'Live Fast Die Fun' is a weekly feature that sees me tackling a new skill/re-visiting old ones in order to broaden my horizons and experience lots of different things.This feature could take me anywhere, from culinary attempts to trying my hands at languages to just about anything! This week sees me make a well-overdue return to the French language and the beauty it has to offer. I'll be rating my experience at the end of the post and discussing the ins and outs of this skill! There's also some pretty fetching photographs of me at the bottom. If you've got any ideas for future posts then please feel free to comment. Let me know what you think of my French attempts ;)
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Bonjour. See, I've started already! Yes, this week's challenge saw the return of my GCSE French skills and with it a new sense of pride. Those that know me will know that I bloody love my languages. I can speak English (sometimes), French, Spanish and I can give you 1-10 in Italian ;) Mieow, I love milking that! However, my dream of bagging myself a gorgeous French man was decidedly over when my GCSE teacher decided to make my life a living hell. He was 6ft 7 inches of complete and utter wanker. I'm sorry for my bad word there but there really isn't a nicer word to describe him. Instead of helping you with the language he'd *literally* look down on you and mock you for even asking questions about it. This saw me skip away with a lower grade than I wanted (C), tarnished pride and a dislike for the language itself. So, four years later, I've decided to re-visit the language teacher-free and remind myself of why I fell in love with it in the first place! Albeit, this time it wasn't to woo a Frenchie into bed...just in case Luke is reading this! Haha.
Equipped with a teach yourself French guide that I spied amongst things heading off to the car boot, a French verb book and a CD, I re-started my quest to bag myself some kudos in France. Luke and I are doing this together and I cannot preach enough just how much easier languages are to tackle and to stay passionate about when you're doing it with someone else! As of yet, we have merely touched on the basic greetings, numbers, m/f and courteous phrases. I was amazed at the fact that, so far, I've remembered everything we have studied! At school, language classes were always confusing because they went at such a strange pace - vocab lessons would fly by whilst they'd spend about 40 years lecturing you on the past participle and other grammatical bores. That's the beauty of teaching yourself, you can go at your own pace and focus on the things that you're struggling with rather than rushing over them and accepting that they will always be your downfall. Although, I'm sure I'll do anything I can to skip quickly over some of the grammar bollocks. Bane of my life.
I think people that teach themselves languages are kind of looked down upon by some people in society. It's almost as if languages are resigned to the newly divorcee middle aged women who take on 400 night classes or is deemed pretentious. Yes, people abroad DO speak very good English but I don't think that's any reason to not learn theirs. If, like me, you have a family member that sort of speaks with over accentuatedness (it's now a word) and sort of starts playing a game of charades with foreign folk then I'm sure you'll understand. It's awkward and terribly embarrassing! At the moment, we are just following the guide as it goes along. 30 minutes each day gives you enough time to get a few tasks down and re-visited for spelling and pronunciation tests! Learning a language really doesn't have to be time consuming. Plus, once you've done it once you don't really forget it - kinda like riding a bike! A lifelong skill that'll really help when you're a jet-setting star/dodgy tourist with an even dodgier tan.
This is an on-going skill for the both of us. We are going to stick at it and, if we do well enough, we've decided as a reward we'll treat ourselves with a trip to Paris at some point. The perfect incentive! If I were to give any other aspiring French speakers advice I would say: go at your own pace, always re-visit things you've gone over and make sure you work on all aspects of learning the language. If you follow those tips I'm sure you'll be well on your way to croissants with Monsieur/Mademoiselle Hottie! Anyway, I'm off to go learn a little more...Au revoir! Any multi-lingual geniuses out there? What languages can you speak? Ever tried to teach yourself? Let's discuss ;) I'll be back on Friday with my much anticipated VLOG! Miracles do happen. P.S Here's a few photos of me rocking a Breton top and a moustache. You didn't think I'd resist did you?
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difficulty rating: With linguistic talents under my belt, I have, so far, found re-visiting French an easy experience. The guides I'm using are also pretty helpful and simplify everything so I'd suggest that if you want to give a new language a go to invest in some good resources and reading materials.
laughter level: 10%. Whilst the experience is enjoyable, I've been focusing properly on the task at hand and therefore haven't had time to mess about as per usual.
encouraged a happy head? Definitely! A happy head thrives on pride.
recommended? I believe that learning a language is one of the best things you can do with regards to learning new skills and enriching your life. I'd suggest you all give it a go!
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