know I should—but my life for 40 years has been made up of “shoulds.” I vacillate back and forth before each scheduled meeting and so far, my lack of confidence wins out each time. Maybe tonight…?
This is a shot of two ladies with their laptops studying on Sunday in la Place de la Sorbonne.
