For the most part he is making the most of the situation. Daily errands become opportunities for learning. His journeys to the post office, the butcher in the market, the baker for his croissants, and the dry cleaners are where he finds his 20 minute French tutors. He will try to speak French when ordering his bread or dropping off the dry cleaning. Since he does the errands during the week day, most shop keepers, without many customers, can be patient enough to correct his French. As Thomas says. "the people in this country exist for me to learn French." That is the best outlook to have. When I lived in Burkina Faso. I did not speak to anyone in French for my first year (for fear of making mistakes). It wasn't until my second year that I realized that my French will never be perfect, and it will certainly never improve if I don't speak - flaws and all. It's good that Thomas has made this discovery at the beginning of our adventure in France.
After one week, his French has improved. He is making an effort in conjugating his verbs, and he watches his tenses. A friend of his told him to just say things in English, but with a French accent. That is not a bad strategy and is something I do when I don't know the French vocabulary. Thomas has chosen a different route-- which consists of making up words. Today he discovered that he has been pronouncing "maintenant" (=now) incorrectly saying "maintama". He also has made up the word "sessama" thinking it meant "next week" (la semaine prochaine). The pronunciation problem could be one reason why he gets the confused looks from the French. Or why he got two crepes (deux ) instead of buttered crepes (beurre) at the market today. For some deux (pronounced like dew) and beurre (pronounced like ber) rolls differently off the tongue. For Thomas, apparently he says them the same way.
He is doing great, and his French can only get better in time. I keep reminding him that he has only been here a week. He has a a session twice a week with a conversation tutor. He starts a two day a week French class at a local association, and he has all of France to help him improve his French. I think by the end of the year, he will be having conversations and not just lessons with the French.
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| Beurre. This one has flecks of salt. After using unsalted butter for years, this is a bit too salty. However, on a baguette with strawberry jams, the salt and sweet combination makes you forget just how bad it is for you. |