Foreign Languages

So much to my disliking, I have to take a foreign language in order to earn my degree. Why? Because I wasn't good enough at German back in high school, so now I am forced to learn French in college. I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind this. "Oh hey, she wasn't smart enough to learn another language in high school, so lets make her learn another language in even more difficult academic setting. That will surely end well!"

I love the very first day of my French class last year. The professor made us stand up in front of the class, say our name, year, and why we decided to take French. If she was looking for honesty my answer would have been, "Only, and I mean only, because I have to." I think that would have crushed her soul though because she was from France and the longer she stayed in America, the more she seemed to love France.

This semester I have to deal with a completely unrealistic professor. He will randomly call on people to answer questions, and if you don't know the answer he will just sit there and stare at you, waiting for you to figure it out. The only problem is this isn't a math class. You can stare at me all you want, but I am not going to be suddenly endowed with what the word "tomorrow" is in French from the foreign language Gods up above. You can stare and stare and stare, but I'm not going to suddenly figure it out somehow. You either know it, or you don't. So please leave me alone.

He also speaks only in French. I know, it's good to hear the language and yatta yatta. The thing is, that most Americans don't even know the grammar rules of our own language, so trying to teach us another languages grammar rules, while speaking that language, essentially gets you nowhere. He is always confused as to why we are lost. It's a mystery clearly.

I always feel like a child in foreign language classes. Mostly because my "essays" read like something you would write in first grade. They also make me sound completely egocentric because I can't really redirect the topic to anything other than relating to myself.

"My name is Jessica. I am 20 years old. I go to school. I do homework. I meet with friends on the weekend. I eat pizza a lot. It tastes good. I like to run. It is fun. I like to dance. It is also fun. I have a dog. My dog is named Cuddles. I have two cats. My cats are named Snickers and Butterscotch. I have a sister. My sisters name is Emily...." ect. I think you get the point.

Foreign language professors also always completely shocked when you can't remember something that you learned months ago. "Why can't you remember the word for a homeless person in French? We went over that three chapters ago!" Well maybe because the word for a homeless person is not use regularly in my vocabulary. Yes this actually happened to me. The professor was amazed that no one in the class could remember. I was taught the word for homeless person, but I still don't know what the word for basic things are like plate or hand.

So for all of you that are fluent in another language I applaud you because I will never be you. 

On my ipod today: "Smooth" by Santana. Stuck in my head all day yesterday. Luckily it's an awesome song.