what french class sounds like...

This is about what we sound like during French class...hopefully not all the time :)

When we stop and think about it, we remember how funny we really sound during class.  Pronunciation aside...the things we are actually saying would sound pretty odd in English.

For example; a few weeks ago we learned how to conjugate reflexive verbs in the negative and in the past tense.  In french "je ne me suis pas lavé...tu ne t'es pas lavé...il ne s'est pas lavé"

Which, in English, would be a classroom of people slowly repeating "I did not wash myself, you did not wash yourself, he did not wash himself, she did not wash herself, we did not wash ourselves" and so on.  And repeat. 

And our instructor's corrections (all said in French) would also sound pretty funny:

"no- you just said you are talking to a thing.  We can't talk to things...unless you are a child talking to a flower.  Talk about a thing, talk to a person."  

Learning the prepositions that go with each verb is one of the more challenging things...for example in French you don't get married to someone, the preposition is more like saying married with someone.  If we just translate all the words from an English sentence directly into French, it won't make any sense.  It's not enough just to learn words, we need to learn how to construct real sentences from them.

During class we also do lots of fill in the blank exercises- we go around the room and each take a turn answering.  It's always easier to figure out the answer when it's someone else's question, and the attention isn't on you. When the attention is on you...it's suddenly much harder to remember things.  Recently in one of these exercises, Nick was desperately trying to think of the French word for weekend...turns out the French word is "week-end".  

I downloaded some French children's books on my iPad as a fun way to practice.  Nick and I have been reading them together each day...we just finished a book about some dinosaurs:

Outside of class...

We've had a few chances to go skiing- the mountains are so beautiful!!

Here's our new friends the Kendall family, they will be going to work and teach in a hospital in Togo.   

We went out on a date recently and ordered some traditional Savoyarde cuisine.

 Quote from nick: "I think what I have here is mostly a bowl full of cheese. And it is delicious."  

This region knows how to make comfort food.

Here's one more funny video...

we are better off in French than Joey here, but sometimes we still feel like this :)