I got a lot of sleep last night and I think it was something I needed. I woke up a few times in the night but when it was time to get up I wasn’t as tired as I usually feel. I went to school and arrived early and helped a girl with her homework. This girl doesn’t speak a word of French and I’m not really sure why she is in our class. I think she needs to be in the beginner class because she never does anything and just sits there. Kinda weird.
We learned a lot about asking questions today which is something I really really need to work on. I was pretty happy we were covering it until I realized there was a lot of new things I didn’t really understand and when the teacher asked me to give the answer for one of the questions, I totally got it wrong and she always rebukes me when I get something wrong by saying in her French accent – Hilary! Non!!! And I just look at her with my embarrassed and somewhat surprised look that says more than – I don’t understand!! I was happy when the class finished so I could review and ask some of the other students in english what on earth we learned. I think I get it a little better now, but wow, my questioning skills are not the greatest. I had a 3 hour break today so I went a portion of my tuition, bought a baguette and rode the tram to the river where I sat and wrote out some postcards. It was a bit cold today and I should have worn one of my wool coats, but once the wool coats come out they stay out!! I am getting excited to dress all warm for school though. I really like it! I went to school and got my student card finally and it was so funny because the man who helped me was speaking so fast and I just looked at him with that same look I give me teacher and said umm oui? And he was like haha…and he basically walked me to each place in the uni I had to go to get it done which was extremely kind of him and I am sure it wasn’t in his job description!!
I have been listening to French music today and trying really hard to listen to people as I walk by. It is really frustrating trying so hard to just catch a few words but never know what on earth people are saying!
In my phonetics class, the teacher asked me to repeat this really long phrase and it was so funny because we were talking about liasons and enchainements today and I was laughing while trying to say it because everyone in my class was laughing for some reason. Probably because the teacher sings everything to us. I feel like I’m in a cartoon in that class. This really cool girl named Yuji from China ran up to me before class and was asking me in broken English and French if she could come get a crepe with me this week and I was like of course. She sat by me in the next class and we just laughed the entire time. My teacher was like Hilary! Repeat, repeat and then finally I either said it good enough or she just got tired me not speaking well and moved on. I swear everyone in my class was laughing so hard. It wasn’t that I couldn’t say it, it was just difficult to say when I was laughing so hard cause you really have to move your mouth in a certain way. I also finally figured out why I am not understanding when people speak to me! It was as if a light went on in my brain saying HIL! The liason and enchainement which is how the words slur together is making things sound so much different than when the words are on their own! I know a lot of vocabulary and verbs but when they are formed in a sentence with other words, they sound a lot different. Maybe everyone else knew this, but I finally felt like I knew the reason. Maybe I'm not dumb after all. After class I talked to my teacher about it in french and she told me that this is really true. It sounds very different than the words just alone so I felt a lot better. I need to keep speaking, listening, and trying to notice it.
My conversation class was really fun today. We had a tennis ball that we would throw to other students and ask certain questions that were on the board and they forced us to speak a lot. It was interesting to hear the answers from the other students and its cool because we help each other speak and the teacher is really creative with the ways she tries to explain things/concepts we don’t understand. I always end up talking a lot in that class.
As I was on the tram home today I was noticing all the different people. The tram wasn’t as crowded as it usually is because I took the one that no one really takes. I noticed a man across from me and was really curious about his life. He was a weathered man. His skin and eyes looked so tired and his hands were strong and calloused. I then looked at a few other people. A woman with her shopping, short and plump with rosy cheeks and little beedy eyes and a teenage girl looking as though she was finding herself. I couldn’t help but think of all the different lives on that tram and how different we all are. We each have a story but no one will ever know what it is because we just walk by one another without a single word or expression. I think we judge people so badly in the first 30 seconds we see them. That is all it takes after all to make a first impression right? So what kind of impression am I giving to people in those 30 seconds. Here I am, 25 years old, with a lot of experiences, knowledge and personality, and someone simply conjures my 25 years in 30 seconds. Crazy isn’t it?? The way we dress, speak, the way we look at others, our body language, the way we even smell or chew gum. The makeup we wear, the way we stand…it’s all taken into account within that 30 seconds of the first impression. Maybe I am weird, but I think about this a lot when I am standing on the tram and I’m surrounded by tons of people from different walks of life. I look at them and make my judgments and I try to be fair to them. Some you can tell right away don’t have the same opportunities for education or wealth as others, but some, you really just wonder who they are. I was sitting across from this girl about my age today and some guy bent over just beside her and bumped into pretty much with his butt and it was funny so I smiled at her and chuckled to myself…and she looked back at me with this look like, oh – she seems nice and I guess I can laugh too. Then every time something happened around us that was a little weird she would look at me and smile. It was like we made this silent friendship on the tram. The occasional glance and smile secured the friendship more than words did.
I am back at the flat now with Vanessa and we are about to read in the Book of Mormon to practice my French. We have been speaking in French since I walked in the door and already I can feel its helping me! The more I speak in French the more I remember and the more I think in it. I hope that by doing this each day it will come a lot easier. We have been speaking English too much!! Vanessa and Melanie are so great because they help me with my homework and explain to me things that I don’t understand in English. Without their patience and help, I would be a disaster!
I am sooo tired right now. My brain must be exhausted. It’s a good exhausted though. Looks like it will be an early night pour moi!
No comments:
Post a Comment