Progress? Perhaps

View of Sancerre When Approaching

My lessons continue to go up and down.  This has been a difficult week.  I’ve worked hard on my homework and still when I get to class find I have made mistakes on half of them.  This is very frustrating to me and I’m not sure what I can do differently. 

I am not sure if I will ever learn to think enough like the French to really understand.  When I was really down about my progress, I happened to visit a couple of stores and had such positive experiences I felt great.

 I visited a bakery and was ready to order the cherry and pistachio tart I saw in the window.  But when I got ready to order I realized the word on the tag was not the word for cherry.  I had the same tart yesterday (okay the amount of dessert I am eating is another story) and was quite sure it was a cherry tart.  I inquired of the clerk whether this was a cherry and pistachio tart

View from Sancerre

and she replied that it was.  I was then comfortable to continue the conversation.  I asked if the word on the sign (pronouncing a word I’d never seen before) was a specific type of cherry.  She understood me and replied yes.  I told her how much I had enjoyed the tart yesterday, paid and told her I’d see her tomorrow.  This may not seem like much but when I came to Sancerre I probably would not have asked for it if the label used a word I didn’t know and I definitely would not have asked about the types of cherries.  

 So I may not be getting my grammar right but I am definitely communicating better.I then stopped at the butcher’s to get some ham, eggs and cheese.  I was confident in asking for the ham and for the first time told him I wanted thick slices.  He confirmed I really wanted them and then made a comment about my French improving.  I said I was learning, but slowly.  His response was I had made a huge improvement since I arrived. Athough I want to learn all the grammar, the reality is that most of the time that I will use French is for traveling. Clearly, my ability to speak French for this purpose has improved immensely. 

Me at My School

This was just the incentive I needed.  I headed off to a private lesson and spent the next 60 minutes working with verbe forms.  My instructor was wonderful and explained every single time I screwed up why I should use one form over another.  I was told today that the French have 16% more words than the English.  I think they also have 50% more exceptions.  (That is a personal opinion and may be just based on the number of errors I make.) 

The bottom line is that I am speaking and understanding French far better than I did a little over three weeks ago when I started this program.  And I am having a wonderful time experiencing a differnet way to live. In addition the scenery is so beautiful.  So when I get down over how hard the lessons are or my slow progress, I remember but I am living in an old French village with beautiful scenery, wonderful people and great wine!