So then, how's it supposed to make me feel when I underline every other word to look-up in my dictionnaire Français-Anglais (dik-see-on-air frahn-say on-glay: French-English dictionary), even though I'm merely reading up on Carla Bruni's new coupe de cheveux (koop duh shev-oo: haircut)? Well, let's just say I often find myself falling back on plan A to begin with: waiting for the day when I just wake-up speaking French couramment (koor-a-mon: fluently), without any hard work involved.
La langue française (la lan-guh frahn-says: the French language) is spoken by over 110 million people throughout the world. A Latin-based language, French is known as la langue d'amour (la lan-guh duh-moor: the language of love), and for good reason: with over 130 commonly-used irregular verbs, and a subjunctive verb tense created just to express moodiness and doubt and make life a living hell for French learners, both being adept at the art of French and being adept at the art of romance seem to be equally as complicated and hopeless...
"Parlez-vous français (pahr-lay voo frahn-say: Do you speak French)?" is the inevitable question I'm asked by any new student who walks through my classroom door. I'd like the answer to be an astounding "Mais bien sûr (may be-en sur: but of course)!", but it's really more of a shameful mumbled "un petit peu (uhn puh-tee poo: a little bit)" before I hurry off and change the subject. In fact, a clerk at the gare (gah-rr: train station) once told me I spoke French "very well!" after I asked to buy tickets to Lyon, and I almost kissed her I was that touched by her knack of embellishing the truth.
In the meantime, I'm hoping that with the help of Point de Vue celebrity gossip magazine, the French paperback version of The Devil Wears Prada, French soap operas about accidental pregnancies and crimes of passion, and Les Simpsons dubbed in French, I'll be conjugating my irregulars and thinking in le subjonctif (luh soob-junk-teef: the subjunctive) with ease by the time mardi gras rolls around. Either that, or just be really well-read in the art of French celebrity dating.
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Leith, how many people have done as you have done (and so well) as to go 6,000 miles away to dive into a language so complex, so endless, and so intimidating (it would be to me, that's for sure)? I think it says a lot about how intelligent you are. You are so masterful at everything you put your mind to, Leith, that it is not surprising to me that you have done so well and gone so far in French. I thank my lucky stars I have such an outstandingly intelligent girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteAww, Andrew, thank you! I thank my lucky stars I have such a supportive, romantic, sweet and intelligent petit ami!
ReplyDeleteYou two are so dang cute!! I get so busy for a few weeks, and I love that now I have two of your posts to read, back to back. I tell you, you have to publish a book based off this life you're leading in France :D
ReplyDeleteI agree Leighann...I hope Leith publishes a book! By the way, Leith: You are very, VERY adept at the art of French, and the adept at the art of romance. Trust me.
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