language lessons

Ria and I both started French tutoring last Thursday.

I go and work with Elodie, a local French woman (well, she's from Paris, so her accent is perfect, but she lives nearby). We sit in her language classroom, and she extracts more French from my brain than I ever imagined could be packed in there. She asks me questions in French, and makes me answer them in French, and wow, French words come out of my mouth and she appears to understand them! Hallelujah! For the first time in my life, I feel that I might actually be able to speak French some day. I just hope that that day is not after a year of sitting with Elodie ...

Ria is in a preschool, which has been a problem for us because from 1:45 until nearly 4:00 the kids take a nap. Yes, a nap. Ria's so far beyond napping that it wasn't practical for her to stay at the school. I'd have to pick her up, even if I had work to do. But I had a nice conversation with Jonas, one of the teaching assistants in the classroom, and with Leila, the administrative head of the school who made it possible for Ria to be in the school at all, and we worked out a great arrangement. During nap time, Jonas would take Ria aside and teach her French.

Jonas is German, here in France assisting the magical teacher Helene in her classroom as a public service -- an alternative to the compulsory military conscription Germany has. I have long had negative feelings about Germany (clearly related to WWII, but aldo because of its food and unpleasant-sounding language), but suddenly I actually like Germany. They let him avoid military work by helping in a private preschool in another country. How cool is that?

Ria adores Jonas. His English is fantastic, which makes her happy, and he's just a wonderful person in so many other ways too. I like him too. So Ria is delighted to spend two hours with him learning French: drawing pictures and labelling them in French, singing French songs, walking through the fields learning French words and sentences.

Today is Monday, so she has had three days of lessons with Jonas, and already I am hearing her singing French in the bathtub, speaking French with me at home, and teaching French to her stuffed animals. She is still reluctant to speak French with native speakers, but that's normal. She's understanding what is happening in class better, and she's so happy in school that she is now annoyed when I come to take her home ... even at six! In other words, it's all working out as well as I could ever have asked. Yeah! And if you're detecting that I have strong, positive feelings about the school in general, and Leila and Helene in particular, you're absolutely right.