Parlez-vous français? Nope.

I finally managed to get myself signed up for some French lessons. Everyday it became more and more apparent how urgent it was for us to at least get the basics of life down, so I researched some schools, picked my favorite (Accent Francais), and dragged myself over there to sign up.

Here's what I expected / hoped for from French lessons:

A small class of people, at least some close to my age, who all spoke English and wanted to learn French. I expected a teacher that would help us learn the basics of the language, who taught in French and English. I looked forward to a learning structure with textbooks, worksheets, and homework. (Yes, I wanted homework.)

Here's what I got when I showed up on day one:

8:30 a.m. - all new students meet at the reception desk, there are probably about 40 of us. One of the administrators walks in. He then says something very quickly in French, waves his arms, and then starts to leave the building. Everyone else followed him though, so I did too. Most of us look pretty lost and unsure about it. He leads us to another building, sits us down, and starts talking again, in French. It is day 1 of beginner French, don't you think we could have a little English, at least for the administrative stuff!? Next thing I know another lady is calling my name, so I get up and follow her. We sit in another room, across from each other, and she too starts talking at me in French. Mostly I just sat there shaking my head and saying "uh" a lot. This is my oral test. I see her circle the number 'zero' on her paper a few times, and then I'm finished. It just seems like they could find a less stressful and humiliating way to determine that I am, in fact, level zero. Which I had already told them. Then I sat and waited for an hour while everyone else had their oral tests, which they would later use to split us into groups for the actual classes. This is where you might think I could sit and have some nice, English conversation with some people. Nope. Here's what I got: Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, German, German, Japanese, Armenian, and South African. It was a very quiet room. Finally, at 10:00, we have our class schedules. I got put in the afternoon class, from 4:00-7:15. And now I find out I'm expected to go on a two hour walking tour of Montpellier. No way was that happening! So I left. Frustrated, stressed, and disappointed. And class hasn't even stated yet!!

Fortunately, it got better. Things usually do. I went back at 4:00 for the actual lesson and enjoyed it very much. The classes are all in French, but at least the rest of the class is on my level. And the teachers are very nice, and very animated!  The pace is good for me, and the lessons are very practical.  Every week we have new teachers, which is helpful in gaining new perspectives and hearing differences and similarities in the way words are pronounced and sentences formed.  

 Four weeks later and I can see a huge difference.  It no longer matters that most of my class does not speak English, we know enough French now to get by.  I'm still awful and a long way away from being able to really talk to people, but dining out is now more enjoyable than stressful, and every now and then I'm able to have something that resembles a conversation with someone. It's a very neat feeling!