January 2006 - Posts
Last Autumn, our estate agent friend who sold us our house three years ago, suggested that we check out Accueil des Villes Françaises. We'd never heard of AVF and were told that they offered French classes at all levels. We went along, signed up paying an annual membership fee of 26 euros and have not looked back.
Far from simply offering French classes to Dutch, UK, Belgian and other expats, the organisation seeks to support and encourage the integration of all newcomers to a town. AVF has more than 350 local offices all over France and about 11,000 volunteers. We were fortunate enough to be in town for our local office's welcome day. Forty-eight nouveaux arrivants (largely British but also French and Spanish) were taken on a tour of the town and shown around the Mairie by the Town Clerk who introduced us to the heads of the various departments. We then had an aperitif with Monsieur le Maire, who is also our deputé in the National Assembly followed by a lunch for a hundred prepared by other AVF members and volunteers. We were so impressed by the warmth of the welcome not only by AVF but also by the town administration.
Consider the difficult ride most new arrivals get in a strange country. It was so refreshing to come across people who took the attitude that, rather than marginalising the newcomer so that they remain different and wedded to their old ways, one should seek to support their assimilation in every way possible . I can only begin to imagine how this would go down back in London or elsewhere in the UK.
What's all this got to do with me and learning French? Well of course we signed up for French lessons, then more besides. I'm not one of life's great extroverts and consider myself quite healthily antisocial much of the time. But that wasn't going to bring my French up to scratch. Neither would two hours a week formal tuition. So I jumped in both feet first with a sink or swim attitude. The life-belt of Madame Farrugia's unstinting efforts in my teens allows me to do that. Again, I'm grateful.
I attend French Scrabble (developing a refreshingly surreal vocabulary e.g. salonnard ~ lounge-lizard, bride ~ flange ) and am learning to play Bridge. I do like competetive games and was described the other week as having the mind of an assassin which I took as a compliment. (It did sound nicer in French.)
If you haven't been to your own AVF yet, it might be worth checking out. http://www.avf.asso.fr . I feel extremely fortunate with our local volunteers. And there's an expectation, too, that a nouvel arrivant will one day become a volunteer and offer the same support to others as they have received. Its an exchange - "Ce n'est pas un chemin sens unique."
My French teacher, back in the early seventies was Madame Farrugia - a Parisienne, married to an Italian who had lived much of her life in the middle east, including a couple of years in Egypt where, I believe, she was a language tutor to the children of King Farouk before he was sent packing by Nasser. She spoke French, Italian, Arabic and heavily accented English among others. She was a fine teacher and her greatest gift to me was a very correct Parisian accent.
Unlike many newly arrived English people my accent is not bad at all. The downside is that a reasonably decent accent is all I do have. Grammar is flakey and vocab is not half as extensive as that of most three year olds attending nursery school. I used to think that my vocab was OK. As a teenager visiting Paris, I liked to hang with the cool dudes and pick up street slang and bits from pop songs. A foreign teenager speaking with a localish accent and using all the latest argot might be considered cute. However, a middle aged foreigner barely grazing the right side of fifty and using the same old patter can only be viewed as sad, Sad, SAD!
We were staying in a chambre d'hote some years ago. The first thing one of the other guests said, on hearing me speak was something along the lines of: "Hm. Un autre Anglais avec un 'Ouaaai' Francais." Any disquiet I may have had was compounded a week later by our hostess. She placed a hand gently on my arm and whispered in French and very kindly: "Excuse me for pointing this out, Rob, but your slang is just so......so...... seventies."
That day I determined that I would clean up my language and act my age. I want to speak clean, clear, adult French with the same facility I speak English. Its good to know street language but I don't have to use it. And while my accent is good, its good to tone it down a bit on occasions when it gets me into trouble and people assume I know more than I do.
The telephone is my bête noire. I used to answer it with "Allo" and confirm who I was only to be deluged by a torrent of French from someone trying to sell me something I didn't want or something I wanted very much but couldn't afford. Trouble was I often couldn't determine which was which. A Dutch friend whose been here ten years told me what she does. So now I pick up the phone with a beautifully modulated and very English "Hello". That does the trick. The callers tend to slow down or hang up.
I look forward to the time when my grammar and vocabulary catch up with my accent. And I long for the day when I can go back to "Allo" and then understand exactly what I've agreed to buy.
I've never done a blog before but it looks pretty straightforward so here goes.
I thought it might be useful to share my day-to-day triumphs (rare) and frustrations (frequent) in grappling with the French language. Any tips I pick up I'd also be happy to share.
This is not a reference blog, to use for checking subtle points of French grammar. That kind of thing is dealt with by highly qualified and gifted linguists in the language section of the forum (and I have often had cause to thank them). I hope this blog will help me reflect on my learning experiences and show anyone who is struggling that they're not alone.
Just a bit of background before I start. My name's Rob and I've been living in France just a few weeks. We've had a house here for three years and have spent alot of time here in the last three months preparing for the permanent move to France on 6th Jan.
I did French at school up to 'A'level (not a good pass). I'm surprised at the amount that is surfacing after a break of more than thirty years but know that I've lost most of what was drummed into me way back when. In those days The Beatles were still The Beatles, frozen pizzas were haute cuisine (at least in our house), The Iron Lady was still soft and cuddly, and Elton John was getting married...............to a woman!
So I'm not starting from scratch but equally, I have a load of catching up to do. We'll see.