PARIS–I’ve now spent more time in a French-speaking environment than at any point since the June day in 1991 when I boarded a flight to Newark from here at the end of my family’s two-year expatriate stay.
Twenty-five years is a long time to go out of practice in a language, and I lived up to my low expectations of my degraded proficiency when I said “210” as “205” Monday evening. But each day since then, I’ve gotten a little more comfortable at not just hearing or reading French but the more difficult part of speaking it.
I’m not about to have verb-conjugation tables pop back into my head all filled out, but as I find myself engaging in brief exchanges without getting flustered, I’ve realized that the francophone parts of my brain haven’t turned to mush. Instead, I can almost picture the old synapses lighting up for the first time in a quarter of a century.
Vous pouvez imaginer mon soulagement!
(Yes, I did wimp out by checking that in Google Translate.)
I am going to need more practice to get close to my former fluency. I could add French to the Spanish lessons I’ve been taking in the Duolingo app (thanks for the recommendation of that in a comment on an earlier post here), but what I really could use is another good tech event or two to attend here. Suggestions?
Bonjour Rob!
How long you staying in Paris? If you can, try and check out Viva Tech, starting June 30th. http://www.vivatechnologyparis.com/
Europas is happening sooner on June 14, but that’s over in London. https://theeuropas.com/
And if you’re looking to brush up on your French, you should definitely check out Babbel. Learn real conversation content from the get go. I’m email you a promo code to try it out.
Cheers,
Jasmine Chao @ Babbel
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