The language of love?

I have now been in France for about a month!  I know time fly's!  Whilst being here I have come to the conclusion that people who have not spent time in France think French is the 'language of love'!  Really?  All those harsh tones and slurring of words are meant to be 'lovely?  It beats me!

I had my first French lesson on Monday morning!!  My first French lesson in France anyway, we''ll ignore the disastrous past lessons from school.  Although I haven't decided yet if these ones will end up going down the same road.  I'm told that the best way to learn a language is to live in the country of the language you wish to learn, so that said (along with the fat cut out of my pay every week) these lesson better work their magic.

The lesson it's self was.......interesting?  I hadn't prepared myself my the whole lesson to be in French!  Sounds silly I know!  I'm in France, in a French lesson, what did I expect?  I was thinking that the teacher would say something in English then in French, us students would repeat it and we would all know what was going on!   However the teacher spoke the entire time in French. Speaking to you as if you are already fluent.  It's their method?  Plus with a mixture of people from different country's in one class it supposedly leaves out any confusion.....other than the fact that I had no idea what word meant what?!

The lesson ended up going somewhat like this.....the teacher talks to you in French, expecting a reply...i stare blankly...she gives me an example of what she expects, 'Je Suis Fancaise'...i say 'Je suis Anglaise?', after a looooong pause.  Apparently what I said is all good, and that's the first 20 minutes of the lesson done.  Thus the lesson continues in answers of guessing with questioning looks.  It's hard to learn that way because you end up only understanding the gist of a sentence, not what each word means.

When (or if) I speak to anyone outside the class room in French, that person is gonna have to to know the exact dialogue that I have learned, if they say one word different I'll be lost!..............

Bonjour!

Bonjour!

Ca va?

Oui, ca va!

Comment tu t'appelle? 

J'm'appelle abbie

Quelle est ta nationalte?

Je suis Anglaise.  Et vous? (If I were talking to someone else besides myself I would be polite and ask them the same thing)

Ou habitez vous?

J' habite Echenevex.

Quelle est ta profession?

Je suis Au Pair.

Au Revour!

Au Revour!

I'll sound like a robot!  at least i did learn something!  Let's hope Thursday's lesson inst too different to Monday's.

I did feel like a child repeating what the class CD player was saying though.  The whole class taking it in turns to pronounce a letter of the alphabet and counting up to 20 (the counting I've got down!) was odd.  I am defiantly the last one to understand things though!  Even when the girl next to me try's to explain something in English, I have to just nod after the 10th time and pretend I understand completely, It's lost on me! Okay!  So maybe the lesson wasn't THAT bad the WHOLE time, but it certainty felt like that every 10 minutes.  I will prosper!!! Eventually!

there about 11 people on my class, and most of them were Au Pairs from the U.S. or Something like Russia.  There was an English girl from Manchester...who when I said I was from Surrey gave that knowing 'your from the south' look!  Haha!  She did then tell me she was hoping to loose her accent while she's here, like it was an apology for being northern!  I thought that was funny.  She was nice though, the one who tried to help me understand.

I really really hope that I can get to grips with what goes on in the lessons though....I don't want to start dreading them!  I really ought to get a French/English dictionary, but we do get text books in Thursday's lesson, so that may help things.  I will be practicing my ABC's till then!

Saulte!!