An American in the South of France
Jul 14, 2015 15:52:41 GMT 9
Post by Kim on Jul 14, 2015 15:52:41 GMT 9
Hi all,
I've lived here in the South of France for 14 years now. I moved here when my software job in the UK fell through, and the engineering group in France hired me. I had already met a Frenchman, a guy I worked with, so we moved here together and eventually got married.
I have a love of reading and I need to be able to read everything around me all the time, including magazines in doctors' offices, labels at the grocery store, and books, books, books. I also felt uncomfortable that at meetings at work, people were speaking English only because I was in the room.
So I immediately threw myself into learning French. I had 40 hours with a private tutor offered by my company. She would come to work for an hour a week. The teacher wanted to give me the standard language lessons, but I wouldn't let her. I spent every hour with her talking. At that early stage in language learning, speaking is the hardest part and it's very uncomfortable for both speaker and listener. So I spent all those hours painstakingly constructing sentences and getting to a point that I could smoothly execute them.
I also spent my evenings reading magazines and children's books and translating them. I finally got to the point where I could speak to my boyfriend in French, so I did. Once that happened, I didn't speak English anymore for several years.
Then I had my first child. I had been speaking French for so long that I felt a bit awkward speaking to her in English, but after some reflection, I decided that I would never speak French to her. It wasn't easy because she always spoke French, so as a first-time mother, I felt like she wouldn't understand me. But I stuck with it and she had no problem understanding me. She still wouldn't speak English though and she would complain a bit if I insisted on putting on DVDs in English. I filled the house with English-speaking toys and books. The kids used starfall and poissionrouge.
Once my daughter was ready for elementary school, she had to take an entrance exam for the local public bilingual school. This is a very coveted school and competition for making it in is very stiff. But my daughter made it in despite not speaking English (I have no idea what does on in the test, no one ever talks about it and the kids are too young to tell us parents). It's been a lot of work for her, but she is truly bilingual. I've made lots of friends in the international community here and so has my daughter. It's funny to listen to all the kids in the class talk to each other going from one language to another several times in their conversations.
I've lived here in the South of France for 14 years now. I moved here when my software job in the UK fell through, and the engineering group in France hired me. I had already met a Frenchman, a guy I worked with, so we moved here together and eventually got married.
I have a love of reading and I need to be able to read everything around me all the time, including magazines in doctors' offices, labels at the grocery store, and books, books, books. I also felt uncomfortable that at meetings at work, people were speaking English only because I was in the room.
So I immediately threw myself into learning French. I had 40 hours with a private tutor offered by my company. She would come to work for an hour a week. The teacher wanted to give me the standard language lessons, but I wouldn't let her. I spent every hour with her talking. At that early stage in language learning, speaking is the hardest part and it's very uncomfortable for both speaker and listener. So I spent all those hours painstakingly constructing sentences and getting to a point that I could smoothly execute them.
I also spent my evenings reading magazines and children's books and translating them. I finally got to the point where I could speak to my boyfriend in French, so I did. Once that happened, I didn't speak English anymore for several years.
Then I had my first child. I had been speaking French for so long that I felt a bit awkward speaking to her in English, but after some reflection, I decided that I would never speak French to her. It wasn't easy because she always spoke French, so as a first-time mother, I felt like she wouldn't understand me. But I stuck with it and she had no problem understanding me. She still wouldn't speak English though and she would complain a bit if I insisted on putting on DVDs in English. I filled the house with English-speaking toys and books. The kids used starfall and poissionrouge.
Once my daughter was ready for elementary school, she had to take an entrance exam for the local public bilingual school. This is a very coveted school and competition for making it in is very stiff. But my daughter made it in despite not speaking English (I have no idea what does on in the test, no one ever talks about it and the kids are too young to tell us parents). It's been a lot of work for her, but she is truly bilingual. I've made lots of friends in the international community here and so has my daughter. It's funny to listen to all the kids in the class talk to each other going from one language to another several times in their conversations.
