Week 1 and Studying French -- by Dave

One of the main reasons that we came to France was to study French.  There is nothing like being in an immersion situation to make you improve quickly and consistently,  If you have to shop, ask directions, and order dinner in another language, you tend to figure it out pretty quickly.

We selected French in Normandy as our language school for several reasons.  First off, we didn't want to be in Paris.  Don't get me wrong - I love Paris.  But, I didn't want to live in a city of 11 million people while working on learning the language.  Rouen is a much more approachable city.  Second, French in Normandy has won several awards of distinction over the years - based on week 1, they are well deserved.

We took a verbal and written exam on the first day, and got moved between a couple of different classes until we were situated in one that was the right level of difficulty.  Students come and go every week, but in week one, we had one man from Indonesia, one man from Argentina, and two women from Japan.  Most of them spoke no English, and well, my Indonesian is even worse than my Japanese - and I don't speak Japanese.  So, clearly from the start, French would be our common language.

The classes are high speed and low drag.  When we get out of class, we are pretty brain-fried for a bit.  The instructors do make it quite fun, and really do manage to integrate speaking, listening, writing, and reading.  We wrapped up the week by doing some research, and presentations, on French musicians.  We then listened to a bit of their music, which was quite a bit of fun, except for getting a song stuck in my head...

First Week in Rouen and French class -- by Lola

Wandering around jet lagged our first few days, we still managed to find freshly baked baguettes and croissants, French wine, and cheese. Madame Lejamble and I had a pleasent 2 hour conversation--with the aid of a French-English dictionary. I ended up saying "death" (mort) instead of "word" (mot), but other than that, things went pretty well.

Because of the Easter holiday, our first day of class at the French in Normandy school was Tuesday. All of the instruction is in French. To give you an idea of my level starting out, well, I've been studying French for about 6 months with Emily Carmichael. She's an excellent teacher, but I was thrilled when I could understand a French toddler in the grocery store pointing out items on the shelves. In other words, I have a fairly basic understanding.

Now this particular Tuesday, the letter "y" didn't exist for me. I couldn't remember how to say it when reciting the alphabet in French, and it fell out of any French words I had to write. On the board in front of class. It was that kind of day.

The teacher made a "tut tut tut" sound that was the verbal equivalent of a Catholic nuns' ruler. However, she quickly realized Dave and I were actually capable of conjugating être and avoir (the next hurdle in her class), and so moved us to a more advanced class. One that, thankfull_, did not include the letter "y".

And so, we began the week by conjugating French verbs in passé compose. My mind melted, but I still had fun. My classmates-two sweet Japanese ladies (Rei and Eri), a wise-cracking Argentinan man (Emiliano), and a calmly competent Indonesian man (George)- all helped to make things easier. To help each other understand words and concepts, we used a combination of pantomime, drawing, bits of French, English, Spanish, or whatever language we could find in common. When we listened to French singers on Friday, the teacher asked us what the album name "Dig Up Elvis" (Julien Doré) meant. Pretending to dig up a zombie Elvis, everyone was quite amused-and horrified-at the same time.