One step closer...

[camwyn]

I'm finding my shoes to head out tonight, but not to my usual knitting group. No, my friends, tonight I am taking one step closer to making the seven-hour car ride from which I need never return.

... okay, yeah, that sounded about three times more pretentious than it had to. Starting French class tonight so that one day I'll have a chance at getting a skilled worker visa in Canada. (From here it's about six hours to the border if the road is clear and I only stop once for gas. Seven is more like the truth.)

Back in college I came to two realisations: one, that I was not and could never be normal, and two, that I did not live (and probably never HAD lived) in the same America as everybody else. While the first realisation is pretty self explanatory to anyone who's read my journal any length of time, I have finally come to understand the second. Obviously, I do not live in the same America as everybody else because my America is more than half assimilated by Canada.

Trust me, it makes a lot more sense from inside my head. Anyway, gotta go, time for French class.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Bonne chance avec tes étudies en français, mon amie! Et aussi pour la vie au Canada!

[ocean-song.livejournal.com]

have fun! C'est bonne. I'm so proud of you. I wish I could learn french. But my tongue just doesn't twist that way, at least not linguistically speaking. And it tickles my nose, like playing a comb harmonica. Ow. Can they use any Spanish or Russian speakers in Canada?

[pandoras-closet.livejournal.com]

FRENCHIE!

Wait, sorry. Must be patriotic.

FREEDOMIE!

[camwyn]

Well, that would be if I were at all interested in visiting France. Aside from possibly picking up some of their flour and a sample of the local bakeries' yeasts, not really a priority for me, that.

But hey, I'll take yet another title. Why not.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Un chose...as-tu vu learn_french?

[camwyn]

Oooooo. *signs up*

Last night's lesson was the basics: pronunciation, the alphabet, more pronunciation, greetings, and numbers. My teacher had us asking questions of each other to practice the sentences; she stopped to listen to myself and the person I was practicing with, and asked me if I'd taken French before. I told her no, but my fifth grade teacher tried to teach us a little, and that the only thing that really stuck was the pronunciation. She said "It stuck very well."

I was pleased with this and told her as well that I had two semesters of foods prep/hospitality mgmt., and that all the kitchen equipment is named in French, so I got some practice there. She thought that was very unusual, but I was just pleased I could get the sounds out reasonably well.

The next European who whinges that English spelling makes no sense is getting clubbed over the head with a copy of the conjugation of 'to be' in French.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Hah! Tell 'em to learn German ;)

okay...

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

I don't really remember how I got here (isn't that the story of my life?) but it matters not. I'd like to add you, because anyone from NJ who wants to go to all that trouble to learn French so that they can come live in Canada (even though, remember, that west of Ontario it won't do you much good, and in some places will do you more harm than good...but I digress)

Bienvenue a Canada (yes I know I need an accent there but it's been way too long since I had to type in French and I can't remember the ASCI codes...)

Re: okay...

[camwyn]

I'd like to add you

Sure, go ahead. I don't mind.

even though, remember, that west of Ontario it won't do you much good

Well aware of that. Mostly it's for the extra points on the immigration service's Skilled Worker Visa Test, really. As a lifetime Anglophone and native-born American there really isn't any way that I'd be able to speak it well enough to pass for local in Quebec, anyway. I want enough to be able to use it, and to be able to read it... and to be able to say 'excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear you calling my demographic group an uncultured, uncivilised bunch of punks' and make someone's face go all melty with surprise.

in some places will do you more harm than good

Isn't that always the way?

Bienvenue a Canada (yes I know I need an accent there but it's been way too long since I had to type in French and I can't remember the ASCI codes...)

I have no idea what the codes are either, although the info needed is on the community info page for learn_french, so I probably ought to memorise that chart. Mostly I go into MS Word and use the CTRL-appropriate-apostrophe keystroke combinations, then paste into LJ.

Anyway, merci!

Re: okay...

[whobunkyboo.livejournal.com]

for some reason i keep thinking...'goldfish' was how I got there, and now I have that stupid Pepperidge Farms ad in my head.

Also you seem to be one of the few interesting LJers I've run across so far who seems to be anywhere near approaching my own age...

Talk about a prehistoric mood...