Bienvenue

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Everyone's dreamed of one day seeing the city of lights: Le Louvre, Le Tour d'Eiffel, La Seine, etc. Many plan to go abroad and experience French culture, but most don't intend to learn how to speak the language. Then, there's moi. Il était une fois quand j’avais appris d’art du français et la monde, mais je n’étais jamais la fille qui rêve de vivre en Paris ou Lyons. I've always been fascinated by other cultures and planned to learn at least 5 languages by high school. It wasn't until my freshman year that I was able to take a French class, but from day one I was hooked.

No More Spanish

In preschool I learned to count from zero to one hundred in Spanish. In the first grade, I learned there are many regional dialects of Spanish, and until the fourth grade the different teachers would alternate between Spaniard Spanish and Mexican Spanish. I proceeded to learn nothing until the fourth grade when the newest teacher my class in Cuban. For the first time since age 4, I could understand Spanish. Chicago is a rather diverse city and in the neighborhood I lived in most people spoke fluent Spanish. I was hopeful, when suddenly, she was replaced. Our newest teacher, and our youngest, taught us in Argentinean. I cannot explain why it's a bad idea to rotate language teachers and the dialect they speak every year, but even then I knew it simply was. 

My Many Interests

I've wanted to travel the world since before I can remember. Libraries were stocked full of interesting books and documentaries: The Edo period was full of samurai and women wore beautiful kimonos and yukatas; The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were buried with their brains pulled out through their noses, surrounded by gold to bring with them to the afterlife; and The Great Wall of China helped prevent many invasions by the Mongols. All of these far away places were my future homes but there was no where for me to learn how to speak to their people when I arrived. At some point, I decided that Japanese would be the best to learn, because the music was so beautiful. Europe was never on my mind.

Bienvenue

I vaguely remember my first French class. There were many confused young ladies and the word "Bienvenue" hung over the whiteboard. I wanted to learn a language that I would use in my daily life in my future travels. Unfortunately, the only options at the high school were European languages. From those options, French was the only on that made sense. When I transferred, I chose to stick with French, but was sad when the classes were cancelled. I was challenged by the grammar and the unusual pronunciations. I was fine not being obsessed with the culture, like my classmates, and enjoyed the learning process. This is not a magical story, but it's the truth of when I welcomed francophone culture into my life. 

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Helpful Hint:

My high schools required a language, but when given the option to not take any why did I stay? Once I got to Coe, I finally found my reason for staying with French. Click here to find out what it was.