7 votes
294 views
in Venting by 🔮 Warlock (67.0k points)
Im in France right now for an exchange program and yesterday me and Kelsey were at the student center when a kid also part of the program comes up and starts talking really fast in French, I'm still learning and I can't really understand people to begin with when they talk fast so I'm standing there dumbfounded because I have no idea what the kid is saying but then Kelsey starts going talking in French too so i'm standing there and I ask Kelsey, "what is he saying?" She  looks at me and says, "He asked how to get back to the  hotel" I felt stupid for not understanding them and I gesture to  him to follow me, we bring him back to his room and mind you this is a young kid like maybe twelve at most so he was scared, so me and Kelsey told him how to make cocoa and it made him feel better so we walk back  to our  room and when we get there Kelsey asks, "How did you not know what he was saying?" I  asked her what she  meant and she said, "We have to live here for two weeks Pey, you need to learn the language" I told her, "Look I just started taking french classes in September, you  took them for two years! I'm still learning, you got to  to work with me" She starts making pasta and says,"Pey I know your learning but cmon, he was learning too, he was speaking broken french. Look just start bringing the student french book" So now me and  her had a fight and its only the third day, I hope it gets better bc we only  have each other for two weeks.

1 Answer

0 votes
by 🪶 Apprentice (680 points)
i'm sorry she said that to you. it sounds really invalidating, and it's understandable you wouldn't understand everything. it's difficult understanding people when their french is broken. i've been taking french for many years and have been learning on my own and it's hard to understand what some of my classmates say because of their bad french.

tbh, a book isn't going to help you understand people who speak poorly. often when speaking, a lot of the grammar rules aren't followed (ex. 'ne pas' is sometimes just 'ne' or 'pas', verlan, regional differences) and it can be difficult to understand based on what you learn in class. what might be helpful is listening to french podcasts, or when you're watching a show, watch it french dub with english subtitles. there's also french shows made for beginners (extr@ on youtube)

i hope you have a nice trip in spite of this
by 🔮 Warlock (67.0k points)
thank u, im in an exchange program rn and i think shes just anxious.

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