Oh dear god, it's been a while. Especially if you don't (and I don't) count having "phone conversations" with myself when I'm trying to avoid people.
Yes, I do that. I don't know why I do it in french. For some reason it seems like a good idea. So, if you ever pass me on the street, and I "don't see you" and therefore don't wave back, and you think you hear me babbling in french on my phone... well, I might not like you. I'm sorry. It's completely juvenile, but true.
Long story short, it's been forever and a day or so since I've had a full-on conversation with someone in french. And in that amount of time, my french muscles have gotten lazy lazy. I can no longer decipher my sounds. This is going to be quite a work out.
As I'm about to start semi-tutoring a friend of mine in the "language of love" so that we can teach her lovely baby French... I downloaded a bunch of French podcasts to start getting myself used to the sound of it again. I'm also thinking of finding some books on CD in French to keep the sound of it in my head. Ugh. The thought of those headaches is not pleasant.
Have you ever been immersed in a country where they speak a language that you know, but don't fully comprehend? Well, I'll save you the trouble. It hurts. The first three days you spend so much time squinting and raising your eyebrows in confusion that a throbbing develops above your left eye. Luckily, somewhere around day 4 you stop worrying about what people are saying, and trying to catch words you know and put them in context. This often goes poorly.
Someone may be saying, "Hey! I totally bought a horse yesterday, he's a beautiful arabian. Let's go riding tomorrow. Oh, bring carrots with you, we're all out!" But what you hear is "horse... duh duh duh beautiful... zoop zoop zoop riding... grandmagrandmagrandma, carrots... crickets crickets, out! Phew. I understood just enough of that to respond logically.
But then I do respond. And things go south again.
"Uh... sure! I'll bring my condoms!" (I always ALWAYS get the words for riding helmets and condoms confused. You'd think that after 400 or so miscalculations with the words I'd start using them correctly, especially after 400 or so makes-you-red-in-the-face embarrassing moments.)
[makes motion of putting on helmet when Evangeline looks at me wide-eyed]
Ohhhhh, Coree, zat eez not zee word you would prefer to use. Zat word eez for zee sexy timez. You no want to be having zee sexy timez wiss zee Orses, no?
A conversation I've had too many times. How come her crappy english always sounds better than my crappy french? Oh well, it'll come back to me. REVIENS french, REVIENS! Tu me manques!!
Anyone wanna parler with me?
