Well, it’s official - I’m spending January, February, March and a bit of April in Bordeaux at a French immersion school.
My receptive French is pretty good, but I always feel so inadequate speaking it that I say virtually NOTHING in response… So, I’ve finally decided it’s time to do something about it.
The course is now arranged, my plane ticket to Paris is here beside me, and I have a ticket on the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux paid for, so I’m ready to go…
I’ll be staying with a French family the whole time so I’ll be immersed in French day and night, and I figure I may FINALLY start to actually open my mouth in French…
And after all those months, I might finally start speaking French at home with the husband when I get home. He’s French, but his English is so good that we’ve always spoken English for the last 19 years. Even though I don’t speak French, I’ve acquired it through the years listening to him on the phone with his family - enough that I can correct his stories he’s explaining in French. Of course, my corrections are in English… ME, speak French? Why non, non, non…
Anyone ever done an immersion course? How did you like it? How long were you there?
I’ve done two summer immersion courses, and I’ve spent one university year at Québec. They were all great! It was a combination of learning the other language, and learning the other cultural that made them such good experiences. The reason I chose Québec over Montréal was to get away from English-speakers as much as possible, to force myself to use French. Going to Bordeaux sounds like a good choice. (Plus I hear they make some wine there… )
Have fun!
By the way, I’m trying to keep score: you’re an American by birth, of Welsh extraction (judging by your user name?), now living in Canada, married to a French guy, and off to France? you’re a poster boy for multiculturalism!
p.s. - it’s either “Mon Dieu!” (if you’re a monotheist), or "Mes Dieux! (if you’re a polytheist).
Your choice of Quebec as more authentic is the same reason I picked Bordeaux over Paris… I almost picked Paris, just cuz, well, it’s Paris… but in the back of my mind I knew that if I went to Paris, I’d end up not using French as much…
And I’m going to need some wine, since I’m not sure there’s a ton to do in Bordeaux in the middle of winter… Everything I’ve seen talks about their sand-dunes on the ocean, and sitting outside at cafés… Considering it has weather sort of like Portland or Seattle in the winter, I’m not going to be climbing sand dunes!
You’re close… Actually Irish, not Welsh (runs off to find his passport… Yep, Irish…) and the French guy is actually Quebecois… Oh, and did I mention I sign American Sign Language fluently? If only that would help me with learning an oral language…
And love the Mon Dieu info… I didn’t even notice I threw the X on the end… I think I threw it in after seeing “Bordeaux” so many times lately!
(Actually, I should say “Est-ce qu’il y’a un Dieu? Je ne sais pas.”, since I’m agnostic… )
Yep, major Little Britain fan here… Loved the character of Daffyd, so stole the name…
And thanks… love it here so far… although I wish I coulda brought the weather from San Fran with me… It hasn’t even hit freezing here yet and I’m already whining!
The whole French/Quebecois thing sort of kills me… All the snobs who say they can’t understand Quebec French are hilarious… If we watch Quebec news I can mostly follow it… If we turn on TV5 and see the news from France, they all sound really nasal, and I’m lost…
That’s why I want to go to learn to talk like that!
I did one month of inmersion course in English when I was 15. There were something like 26 of us kids in my group, but only 24 “known” families. Myself and another girl who was also vaguely classified as “tougher than concrete walls” were assigned to the unknown families. The family I got was very strange in many ways: the husband was a Cockney (I didn’t understand a word he said, he didn’t understand a word I said, even though other people had no problem understanding me), the wife Finnish. I had several bad experiences with them but very good in general.
There were two other groups of students in town at the same time: one from France, going to the same school as we went, had been in town for a week when we arrived. We made friends with most of them after the usual doggie butt-sniffing. The other group was from Spain but I swear, in many ways they were a lot more foreign to us than the Frenchies.
We took a test when we arrived, to classify us into three groups. My worst problem with the tests was that I’d never heard the word “dictation” before, so it took me a couple sentences to figure out what was I supposed to do in that part Apparently I’m to blame for them changing the tests: I went straight to the “high” class and this had never happened. Me, I blame the English teacher I’d had that school year, who was the greatest language teacher EVER.
Like I said, the family was weird in more ways than I care to retell. But the cats were nice (specially Lucy) and the stay in general was nice and making friends with the Italians who had that little hole in the wall pizzeria was nice and being able to ask for “no pickles” from the Indians working in the local burger was neat and the Finnish woman had the complete Beatles, which was definitely a treat. All in all and in spite of a couple very bad moments caused by that family and by my own inability to expect any help from adults, a lovely experience that I recommend to anybody who can have it.
Well, Nava, if you hadn’t told me you weren’t English, I would never have guessed… Your English is flawless! Obviously immersion worked well for you… (OK, probably a lot of years of English at school too…)
But just reading your story gives me hope that I’ll some day be able to carry on a normal conversation in French!
Apparently I’m to blame for them changing the tests: I went straight to the “high” class and this had never happened. Me, I blame the English teacher I’d had that school year, who was the greatest language teacher EVER.