learning French
yes. finally. it feels so good to be back learning french!
time to cast away the fatigue, stress and worries from the daily work, just indulge in my pure joy of learning french!
my first day in school
-----------------------------
I woke up in the morning and found myself a student again! Packed my dictionary and books, and I was off to school like the good old days. on the train, I was engrossed in my last minute catch up... final touch up!
some french conversations crossed my way as I was approaching the school. I was rather sure I spotted my previous french teacher... but I had to rush.
I got my student card, officially a student of the french school!
my first impression of the classrooms - 'cool'. blue and white. and the exterior of the classroom looked like some cool labs. a rather refreshing feel. 308. got into my class and met the other students.
I heard 'Bonjour!' as our professor stepped in. I was still wondering if I was in the right class. But yes, my professor... a tall, well-dressed and mature frenchman. so I was expecting some rapid french conversations from him. and we did. plenty of french and barely english. I believe I was the first to cut in with english cos I haven't been speaking french in class since 2 years ago. I was rather slow in catching up cos I'm the only one who is still new to the school. so the whole class started in french and mainly french... while I struggled with my french-english conversation with the professor. but I must say, he is a really helpful teacher. he walks around to correct our work, make us take turns to answer questions, clarify any doubts and he is a fast walking-dictionary!
so we were asked on what we did on christmas/new year, our professions, what we like doing during weekends...
for instance, I replied... 'pour le nouvel an, je suis allee... (I paused and signalled quotation marks with my fingers to suggest non-french words)... 'the beach' avec mes amies.' in short, I wanted to say I went to the beach with my friends for the new year. and my teacher offered to translate the words for me. on my occupation, I couldn't translate my job title at all and I just said which company I'm working for. and when its comes to hobby.... 'j'aime ecouter la musique et faire du shopping.' asked which type of music I like... I was totally blank and I wanted to say everything but I said the simple one I know, classical music! though I'm not a great fan of it. I wanted to say I play an instrument but I have no idea how to say that! even saying classical music is a problem to me... in french , it's 'musique classique chinoise'. and I don't mean I like Chinese classical music but anyway it's the easiest way out & my french teacher even asked me if I meant that I like Chinese opera. I objected violently of course!
we also had a listening comprehension which we had about 5 repeats of the audio cos none of us could catch what the audio was about. our professor actually paused and explained each question to make sure we could understand what the speaker was saying. and yes he tried to explain 'la consigne' by telling us how one travelled from Singapore to France on a business trip and a whole stretch of story all in french, to tell us it means 'left-baggage'.
right. what a way to start my french class.
and my thoughts?
I'm enjoyng and loving every moment of it. it's barely studying at all! it's all about enjoying the language, it's an indulgence... and man, if only I can do this every single day, life would be parfait & so enjoyable!
looking forward to the next lesson.
time to cast away the fatigue, stress and worries from the daily work, just indulge in my pure joy of learning french!
my first day in school
-----------------------------
I woke up in the morning and found myself a student again! Packed my dictionary and books, and I was off to school like the good old days. on the train, I was engrossed in my last minute catch up... final touch up!
some french conversations crossed my way as I was approaching the school. I was rather sure I spotted my previous french teacher... but I had to rush.
I got my student card, officially a student of the french school!
my first impression of the classrooms - 'cool'. blue and white. and the exterior of the classroom looked like some cool labs. a rather refreshing feel. 308. got into my class and met the other students.
I heard 'Bonjour!' as our professor stepped in. I was still wondering if I was in the right class. But yes, my professor... a tall, well-dressed and mature frenchman. so I was expecting some rapid french conversations from him. and we did. plenty of french and barely english. I believe I was the first to cut in with english cos I haven't been speaking french in class since 2 years ago. I was rather slow in catching up cos I'm the only one who is still new to the school. so the whole class started in french and mainly french... while I struggled with my french-english conversation with the professor. but I must say, he is a really helpful teacher. he walks around to correct our work, make us take turns to answer questions, clarify any doubts and he is a fast walking-dictionary!
so we were asked on what we did on christmas/new year, our professions, what we like doing during weekends...
for instance, I replied... 'pour le nouvel an, je suis allee... (I paused and signalled quotation marks with my fingers to suggest non-french words)... 'the beach' avec mes amies.' in short, I wanted to say I went to the beach with my friends for the new year. and my teacher offered to translate the words for me. on my occupation, I couldn't translate my job title at all and I just said which company I'm working for. and when its comes to hobby.... 'j'aime ecouter la musique et faire du shopping.' asked which type of music I like... I was totally blank and I wanted to say everything but I said the simple one I know, classical music! though I'm not a great fan of it. I wanted to say I play an instrument but I have no idea how to say that! even saying classical music is a problem to me... in french , it's 'musique classique chinoise'. and I don't mean I like Chinese classical music but anyway it's the easiest way out & my french teacher even asked me if I meant that I like Chinese opera. I objected violently of course!
we also had a listening comprehension which we had about 5 repeats of the audio cos none of us could catch what the audio was about. our professor actually paused and explained each question to make sure we could understand what the speaker was saying. and yes he tried to explain 'la consigne' by telling us how one travelled from Singapore to France on a business trip and a whole stretch of story all in french, to tell us it means 'left-baggage'.
right. what a way to start my french class.
and my thoughts?
I'm enjoyng and loving every moment of it. it's barely studying at all! it's all about enjoying the language, it's an indulgence... and man, if only I can do this every single day, life would be parfait & so enjoyable!
looking forward to the next lesson.
posted by Jerylene at 22:30
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