The first french lesson

On Thursday I went to the American Women's Club in Geneva to have my first beginner French lesson. I was excited but weary, as I wasn't sure what to expect. You don't have to register for the class, there's no start or end date, so it made me wonder how they were going to handle a number of people in different stages of advancement.

Apparently, the don't really have a plan for that. There were two gals in my class who had been taking the class for over a year. The other three of us were pretty new. The instructor had been out for several weeks for surgery and was just back. I think she's about 70 and is from Switzerland. She couldn't tell as we went around the room reading exercises from a book if we were saying "il" or "elle" and kept correcting us, even if we had gotten it right. And, I was sitting right next to her and she told me twice she couldn't hear me.

She couldn't remember what she had taught before her leave, so she started at the beginning of the book. We learned how to change words from masculine to feminine and how to count the primary numbers and say thank you. This was extremely elementary for me, but I can't imagine how the girls that had been taking the class for a year felt? -Yikes!

She also kept getting lost in her train of thought and would tell us about parts of Switzerland (that speak German...not sure of the relevance for a class full of women who are desperate to learn French as quickly as possible?) and about William the Conquerer.

As I was leaving, I walked out with one of the new ladies and she said she wasn't sure if she would be back. This instructor also teaches the Advanced Class! I plan to stick with it though, maybe I will learn a few things and reinforce the others that I already know. And who knows, maybe I will make a friend that speaks English - so it won't matter if I know more about ole William than I do about my new country's language? :)