France 4: French lessons

We have all remember language lessons at school. You were either in the lucky section who could just remember the words or one of those who found it difficult. I was always in the later. What I find so strange is that I don't find it that difficult remembering English words or obscure facts but another language's words are another matter.

When you first learn a language you learn a word or phrase's meaning in your native tongue. So the synaptic pathway is froid->cold->concept of low temperature in one's mind. So when you hear, speak, read or write you need to be simultaneously translating into one's native tongue and understanding.

Eventually the synaptic pathways become just froid->concept de moin temp. And that is how you become fluent. I assume ability at foreign languages is a function of how readily these routes grow and how easily you disassociate the coupling of concepts from their associated English.

So currently tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of my first week of French lessons. It has all been one on one and all in French. Along with moving to my new flat and furnishing it has been a tiring week. But I have found my French has really improved. Obviously that's because we focus on what I am not very good at.

For example I am much worse at listening than anything else. Going back to synapses again, the combinations of sounds are not triggering a response in my brain where a combination of letters on a page would. So my teacher got me to listen to a piece about buying wine upon which she asked some questions which I duly answered. I understood some of it, mostly hearing some nouns I understand but details completely escaped me. So when she asked me questions, I stupidly answered from my own knowledge about wine, inferencing what I thought they must of said. Shouldn't do that again. It made me look as though I understood it all which couldn't be further from the truth.

It might seem strange and counterproductive that I second guessed the content but if you are in an exam with a passage on a subject you know but with french you don't you are not going to sacrifice your grade on the alter of academic altruism. You're going to give it a damm good stab.

I had no face to save, no other hoop-jumping-through-ticking-the-right-boxes other students to beat, no brownie points to gain. So I performed a Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa! The look on her face when I started sprouting Latin would of been great if I had the guts or actually knew any. So I finally put a stop to the façard and explained, in French as always, that I hadn't the foggists what was just said or words to that affect.

There was a huge, tough and rather over cooked piece of pride meat to masticate and swallow when, sentence by inaudible (to me anyway) sentence, we listened and there would be a bunch of sounds that would mean nothing to me. It's because of the liasion. So instead of saying je suis (I am) it sounds like shwee. Or je peux : shpeur, tu es: te, c'est à côté de: ce ta côted etc ad nausium. It's not like in English were the better one talks the better in-ta-na-tion one has. Who else remembers:
Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers,
If Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers where's the Peck of Picked Peppers Peter Piper Picked?

In France it seems being as smooth as possible is the fait complete. Ergo impossible for me. But every time I come across something difficult in French I just shout (obviously quietly if there are other around) to my self "ENGLISH IS MUCH MUCH WORSE TO LEARN".
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange