Friday, March 20, 2020

Parlez-vous francais?

Parlez-vous francais? No, I don't and apparently, neither does my 16-year-old who is taking French II. Yesterday, my reluctant French student began his digital assignments.  One of the assignments was for him to take a quiz.  He mumbled, grumbled and eventually got to work. 

Comedy ensued!  He was reciting these words out loud and then trying to conjugate the verbs. The first problem was, I had no idea what he was saying.  I know he was speaking a language that I do not speak, but I am absolutely sure that he wasn't saying any French words.  Some words in French are recognizable or I have heard them before. ...not anything he said!  No wonder his teacher writes comments like.... not speaking in French next to his grades!

He continued in this pattern of talking it out, guessing and asking me questions for probably 20 minutes.  I even looked some things up in the French translator to see if I could make sense of his gibberish.  We stumped google translate a million times!  He finished all the questions on his quiz, pressed submit and then closed his eyes.  He was sure that he did better than his last quiz....ahhh NO!  The boy got a 27.  He looked over at me and said," I think I will take that again."  No words were needed from me in reply, the dumbfounded expression on my face said it all.

Here's hoping round two of the assignment will be better! Au Revoir 😏


4 comments:

  1. Oh, la la! Oui, le francais est tres difficile. Ton pauvre fils! I love the way you took us through your son's ordeal, letting us in on the frustration the both of you must've felt while he took the quiz. Hope he can stay with it! Best of luck... see if he can translate my first few lines :)

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  2. Zut alors! Way back in the 80s I had a Steve Martin album; A Wild and Crazy Guy. He does a whole riff on French and your description of your sone speaking French got me thinking about it and I found it on Youtube! Just type in "Steve Martin - French" and you can watch and LP turning as you listen to it.

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  3. What a great tool, humor! Especially in times like this, the last extra stress anyone needs is fretting over a grade. I love how you told this tale of your son in a calm a witty way that shares laughter and smiles. I'm going to remember today to take things more lightly and find more humor in moments like this.

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  4. Getting the sound of French into one's mind -- and the absolute obsession with long strings of vowels the French have -- then it isn't so hard. Maybe he should listen to a familiar children's book free on Audible, where he can listen in French?

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