Le français

French class is going well. I am surprised at how much the Spanish I learned is helping! I knew they were in the same language family, but since I forgot most the Spanish (learning Dutch pushed it all out of my memory, I didn't expect to see many similiarities.

When we learn something, often it is an 'ah-ha moment'-the structure is similar to Spanish. Some verbs are similar, diphthongs, basic conjugation rules, and other things that I don't how how to explain them, but it makes perfect sense when I learn it.

I still have a hard time with knowing what letters you pronounce, but I am glad we have a nice teacher. Yesterday we had a student teacher and that makes you appreciate an experienced one. The experienced one has trained ears to hear what we are trying to say. She knows for some of us it is the very first class we have ever had and that it is very different than our languages. The student teacher kept saying we were not saying the right thing and the teacher would say that we had said it correctly. The student teacher didn't understand me, so the normal teacher said I speak American French :)

Je m'appelle Leah

I finally started French. It seems like finally, but it is actually right on schedule. I said I would begin French when I finished Dutch. I finished level 10 in January and the first level 1 French started this month.

Class is every Wednesday evening for 2.5 hours. So far, it is great. The teacher is more concerned that you just dare to speak, instead of  speaking perfectly. This is good for me, because this is what I still struggle with with speaking Dutch.

She said if we come to class the whole year, we will pass. Not much studying at home is necessary. My kind of class!