Learning French

Spring is here and biking to school is a fabulous way to start the day. We start out next to the river and children learning to sail...

After a wonderful bike ride to school on Friday, the first class, in French of course, was on futurism in art. Did you know that the futurists were Italian fascists? Somehow I thought right wing politics were antithetical to art.

Then performance time, a 15 minute presentation to 14 fellow students. Speaking French is exhausting for the new learner. Some, like Bob, don’t talk much. Others, like me, just open their mouths and hope for the best—let it all flow out, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary be hanged. Trying to decipher the French of another student is exhausting. So when students know they will not have to talk for 15 minutes, they disappear to rest in the comfort of their own thoughts rather than struggle with trying to understand another student’s French.

Therefore, it was no surprise to find a sea of 14 unexpressive faces before me as I started. I had spent 4 to 8 hours preparing and practicing and was still excited about the subject: “Why and how to learn French.”

Here are two or three of my favorite findings.

We are more motivated to learn when we are in a social situation. For example, did you know that children more readily learn another language when they have a teacher working directly with them? If that same teacher is on a TV or DVD, providing the same exercises, young children do not learn as quickly. Also, when we can see that our learning has an impact on others we are more motivated to learn. Inner-city first graders working on a book to give to others had to be told by their teacher “No leaving recess early to go back to class to work on your book.”

Practice makes perfect. We become experts after about 10,000 of practice or 3.4 years of school and homework 7 days a week for 8 hours a day. So far, I have about 2000 hours of French under my belt. Only 8000 left to go. As Paul says, when you are under water, having to speak French (or any language) in order to have a social relationship, you learn twice as fast because you are practicing 16 hours a day instead of only 6.

Anyway, it is Friday and I am standing in front of 14 checked out college students. There were gaps of seconds between words. With a sigh of relief, I had reached the conclusion. It was over.

The teacher asked the class if there were any questions. None. Good, thought I, I am able to return to the anonymity of my seat. Nope. Madame Yashir (all teachers are Monsieur or Madame) probed some more. One courageous student lifted her hand to answer. All of us noticed the pencil in Mme Y hand, pressed to the grading sheet noting the participation of that one student. Desire to get a good grade trumped fear of failure, and soon all of the students were participating with Mme Y leading the discussion. They exchanged ideas about what works to learn French and asked me for more ideas. When it was time to sit down, 13 out of 14 had participated and, like those inner city children, I was thrilled to have contributed to their lives by creating a chance for them to help each other.

Research at the U of Michigan indicates it takes 90 days of constant repetition before a new habit becomes ingrained. If that applies to language, it requires 90 days of practice for each word, each new rule of grammar and each sound to become natural. Since there are 2,000 words to remember in order to participate in daily conversation, pronounced correctly and used in a way that is grammatically correct, it is no wonder that it takes a lifetime of practice to learn a language well!

Bob has decided that preparing for and attending three hours of classes on oral expression and oral and written understanding is a waste of time, so he is spending 4.5 hours learning French in other ways. I may stop going to one class: Mr. Gomez's class on verb conjugation, but even he, does really a very solid job. For both of us, our teachers are much better this quarter than last. Did I ever tell you that at the end of last quarter I thought that I had wasted 50% of my time in class? (For example, a good teacher may work one to one with each student for 3 minutes. We all benefit from that one to one attentio but with nearly 20 students, that is an hour of passive time for the other 19 students. This semester I always go to class with my own learning project to fill that hour.)

Our landlady had us over for dinner again Friday night and said that Bob speaks good French when he speaks. He has made so much progress!