How I Learned French

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A French student taking exams
A French student taking exams - Photo from the internet

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.

20 COMMENTS

  1. I took two classes of French when i was back in uni. It was fun, and really joined for the love of the language as well. haha.. we had a french lecturer teaching us, his name was Monsieur Point. Haha.. Really twisted tongues to excel in his class! Oui oui! we would say and Je ne sais pas! haha.. Glad to know u took french too! There was no need of the language in the working world, but i managed to help a lost moroccan french lady at klia last year. it was fun, trying to embrace the french in me and my expertise in sign language really helped! haha.. cheers!

  2. one question…does the french swear a lot??juz learned a new idiomatic expression few weeks back..so i suppose u know what iz it..lol….juz curious..=)

  3. I met my French lecturer few days ago, I was quite shocked as he still recognize me probably I was the only student who speak French that sounds like Thai back then in my Uni. LOL. The first thing he said was “Bonjour, comment ça va?”.Oops, to me, it was a test instead of a greeting but fortunately I still managed to reply “ça va bien.” I think thats the only greeting that I remembered in French. Then he replied “Oh you still remember.” Phew,what a relief!

    • LOL.. when I read your French words above, it got me thinking… but after some thought.. I remember what it means. Unfortunately though, if your situation happened to me.. I will most likely show a ‘blur’ face.. and when I see you, I must hear this ‘Thai french’.. heheh..

  4. Whoa! you’re lucky you speak/learned french bro, during my uni time my intended-to-learn language are mandarin, french or Spanish but they have limited quota of students and it’s already full when I want to register so I end up taking japanese which I feel soooooo difficult hehehe and now I always wish I’ve learned mandarin because it’s very useful 🙂

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