Further Education

Tuesday 12 November 2013


Luck had it that our first expatriation landed us in Gabon, a French speaking country, and I had some French education behind me.  Even so, when we arrived, it had been years since I'd spoken a word of French and several more years since I had to use much other than simple conjugation, ABC's, 123's and classroom vocabulary.  For the first several months, I cowered behind my language skills scared to make mistakes, stumbling over words that had long buried themselves in the depths of my brain and fearful that if I did respond and pass off my French, I'd be rewarded with a flurry of words that I couldn't keep up with.  Yet, when you move to a country where 99% of the population does not speak English, it becomes a sink or swim scenario.

Eventually, things started to connect again in my mind and soon I was spending much less time pre-formulating sentences well ahead of any communication.  I credit a lot of my confidence to speaking with our guards and our housekeeper - they were consistent relationships who were patient and understanding as I tried to piece together what I needed.  They didn't correct me or walk away when I wasn't making sense; they worked with me until we were both in complete understanding.

While this was happening, I could feel my grammar slipping away.  No longer was I worried about saying something perfectly, I just wanted to be understood and generally, I was.  I knew I was making a plethora of mistakes and I felt frustrated that while my oral communication had improved tenfold, I wasn't improving on the details of the language.  With French teachers few and far between, I continued to bump along, conversing haphazardly yet fairly confidently.

Of course, the move to Stavanger brought my French language use to a halt.  I had aspirations of meeting a couple of French expat wives who I could meet for coffee once a week but it didn't happen.  A year passed and aside from a couple of jaunts to French speaking countries, I did not utter a word of French.  Some days, I'd translate my day in head to see if I could still do it or I'd turn the TV to France 24 but would quickly lose interest.  Come June, I stumbled across a French language teacher in Stavanger and before I could talk myself out of it, I composed my best email in French detailing that I'd like lessons in the Fall.

Since the end of August, I've met with a lovely French woman once per week for 1.5 hours at her home.  During my first lesson we completed a placement test where my teacher remarked that my oral communication was strong but my written was lacking.  I found this interesting as my entire French education, I felt the reverse, a fairly common notion for anyone who has learned a language in a classroom with more pen to paper than anything else.

From "Bonjour" to "À la semaine prochaine" we do not speak a word of English.  It is exhausting.  One on one, we work through grammar and vocabulary; we'll do fun things like make crêpes and play games or we'll watch adverts on youtube.  Sometimes the words flow easily and the lessons are quickly grasped whereas others are more of a struggle as I try to wrap my head around le girondif and curse the masculine/feminine forms.  I've come home laughing that my teacher had reprimanded me for not answering in full sentences which unexpectedly sounded as if I'd been listening to myself several years prior with my FSL students in Canada.  The tables had turned and now I found myself une étudiante once more.

It's been good.  It's been good to flex my brain a little more.  It's been good to polish up my language skills and it's been good to feel the slightest bit more productive.


{On that note, tonight is Joe's first Norwegian lesson.  His company finally got around to arranging lessons at the office.  We asked if I could also attend but unfortunately, they wouldn't allow it so I've instructed Joe to pay extra special attention so that he could teach me afterwards.}


18 comments:

  1. I started taking French a little over a year ago and for a while I was going every week, and taking private lessons. I got to the point when we're in France, I can do the basic conversing and understand pretty decently, but like you said, when I don't use it, it just is so hard to get back into it. I need to start lessons again but with life so busy, it's sometimes so hard to fit in that few hours. But I totally believe that having language skills is so important!

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  2. I seriously need to start doing that too...I lived in France for a year and it really helped me expand upon my four years of university French, but now that I've been home for six months without breathing a word of it my grasp of the language is totally slipping.

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  3. I learned to speak very basic German in the first two years of High School in Australia. I was going to keep going on but ended up not doing it. Even though it was a basic knowledge it still came back to me after ten years of not speaking when we visited Frankfurt a few years ago. It was a daunting experience but fun at the same time.

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  4. That is great that you got back into it Jay!! I had French Canadian divers this week and it was a struggle to bring back 14 years of French classes at school and university... every time I tried to think of something in French it came half French and half Spanish. Luckily they had a good sense of humour :)

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  5. I can't think of a better way to learn a language. You'll learn so much faster {and probably more enjoyably} this way. I'm taking Spanish night classes at a community center near my home, and I'm loving it, but I can't help but feel like if my lessons were one-on-one I'd be learning quicker! Good luck with your studies!

