Day 62

Teachers Pet.

Well, I've really done it this time.  We used to call them gunners in Law School.  You know the type . . . that jackass that always sits in the front of the classroom and thinks they have the answer to any question the teacher asks.  I always hated that guy.  With a class of but two students, it is a bit hard not to stick out.  My time with Rosetta Stone has made me a star pupil.  My vocabulary is very abundant for a beginner and I think the instructer thinks I am either cheating or sandbagging.  Everytime she hands me a worksheet, she make a big fuss how it is probably much too easy for me.  I don't agree, but I will certainly take it as a compliment.  I have been working diligently on the language and really enjoy the education haven now spent ahem something like oh, a decade or so away from it.  I think that is the nature of the beast though isn't it?  At some point we grow up and what once seemed a cramp in your social life now is quite enjoyable.  It is nice to push the old brain beyond the 3rd grade level that I am usually operating at.

I think the instructer is quite fond of me and it may well be due to the fact that I inadvertantly made a pass at her on the first day.  It was innocent enough, but I think it could have been misconstrued.  Don't get me wrong, she is a lovely women in her 50s, but one must tread fairly lightly with these things.  At a recent social event, much of the conversation centered on the fact that "flirting" is quite common place here and seems to be part of the social decorum between all men and women.  The incident in class went something like this . . . the instructor and I were chatting about my wife and she came to the realization that my wife was American.  Apparently she had been under the impression that I was married to a French woman.  When she admited the fact that she thought my wife was French, my response was "I wish".  Now, what I meant was that if my wife were French, the language barrier wouldn't be as much of an issue.  I think she took it to mean that I was more fond of French women in general than my wife and seemed to it as quite a compliment in deed.  It garnered a very pleasant smile and a bit of a blush.  At the very least, it has made the educational process a whole lot more personal and I am really thankful for the extra attention.  I don't think it is helping the Korean fella any, but I am certainly getting a whole lot more out of it than I thought I would.

I think the biggest advantage to being face to face with an instructor is that you get a chance to actually converse in French with someone who understands you are learning.  The lingo slows down a bit and it makes hearing the vowel sounds much easier.  You can't get by with sounding things out phonetically.  Try it and they will look at you like you have three heads.  Something as simple as the sound a "J" makes when spoken in the common greeting of "Bon Jour" will peg you as a native or as a tourist.  It is very subtle and difficult to master.  The "o" sound is even more difficult to master.  The "un" vs. "une" is still one that trips me up.  I received some good advise at a social gathering, and that is when making the "une" sound, squeeze your butt cheeks together.  So far it seems to be doing the trick, plus my glutes have never been more toned.

I am looking forward to the weekend for the wife returns and with her returns parental reinforcements.  In addition, the next week of travel has been cut shorter than expected which will mean that only two weeks of travel will remain.  Not too shaby and if I need a wife in the mean time, it seems my French instructor may be willing to apply for the job.