Minding my language!

I had studied hindi till I was in 10th grade in school. Did I say study? I beg your pardon. I STRUGGLED with hindi in school. As a language on its own, its nice to speak in hindi and all... but from exam point of view, it used to be a nightmare! :-S

Then in 11th std came a ray of hope for all of us who felt like we were wasting our time with hindi. This ray of hope was called "french"! We still talked in hindi occassionally and respected the language. We just felt that we had learnt everything that school had to offer in hindi. So there was a huge mob when it came to enrolment for french. Everybody wanted to shift from either Hindi or Tamil to french. I was one of the fornutate ones who found her way into the french class. And boy was I happy to be there! :)

Learning french has been one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. Initially, though I had joined french to escape hindi, I found that as classes went on, I started falling in love with the language. It was exciting to learn all the new vocabulary, the new rules for grammar, to be able to speak a few sentences in french within the first couple of weeks *sigh*. Then there was the writing part in the language. Almost every weekend, I found that the only piece of homework into which I put my heart and soul into was french. I never had a problem sitting for hours together with my dictionary, a piece of paper and my text book, trying to write an interesting dialogue or an essay on something. There was always a friendly competition between me and my classmates on who would get a "Tres bien" on their work! And my teacher... well.. she has got to be the best french teacher in the entire world!!! (ok.. that maybe taking it too far.. she was the best french teacher among all the city schools! I really liked her. She was one of the few teachers whose seemingly harsh criticism actually inspired people to work harder rather than offend them or humiliate them in any way. We all liked her and owe all our french knowledge only to her and NOT our textbooks or dictionaries)

Now I am in university. I can take french here too. And I meant to take it in the first semester. I even wrote a placement test which said I was eligible for level three french!!! :D:D:D But I could not take the module in the first semester because of the limited vacancies and also because the class timings clashed with one of my main subjects. Never mind.. the placement test is valid for two semesters. i thought I would take it this semester.

Yeah.. you guessed right. I am not doing french this semester either. It was not my fault! There were plenty of vacancies! For a class which allowed 20 students, only four had opted for it! I could have easily gotten it! Even the lecture timings were perfect! I was about to bid for it when i saw... A CLASH! French tutorials clashed with not one, but TWO lectures of my main modules!

Ann@ is doing french this semester (level 4! she is really good at this!). I had the chance to look at some books that she reads and we also converse whenever we can in french. Everytime I struggle to find words to express myself in french, I remember the girl who used to sit with her french dictionary over her weekend homework, trying to improve her vocabulary so as to be able to speak more fluently, write better essays and get a "tres bien" or an "excellent" from her teacher.

Now I am more eager than ever to learn french! perhaps... if I am lucky enough, I'll be able to take it next semester... *sigh*... I hope i won't have any classes clashing.. in the mean time, I am going to refresh my french after the long hibernation that it had over the past semester (help me ann@!!!). And I am going to keep my fingers crossed! I better get that module next semester! It would mean a lot to me.