Parlez-vous francais?

As many of you know, French is one of the main languages in Luxembourg.  Unfortunately, because I opted for the "easy" course in high school (which was Spanish), I arrived in Luxembourg knowing about two French words - thank you and please.  The only other language experience that I had was a miniscule amount of Mandarin Chinese from my stint in Cheng Du 10 years ago.  This, as you can imagine, hasn't exactly been helpful.

Luxembourg natives speak Luxembourgish, French, German and often English.  Because they are already ahead by several languages, I'm taking it upon myself to learn French while I'm here.  I have the time and the resources, thanks to Caterpillar, to take 100 hours from our precious tutor, Rosella...

I'll never forget the first time Rosella arrived at our house a few months ago.  She must not have received the memo that this was going to be the most beginner of all beginner French classes because she spoke NO English.  This made for an interesting few weeks of class but soon, Rosella started trying out some of her English, which isn't advanced but a heck of a lot better than our non-existent French.

I adore Rosella. She's the cutest, happiest and hippest little French lady who travels all the way from France (about a half hour) to teach us (Alex and me) twice a week.  She teaches me how to say important phrases like "I want to buy those shoes" and "How much does that dress cost?"  :)  Rosella and I have become great friends and she loves learning English expressions from us as we learn French from her.  I assure you, there are going to be French and Luxembourgish people over here saying y'all before too long!

 

Luckly, because of my relaxed schedule here, I have time to study French every day or two.  My very place to study down the street is a cute cafe / bakery called Namur.  My order at each visit is a Cappucino Italian and an occasional macroon.  Delicious...and the perfect mid-afternoon treat!



My view from the terrace isn't too shabby, either...



Studying this language can help me out only so much - its speaking it properly and without my accent that's nearly impossible.  I try to speak the little that I know around town but nine times out of ten, the person with who I'm speaking replies to me in English.  They can definitely tell that I'm American and it probably hurts their ears the way I'm butchering their language. The French language, though lovely and very romantic, uses sounds that simply don't come naturally to English-speakers.  Certain words with an "r," sound more like you've got something stuck in your throat than an actual word.  Deep down, though, I think everyone around here appreciates the effort, thus I will continue with my lessons.  Hopefully over the next few years, I will persevere and, by the end of our time here, be unilingual no more!