I am sticking with my French classes and have only missed one since I began in October. I don’t study as much as I should but at least I get one good dose of the language each week. At the very least I study for a half hour to forty-five minutes before my class on Wednesday mornings. This week I did a bit more as I read for about an hour and a half on Tuesday evening. Yesterday I also spoke French with a woman I met at a bar. I was so impressed with myself that I was looking around hoping someone I knew was watching me. “Look at me! I’m actually, really, truly speaking French!” Actually, what I am really truly speaking is Sprench™ which is a word I thought I had invented but obviously not. Sprench™ is like Spanglish except this is a mix of French and Spanish. Anyway, my French is improving albeit on a glacial pace.
I’m in no big rush with French because I still have a LOT to learn in Spanish. I know that if I keep a steady pace, no matter how slow, my French will get better. It’s all about consistency. With Spanish I just feel that I don’t have the luxury of learning at a slow pace. I found a few audio books in Spanish although they are read by a computer and the books are things I wouldn’t read but I’m desperate for audio books in Spanish. I only wish that I had a fraction of the choice that we have in English in this medium.
Have you tried watching French movies with Spanish subtitles? (I know there aren't a lot of V.O cinemas in Valencia, but you can buy/rent DVD's). I studied French in high school and Italian in college. I haven't really used either, and coming to Spain and learning Spanish kind of wiped other languages off the slate. But now when I go to the movies (here in Madrid there are lots of V.O. cines) I start reading the subtitles, but by the end of the film I can understand a lot of what I'm hearing. Just saying....
ReplyDeleteI watch some movies in French and I try to find French subtitles. The last one I saw was Un Prophète which I wrote about a couple weeks ago. The French pretty much kicked my ass (but not as much as the Corsican and the Arabic spoken in the film) but the movie was brilliant, one of the best I have seen in years.
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