Rather suddenly things arranged themselves so that I could take French lessons at the Alliance Française in Toronto. After all these years out of high school I’m going to pick it up again, and thus erase the embarassement I have at not being able to talk to a quarter of my countrymen… I’ll be able to embarras myself at Doperéal instead!
Trilinguality, here I come! 
le whee!
I hope to god you don’t get a tone deaf teacher, I had one for semester of french ( I got out of the class ) and she actually sounded like
Bun - joer, juh maple Madum oozel ________. Ill hay tray shode oh gord wee.
Said in a perfect… english accent. I cringed every time she spoke.
Have you read * Me Talk Pretty Some Day*? David Sedaris recounts his attempts to learn French whilst living in Paris…absolutely hysterical!
Félicitation ! We won’t laugh too hard at you, unless you speak French with an Edinburgh accent (old Wayne and Shuster joke )
I had an experience somewhat like the one Ryle Dup had. My first year teacher was English and she spoke French with a upper class English accent. It was hard to follow to say the least. Now I’m in a third year French class that is way too easy, and all we do is basically teach second years review concepts.
If you ever want to learn the vernacular I’ll anwaer question from Merde! by Genevieve. My sister and niece are taking French right now and I’m helping them as well…
I’m not taking a class, but I am trying desperately to learn useful phrases before a trip to Paris next spring.
Which letters are most often pronounced at the end of a word? Is it c,l, and r? Any others?
How do I pronounce the word for egg? How about fried egg?
Bravo. Lessons are great, but immersion is quicker. Let us know when you visit so we can fill up the dunk-tank.
Merci! Thanks! If I have questions I’ll be sure to blather them all here! 
I was a French major in college, and love the language.
Have fun!
Enjoy your lessons, Sunspace. Bonne chance!
Well done, it’s a lovely language.
And just think: if you were in the US you’d have had to sign up for Freedom Lessons instead…
Well, Sunspace - good luck to you!
A word of warning however; you may not understand us Quebecers at first with all the swearing and anglicisms we use ;-).
I recommend that you do as my wife did; go out with a french-canadian. Bonus: you can french-kiss! (ahahah, je suis tellement drole! )
Lache pas la patate Sunspace!
One of my Canadian clients says all the best cursing in Canadian French involves Catholic church terminology. Any truth to this, or was he bullshitting me as usual?
He wasn’t BSing you Eva Luna, due to its HUGE influence on our culture, the RCC became the source of our most common swear words.
Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve spoken French, but what I believe they say in this situation is: Malhereusement, le cheval n’etait pas dans la bibliotheque. C’est en pierre!
I don’t think that’s French you’re speaking. I don’t think it’s anything.
Right. French would be le ouoûte!
A language hijack from S.J. Perlman:
“My immigrant maid has been here so long she forgot how to speak Spanish. Since she never learned English, she’s now unable to speak at all.”