Tonight was my first session of an 8-week class - intermediate French review at the local Alliance Francaise. Tough neighborhood to find parking, but a nice, safe-looking neighborhood, so that'll be OK. It's been years and years since I've had any occasion to use the French I learned in high school and college, but I found that, at least tonight, I was tripping over holes in my vocabulary, not grammar, which is encouraging. There were only 7 of us tonight, including one brave soul who'd learned his French by enseignement a distance (distance learning), so he'd had little speaking practice. He's an engineer, two of my fellow students have worked for the World Bank, three are students brushing up their French prior to pursuing graduate studies; a nice, diverse bunch.
Our instructor is from Grenoble and speaks with nice, clear diction at a pace I only rarely had trouble following. Again, given how long it's been since I've used any French, I was relieved I hadn't completely forgotten how to hear it.
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