French Progress!

It occurred to me that those of you who have not heard my French (but have heard all about it on this blog) may be wondering: Gee, Misha says she is learning French, but I'm not so sure. Remember when she tried to learn Spanish with Rosetta stone? Sadly, such concerns are legitimate! (I barely made it 3 days with Rosetta Stone Spanish, for all my enthusiasm then.) But, here I have provided video proof to dispel any concerns about Misha's mythological French studies. I promise you, they are not myth.

It's been awhile since I mustered the bravery to talk with native French speakers on Skype, but today I had a wonderful conversation with my friend Clara! We talked about all sorts of things, but mostly we ended up giggling a lot as we tried to navigate the language barriers. My awful pronunciation was the running joke throughout the conversation, but she could understand most of what I said and I could understand most of what she said. If nothing else, I could understand enough words to get the gist of what she was saying. Her little brother came in and helped us out, much to Clara's dismay but I found him quite amusing and even the slightest bit helpful!

To be truthful, my French studies sloughed off last semester which is perhaps why I did not enjoy past conversations with native speakers. I never understood their French because it was too fast and when I asked them to repeat it, they spoke at the same speed! I have not necessarily learned more vocabulary since my last conversation, but since the new year, I have renewed my studies with vigor, this time focusing on the pronunciation. Although I was enthusiastic in the very beginning of my French study, I also picked up many bad habits with my pronunciation so I am trying to go back and correct that. I've been studying with Anki, a spaced-repetition system which is a glorified (and super fancy) flash card system on the computer. I love it! And with the few weeks I've been working on it and all the vocab I learned before, I can tell my comprehension and speaking has really improved! Yay!!

IEW en français!

Img by Jonathan Reyes, used under attribution-noncommercial license

The curriculum we use for the writing program at Veritas is called Institute for Excellence in Writing (or IEW) and the program steadily teaches children how to write by having them rewrite paragraphs incorporating stylistic techniques as they go. In this way, the program teaches students the style and technique of writing while removing the pressure to invent original, creative content simultaneously. As students mature, less content is supplied by the teacher (or article or whatever) and more content is generated by the student. It’s a very useful program that makes writing easy for kids, especially boys who are primarily concerned with fort-making. 

Language Goals: Mini-Modules

I'll confess that after I finished writing my French love letters for Jake I slowed down a bit on the French practice. Okay, I slowed down a lot. All of a sudden I had no tangible goal to reach for. The letters gave me a reason to keep practicing and learning new words and sentence structures. But oncee that goal was accomplished, what was I supposed to do next?

I tried setting goals like, "have actual conversations with French people" or "watch/understand a movie in French sans English subtitles" but these seemed so distant from my current level. Then I read a few articles online and between this super cool article about realistic language goals and this article about language learning frustration I was able to refine some of my own goals for both the long-term and the short-term.

Emotionally Compromised

A couple months ago, Mom, Cameron and I were all sitting on the couch, absorbed in our own little worlds when I announced, "I'm foreshadowing!!" with a devious little laugh. My mom asks me what exactly is being foreshadowed.

In a fit of giggles, I explain. I'd sent Jake a letter earlier that week, and I wasn't going to tell him about it so it was a surprise in his mailbox. Like, "Oh look! Misha sent me a letter!" But he was having a bad day and he told me, "I could probably use some of those cookies you made." So I replied, "Well, I can't teleport my cookies to you, but would a letter do? It should be there tomorrow or friday." And he replied (of course) saying I was "so so so sweet!" ^-^ But I was still in the middle of the foreshadowing part saying, "I wanted to keep it a secret, but I'm so bad at keeping these things a secret!"

The funny part? Spending the last seven months learning French so I could write a series of letters for him in French and keeping the whole thing....a secret!!! Admittedly, I almost gave the secret away on more than one occasion. I thought this whole scenario was so funny, I started laughing so hard I was crying. "It's the best thing ever!" I squeaked.

Next thing I knew, I was sobbing my guts out for no reason! (#girlproblems) How does this happen? Why does this happen? Honestly, I don't know. And this is not the first time either. Similar instances have also occurred while on the phone with Jake, at the close of Gyver's Shack, and right before Jake left for Spain.

Cameron was like, "I can't even tell if you're laughing or crying!"
Me: #both!
I honestly think he didn't know what to do with the situation except try to diffuse it with lackluster humor. "Stop looking at me!" I told him as I rubbed my eyes. (#regrettingthatmascara) Can you say emotionally compromised? It's true; learning a new language has been a highly emotional journey, if only for the reasons (and the person!) behind it!

Circumstances...

Sometimes circumstances aren't what you want them to be. Sometimes your boyfriend leaves the country a day earlier than you thought he was. Sometimes a distant uncle passes away and your parents have to leave suddenly for a week. Or sometimes you spend seven months learning a language to write 16 love letters that will only get left behind.

Words cannot describe the depth of melancholy-ness I am experiencing this week.