Oo lah lah - Learning French

Well I was casting my mind back today, to my time last week in France. Dan and I were trying to do our bit for international relations by learning French. This is partly due to both our inabilities to speak anything vaguely resembling the language. My technique was to say a few French words and then mix it with a little Spanish. I was vaguely understandable but had to prepare mentally first. This was ok provided that the innocent person I was speaking to kept to "my script". Therefore one encouter where I needed to know where the toilets were went like this.

Me: Bonjour - Fine so far

Her: Bon Soir - Now this was unexpected as I was hoping for a Bonjour. I Panicked

Me: Au revor - What can I say? it rhymed!

Je m'appelle les toilettes? - Reverted to a Year 7 phrase that was pure instinct and unfortunately totally wrong.

Por Favor - I wanted to be polite! Ok so it was Spanish

Fortunately she spoke English and promptly directed us to the toilets. This was lucky as Dan, who was stood behind me was wetting himself with laughter.

So it came to be that we spent several evenings following a CD tutor. It was kind of weird but did sort of work. It gave us at least a chance to be a bit more confident to ask questions even if we did not have a clue what they were saying back.

However, we are now able to say "We Like France" and "We have no money". Very useful!

Till tomorrow

Argy