Francophone

This past weekend I had my first french lesson with a group of 7 other international students all here in Mauritius. The following countries are represented... India, Armenia, Hungary, England, South Africa and America. Oh, and don't forget our Mauritian teacher. :-)

I was blessed to find this group through an ex-patriot blog ring online. It all started with one person asking about French lessons and ended with us meeting once a week for lessons.

Although I have studied French, both in high school and in college, I know only enough to be a polite tourist. I can give you a polite greeting and ask your name. Tell you a bit about myself. I can order food and ask for directions. I can follow simple instructions etc. But when you live someplace, you quickly find that this is not enough. Even worse, if you open your mouth to say, "Bonjour", people think you can speak French and then they rattle of something that leaves you saying, "Pardon?". I am lucky enough that I know how to tell others that I don't speak or understand French, so that often gets me out of my pinch...

I am not sure if this class will teach me many new things, but any start is a good start, even if it's just refreshing the things that I know.

One of these days I dream of being fluent and being able to talk freely with people here. I'm sure it will come...

One of the things that makes it a bit more difficult on my part is that I work from home, so I don't get out into the population much. I don't have a lot of interaction with French speakers (aside from my in-laws and the people at my church). I know enough French already to get through my day to day interactions at the grocery store etc.

Anyway- we'll see how it goes and maybe next time I see you I'll be able to impress you with my francophone skills.