Learning French

I attempted to learn french last semester..Though my attempts were not completely fruitful, i can say it helped me to say atleast a bonjour !!!! ...my experiences in the french class were something memorable..

Initially i was determined to learn french at any cost.So took all the pains to go to FD1[the institute building farthest to my hostel ]and undergo special registration. The alloted slots were over by the time we reached there [btw it was not just me..7 of us planned to register] So we requested the profs to increase the slots and accomodate us..
So finally we got registered for FRENCH!!!!!

Since it was an audit type course,the class hours were after the institute hours ie 5.00-6.00 in the evening ..I forgot to check on which days the class was scheduled ....Mon series or tue series..so did my frens.Some people who managed to go to a preplacement talk gottu to know that the class was the next hour and they attended the first class...These people came to the wing and started shouting in french... "Bonjour! Je suis etudiante"..For a moment i did not understand what they were speaking,,,finally i gottu to know that I missed my first french class..

I made an oath to read what was taught in the first class and attend the subsequent ones...But lazy bones donot mind to withdraw their oaths or break resolutions and hence i added an addendum to my oath..attend regularly after the placements are over..!!!! Finally i attended the class after a month or so...
The prof was a lady..and as soon as she entered the class..she said"Anyone is attending their first class today!!!"
It seemed as if the question was a routine one ...I raised my hand and she sighed as if she was fed up with such students!!!

I did not understand anything andI cursed my negligence...Days passed and i seldom attended the class trying to relate the little knowledge i had with what she taught...Finally the first test came..and i was all worried..I had an option to withdraw from the course(which 4 of the 7 frens did)but i was determined..and continued in the course..The first test was not too good..It was an ok kinda performance.

After the first test...I was back to the mood of taking resolutions.Again i made a resolution-"attend classes regularly" . This time i seemed to stick to it...After struggling to attend classes i found an excellent excuse once again...."GRE preparation" .Not to mention my Gre preparation was even worse...In the mean while i had to take the second test...The performace in the test was very very very bad...

One fact that made me a little confident was that I was not among the least performers of the class...I was in the average category...The third test was again an ok performace...and then cane the components of debate and viva... there were no limits to my misery..... It was scheduled on sunday ...the day next to my pharma farewell...this time i was damn sure that i would become the laughing stock of the class room...I had no time to prepare now...

I totally forgot about the debate and i enjoyed my farewell a lot...I came to the room at 11.00 pm and my friend reminded me of the debate...The topic for our group was " Why dont the french speak english like all others do" .Doesn't this topic sound wierd...? It was the same with us. Our group consisted of 4 members- 2 would speak for the topic and 2 against..Both me and my partner..were weak students..4 of us sat and prepared for the debate..we were well planned about what to speak..We translated our arguments into french..using "google language tools"..

The next day i started mugging all the french sentences we got translated before going to the class..I went to the class .. It was our turn to start our debate...the prof warned us not to read out sentences from books . She asked to note down only key points..and take the aid of them.. I immediately noted down the first word of each sentence,,,so that i could remember the sentence i mugged up...Finally i started to speak out..and i succesfull spoke out all of them...with a few pronounciation mistakes though...Then came the question and answer session..me and my groupie were both poor at understanding and speaking french..somehow we managed to complete the session within 2 minutes as my groupie had another viva to attend immediately...

The prof said that our deabte was good [inspite of horrible answers in the q&A session] .I was really surprised,, had she known that we used google tools...she would have obviously understood the reason for our perfect sentences !!!!!!!

The comprehensive exam was over without much efforts from my side ... I did not bother to collect the paper even..finally after few days..i saw a satisfactory grade in my grade sheet..."Thank god i finished the course..." was what i thought then....Now i have included french in the languages known coloumn of my resume!!!!!!!!