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  6. Timely! I just started poking around Duolingo and I'm finding my vocabulary coming back quite quickly, but those gosh darn masculine/feminine.

    I'm curious about your thoughts, as this is something Mike and I talk about quite often. We both only have 'one' fluent language. I can 'get by' (give directions, order coffee) in Italian/French, and he can do so in Spanish/French. We've talked about living somewhere someday where we immerse ourselves in a second language and finally just become bilingual, but the big choice is, where?

    English is apparently the 'international language of business' so what is the right second language to learn? How widespread is French, really? Italian? Spanish? Perhaps, with Brazil developing rapidly, Portuguese is more useful? I've heard that one should learn a Chinese language, but my Chinese friends say don't bother, since the dialects vary so widely from region to region in China. Mike and I both grew up in an Arabic neighbourhood, so we know a few words, but Arabic dialects vary too, so would that be useful to learn?

    In the end, learning a second language is such a time and effort commitment (and I'm rubbish at second languages, I progress very slowly and with much frustration) that I feel like I have to have a "point" to learning it - i.e. using it everyday, using it for a job, etc. But the current macroeconomic climate and global political conditions means that that "point" is becoming muddier and muddier, and it's increasingly difficult to know what is the "best" language to learn.

    Since you've lived in several distinctly different regions, I was wondering what you thought?

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  7. good for you for taking the initiative to improve your french! taking the first step can be so difficult, but when that's over, it gets easier, doesn't it? i'm in a similar situation right now, except that i was looking particularly for a german-english exchange with someone, but haven't found the right german speaker yet. i'm still keeping it up with rosetta stone computer software but practicing speaking is a necessity. after a recent jaunt into germany i realized how rusty my speaking actually is.
    does joe use any norwegian at work or is it mostly for ease of doing normal daily things in stavanger?

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    1. Joe doesn't use any Norwegian at work at all. Most of his division are expats so their common language is English and if he attends meetings outside of the office, most are also conducted in English. I suppose that's why we haven't learned much in this past year. The main times we feel like we wish we understood is making small talk out and about or feeling guilty when we join a Norwegian group and they automatically have to switch to English for us.

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  8. Good luck with your language lessons! I'm a Canadian expat, too (living between London and Cape Town). I actually learned German in school, and i've been struggling to keep it up. My husband's mother is German, so I can sometimes practice with her! X Jane http://janeheinrichs.blogspot.com

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  9. I enjoyed reading that:-) That is so great Jay - so happy for you - French is lovely! I think it feels wonderful to learn some new skills! I managed to learn Greek, but Hindi ... very challenging. I would love to hear how your husband is doing in his Norwegian lessons.. Mine had a haaard time with those vowels.... Puh! XX

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    1. He did have some trouble with the vowels - there were a few he couldn't tell the difference between but he did come home feeling enthusiastic. I hope that continues over the next 11 weeks ;-)

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  10. That's so awesome you took the initiative to bring French back into your life. It must be so rewarding. I am always so happy with myself when I dive back into German or have a successful conversation. It's such a rollercoaster learning a foreign language.

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  11. It's so great that you're taking classes! I feel like both my German and French are grammatically terrible these days as I need to speak them just to communicate and have no time to worry about genders and all that.

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  12. Good for you Jay. The more you know the better off you are so keep it up, and continue to enjoy your lessons filled with crepes, games, video and all the other tools that help you progress with your French. Whenever you have a tough day and feel like banging your head against the wall just know that there's a Canadian sympathizing with you (thought she's struggling with a different language in a different setting) just across the pond! ;)

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  13. good for you!!! i'm really trying to keep up and improve my spanish here. i want to take a spanish exam in order to teach in bilingual schools but it's just so much harder when i'm not surrounded by the language

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  14. Bonjour! Actually, that's rather misleading, since I intend to pass on a wee tip about Norwegian (and specifically Siddis) rather than French! Most Norwegian courses teach bokmål rather than Siddis. Which is fine, if most of your interactions are going to be on paper or in Oslo. But if you actually want to small talk with the locals, then he'll need get them to teach him som Siddis. Because 'how* might be 'hvordan' in bokmål, but it's 'kos' around here...

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