Diary: benchmarking my ability in French (February 2019)

For a while I've had the vague idea that it would be good if I could upgrade my French to sort-of-conversational. It just seems wrong that I'm stuck in the space between survival and participatory. I did some desultory research into full-immersion but it seemed expensive and hard work. I had visions of a strong inflammation of the brain tissues.

I recalled the story of my brother-in-law, a Catholic priest, many years ago. He was destined for missionary work in Peru, initially without the language. He was put on a full immersion in Castilian Spanish - which nearly killed him, no English allowed - and was then immediately transported to a rural parish in Peru where he was the only English speaker. The locals spoke a kind of Spanish, but it was a far cry from Castilian. Utter incomprehension on both sides.

 I didn't want to go there.

So I have signed-up for weekly one-hour conversation classes, as I mentioned. After two lessons let me benchmark where I am as regards my competence in conversational French.

1. Reading French

So I thought I might just breeze through this - after all it's not Michel Houellebecq - but as usual I'm hopelessly optimistic. I'm having to look up a word or phrase every sentence or two. Slow going. I wish that the Google Translate camera function worked more reliably.

2. Spoken French

I have France 24 en Direct as an app on my phone and try to listen to 15 minutes a day. With great concentration I can get the gist. But it's always vocabulary which derails me; that and the speed at which the presenters, some of them, speak. I'm not totally mystified .. but I'm hanging on for dear life. It's hard work.

3. My ability to talk in French

Not good. I don't have anything like enough phrases locked away in the neurons. I'm keenly aware of how fatiguing it is to my listener when I'm haltingly struggling to circumlocute my way around my lack of active vocabulary. She's earning her frais.

It'll be interesting to revisit in six months and see whether I've really made any progress. We plan to holiday in France this summer so it's not like there isn't a further incentive.