French Classes

Last night we had a test in my French class. Although it doesn’t really count for anything (it is just to make sure that you’re in the right class level), it was still a bit nerve-racking and left me exhausted afterward. Trying to concentrate on an hour-long test after a long day of work definitely requires some effort. Needless to say, I don’t think my brain absorbed very much during the second half of class, post-exam.

Overall I’m enjoying the classes. While I do my best to improve my French on my own (e.g., by watching French language programming on tv, reading the local paper, speaking with others), having a structured environment to learn the language in definitely helps a lot. At times it’s hard to motivate to do the homework, though, as there’s no real consequence for not doing it. That said, the fact that the class is group-based provides an element of peer pressure to come prepared.

The students in the class are an interesting mix, with varying ages, professional backgrounds, nationalities and even first-languages. The one commonality is that the group as a whole comes off as very motivated, which I guess should be expected given that everyone is paying to take the class. For some of the students, French is actually their 3rd, 4th or even 5th language, which I find quite impressive.