French Class at the French Institute Alliance Française

I’m now getting better with idioms and subjunctive, but my overall pace of learning has slowed.

I Just Noticed Our Hand Soap Is Bilingual

At the beginning, French from college was pouring back into my brain, but now that I am past the mere memory-refreshing stage, it takes considerably longer to absorb things.

Also, my back has been hurting a lot, which in turn hurts my French-at-home policy. If I feel crappy, I am not patient with trying to communicate in a language I don’t speak very well. Therefore, more English than French has been uttered around our residence lately.

Fortunately, the French Institute Alliance Française, also known as FIAF, has come to the rescue: they are allowing me to sit in on a French conversation class. I am pleased to report that it is an advanced class. (The fact that they put me in a class at that level made me ridiculously, embarrassingly happy.)

To School!

The instructor, whom I’ll call N. for now in case he minds my writing about him, is a funny, energetic, wiry young guy with long hair and a special knack for getting people to talk. Such a knack is really useful when one is teaching a French conversation class. I would go so far as to call him eccentric, which I hope will not offend him should he read this, since I mean it to be a compliment. I happen to like eccentric.

I had missed the first two classes, so when I arrived last night, N. plopped down next to me and asked me to introduce myself to the group. I hesitated and requested guidance on the type of information he would like to know. (In French, naturally.)

He prompted me with questions. What did I do for a living? Had I been in another French class previously? If so, had I switched because I heard that he was musclé (muscular)? And so on. He cracks me up. 

By the way, if you are a cool Francophile guy looking for a cool Francophile girlfriend, I definitely recommend taking a French class at FIAF. The women outnumber the men. I am pretty sure by a lot.

After class, despite my aching back, I felt happy and rejuvenated, and Brandt and I returned to speaking French with each other.