In my university years, it was compulsory to take up a foreign language. I wanted to take up Mandarin due to my great interest in the language, but my close friends wanted something different, so French it was.
The French language… touted as one of the sexiest in the world, from one of the most romantic cities known to men… it was hard to learn and speak. I don’t have that super twisted tongue, and I felt awkward reading a language which always seems to fail to mention the last letter in the word. For example, “ordinaire” will only be mentioned “ordinair” with a certain twist to the tongue. Our lecturer, who was French educated (or so I think), kept speaking French to us in class, and if we were late for class, we got a good French scolding. The fact that we were not proficient in the language helped us get through the scolding a lot.
Anyway, with exams drawing near and our speaking test something we all feared, one of my friends suggested we modified our French lesson so that we could pass. He suggested we learn French by looking at this video:
After days of online video lessons, and of course the good help of Google translator here and there, we all passed!! I got a B+ for saying “J’aime manger du pain ordinaire” which means “I love eating bread”, and answering every question coming after that with the word “Oui!”.
Thinking back, I wished I did really learn how to speak the language properly. That way, I wouldn’t be only saying “Bonjour, mon nom est Cyril et je suis étudiant en KUiTTHO” every time someone ask me to speak French.
