I am FINALLY taking some formal French lessons, starting tomorrow morning. It's not that I've been resisting the lessons since I really enjoyed those I was taking in the U.S. before I came over. I just always seem to have too many other things to do, and I could "get by" pretty well on what I already knew.
But that was when I was a single gal. Now it's really important that I get more comfortable using French and that I work harder to extend my existing knowledge of the language, or I am going to continue feeling like the proverbial wall flower every time I'm with a group of les francais. Although I continue to do OK talking to the nanny, at least half the time I get it wrong, what she's trying to tell me, and when it comes to details about the Little Guy, this is not a good thing. So I now have incentive to make more of an effort. (P.S. the nanny has decided that I am to give the Little Guy some English tutoring for 15-20 minutes every day! I'm all for it of course but it's clear who is running the household, hee hee.)
Anyway, the tale of how I got into these French lessons is a story in itself. A friend of mine from Finland, here in Paris, is engaged to a Frenchman and although she has lived and worked in Paris for over two years, she has made very little progress in the language. Like me, she has incentive to work at it now. We talked about our options, and a mutual friend of ours has had a good experience with the lessons offered by the Croix Rouge (the Red Cross). The lessons are for non-Francophones who have emigrated and need to integrate better into the culture. And get this -- once you pay your 10 Euro annual fee, the lessons themselves are FREE, and twice a week for two hours. This is a sweet deal and we decided to start there. If the instructor is no good and we don't feel we're progressing, we can stop the classes and go elsewhere, no harm done.
So last week, we went to sign up. You have to go in person to the Croix Rouge in the 5th arrondissement, and the only time you can register is from 2:30 - 4:30 pm on Fridays. (Note: I believe other arrondissements may have other Croix Rouge office that might also offer French classes. I only had information on the ones offered in the 5th.) We arrived late (as usual -- we always seem to be late -- and this time it was really my fault as I had totally forgotten about it) and discovered a long line of people waiting outside a cramped little room. There were people of all nationalities there, and many of them are referred by the state unemployment offices or other organizations because they are having difficulty finding work or doing their jobs well if they can't speak French adequately enough.
We weren't there long when a sharp-voiced woman came out and started saying, in French, that all the classes were full, and she chased most of the people waiting ahead of us out of there. I was determined to stick around, if only to ask her when we should try to come back again in the future, if the classes were really full now.
So in a combination of French and English (which of course, she secretly spoke) I explained that my friend and I were there to take the French classes and were the classes really full? She asked me who referred us and I said we were referred by a student, and gave our friend's name. Once she realized we weren't coming from unemployment or some other organization, but were there independently, she let us through into the bigger office.
There, we found utter chaos as four women, including the one we spoke to, were trying to interview about 20-25 individuals to assess their current level of French knowledge. All the while, the woman we'd spoken to was coming in and out of the first room, looking for some cahier vert she needed, that no one ever seemed to find. She also periodically shouted out that the classes were all full... but the other women kept on interviewing people and trying to place them in classes. Madame didn't give us any forms to fill out, like the other people were all holding, or any other instructions for several minutes, then finally she waved us at a couple of stacked chairs and told us we could sit down. Whew! Up until then we weren't even sure we were going to be allowed to stay.
After a few more minutes, when one of the other ladies was between interviews, I got her to give us the application form, figuring at least we could get those filled out to avoid any nasty delays (or anything else that could piss Madame off further, and hence disqualify us from the possibility of getting into a class). At last, Madame came back and invited us into the other room, where we both sat with her at a table.
She looked at our forms -- oh, la la, we hadn't filled out the "texte" area at the back. Which had no instructions as to WHAT kind of "texte", but I said to my friend just to write whatever she could in French because that was clearly the written part of the placement test, such as it was. So we quickly wrote what we could -- about 2-3 sentences each -- and then handed back the forms.
She mulled them over for a minute, and then looking at my form where I had listed my profession, her face suddenly lit up with a huge smile and she said, "Ah, vous êtes écrivain!" And suddenly it was like a storm had blown over! Honestly, we couldn't get over the transformation in the woman. She was like a completely different person. I don't credit myself with performing a miracle just by happening to be a writer, but maybe it had something to do with her reading our applications and realizing we were just two women in love with two French men and we need English to make our personal lives a lot easier.
Because it was moments later that the miracle occurred... when she stopped herself in the midst of explaining that all the classes were full -- and said she would accept BOTH of us in HER class, meeting Mondays and Thursdays for 2 hours at 10:30. Despite the fact we are at completely different levels of the language (she also urged me to seek additional conversational classes via the local mairie because I need more -- she says -- than just the 4 hours a week she can provide).
So, 20 Euros and two signed entry passes later, we realized we were IN! We have no idea what to expect; we were given no instructions on what to bring and barely managed to find out the address of the classes themselves before dashing out to make space for the next applicants. I thought these classes might be a bit in demand but I had no idea it was that tough to get a spot, so I think we're quite fortunate. Hopefully we'll like the classes and both get what we need out of them.
I have packed a small notebook and my French-English dictionary to bring, for starters. Perhaps there is a text we will need to purchase or some other supplemental materials. I have a huge box here of French language study books I've brought with me... and now access to Georges' enormous library of books to reach for practice, any time I want, so I won't lack for material with which to practice.
Meanwhile, I am also planning, in addition to these classes, to get some private tutoring and conversation practice from my second-favorite Frog starting probably in April (so don't think I've forgotten, Froggie dahling!) Then depending on how much time I have left in life to pursue French studies, I will consider my new teacher's suggestion about classes offered by the local mairie as well.
So if you will excusez-moi, I need to get to bed early, as Georges has an early train to catch for a meeting out of town, and I am on duty to get the Little Guy up and off to school, before getting myself up and off to school! Let the jeux begin!
