So I am getting weird double feeling about my french.
So when I am out with my parents or my wife's parents and I am at tourist places people are so happy I speak french and in a couple of cases go out of there way to speak french to me. Compared to tourists who can only say "Merci" and "Bonjour" I am a freaking king - King of the Tourists. But then I get to work and everyone is more critical - saying I need to work more on my french and commenting where they think I can take french classes (which to be honest I have a better idea of what is available at this point then they do). I actually think I need to talk classes too - but when I don't have a car and I work a 35 minute bus ride from anywhere (and since it is work provided I have one bus in the morning and one in the evening) it is hard to take classes. So this leads to a very interesting mix in my opinion in my French. So is my french good? or do I "still have problems with French?".
Well maybe someday maybe I will figure it out.
After the few months I spent working in the same room as you, I think your french is good. You make great efforts, I saw it. I don't know if I told you I had worked with a Vietnamese guy who *refused* to learn french, and I saw how different you are from him.
RépondreSupprimerOf course, your french is not perfect, of course you could take classes, watch exclusively french TV, read french classic books and comics... Yes, you could work harder, do nothing else, stop having a life to be fluent in french in three weeks. Those who want you to improve your french are just too lazy to try to communicate with you, to leave you time to find your words, to try to understand what you are saying despite a wong verbal form, to use english sometimes. It is clear you don't perfectly handle french grammar, but I generally understand what you say, provided I pay a little attention. Yes, when I listen to you, I have to make a little effort and be patient. But communicating is about listening as well as talking, and asking you to be the only one working hard is unfair.
It is true I am bitter about my experience in that lab. These people are self-centered. They haven't worked with many foreign people and they don't know how to deal with you. They don't know they are lucky to have a post-doc talking the way you do. They don't know they should take time and energy to communicate with you. They want you to work hard to talk to them but they won't make any effort to listen. They don't want to have to talk slowly and make sure you understood them (but, well, for what they have to say...).
They are an example of selfish, arrogant, stereotyped french people. It is up to you to choose if you want to communicate with them, knowing it will make things easier but you can't be sure the benefits will be worth the energy invested. Write to me if you need to!
Audrey
You are king! At least the waitstaff and the hotel management recognize what stupendous efforts you are making. And too bad about everyone else... let them eat cake. :-)
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