The Ups & Downs of My French Education

Yesterday I began the intermediate class.   Since then, I have been up and down about how well I’m doing.  I started yesterday concerned because I had taken a test at the completion of the first two weeks.  It showed I was still at the grande debutante level, much improved, but not a whole grade level.  The professor assured me that I would do fine in the intermediate class.

In the first class it was clear that all my classmates had more experience than I.  And because of the system Coeur de France uses, we know that they scored higher than I did on the placement test as they were placed at the intermediate level to begin.  Because so much of the class is conversation if one person is far behind the others, it holds them back.   

As the class progressed, I began to fell okay.   They clearly demonstrated that they had a better ability to speak than I and their pronunciation was better.  On the other hand, I answered some questions that they couldn’t.  I thought if I work hard between class, I’ll be able to keep up.  It was also reassuring because they were so nice and supportive. 

At the end of the class, we were given a long list of homework.  When I questioned the professor about whether it was too much, she responded that it was all a review, not new material, so we should be able to complete it quickly.  So I went home to start.  The assignments were not easy for me.  They included a lot of new material.  But I worked really hard and after five hours I had completed all the assignments.   I wasn’t sure of all the answers but I was ready for class.  I was stressing a bit because if it was going to be this hard every day for two weeks I wasn’t sure I could keep up. 

When started to review the assignments in class, we discovered that not all students had the same book.  Half of us had the 2002 edition and the others the 2003 edition.  The pages had changed as had the exercises.   This, of course, through everything off!  I happened to have a different book than the teacher’s so the exercises that I had done were not the assigned exercises.  (She quickly rectified the problem so we all have the same book as she does now.)

As we reviewed the assigned exercises in class, it was clear that I was much better prepared to complete the assigned exericises than the ones I did.  Without even advance preparation I was able to answer two complete assignments in class, answering virtually all the questions in both assignments correct.  (I had some pronunciation problems.)  A third one proved a little too difficult to do without time to prepare, but it seemed that I could have done it as homework.   This reassured me that I will be able to make it though the next two weeks.  (Yes, I have four to go, but they are two week segments.) 

And for tonight, we only have reading to do! 

Another positive note was that how much I have improved was demonstrated when we started with introductions and I understood almost everything the professor said.  I assume she said the same thing as the beginning of my first class, but in that class I understood little beyond her name and that she lived in France.