One of the most helpful tools in language learning, other than the willingness to make a complete fool out of yourself (actually a requirement), is having someone to meet with regularly to speak. In a situation like ours, it is possible, even easy, to get through the day without actually speaking much French. We live in our own little community, and we can accomplish much of what we need to on a daily basis without leaving the campus. The challenge, especially for a natural introvert (both Kimberly and I), is to get out and speak. It may seem obvious (OK, it is obvious) but there are people who spend months or a year learning a language and still can’t communicate because they don’t get out of their comfort zone and practice. If left to my own desires, I would rather flip through notecards than go into the community and babble like an idiot, but we must babble like idiots in order to improve! This is a humbling (and humiliating) experience!
So, one way to get more practice is to get a language helper. This is someone who agrees to meet once or twice a week to just talk. It’s very painful at first, especially if the person speaks little or no English. But something happens, so we’ve been told, as you struggle more and more to speak. PROGRESS. Little by little, after hearing that verb 27 times, you remember what it means or how it’s conjugated for third person singular.
After being in survival mode for about the first month, Kimberly and I started talking about trying to get a language partner for each of us. We asked for help from the school staff, and they found one for Kimberly. They met for the first time last week and Kimberly was amazed that she was able to speak French for 45 minutes. Sylvia, her language partner, is very pleasant and helpful (and speaks SLOWLY for Kimberly’s benefit). As of last Friday, I didn’t have anyone to meet with.
I had just finished putting the car seats in our rental car when an older gentleman walked into the parking lot of the school and started speaking to me in French. I caught bits and pieces of what he was saying, but couldn’t really communicate so I brought him in to the school administrator and let her talk with him. I stayed around and listened, and it turns out the gentleman is a 93 year-old retired Catholic priest who spent 22 years in the Congo (formerly Zaire). He had been communicating with a former student and had come by to say that he received a letter from her. He lives in the retirement home, on a floor just for priests, about 300 meters from our school. Upon finding out that I am an American, he said he speaks some English but doesn’t have a chance to practice. Seeing this as an obvious answer to my prayer for a language partner, I asked him if we could meet together and talk – he can practice his English and I can practice French. He was delighted and gave me his email address. I emailed him that afternoon and we decided to meet the next morning.
Thank you Lord for answering prayer!
I will write about our meetings in separate posts. We’ve already had two meetings and they were great! Hopefully I can write about them soon.
