Mais, vous parlez bien français!

I get so happy when people tell me that. It makes me think that I haven't wasted half of my life learning a foreign language and I didn't waste money and time getting a degree in it...

When I woke this morning, I realized that it's Mardi Gras... Fat Tuesday. So as I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking of what I could eat for lunch to celebrate appropriately. In all honesty, I wanted something that would put me in a food coma, like a steak burrito from Chipotle or a burger, quesadilla, and milkshake from Cookout. But alas, the closest Chipotle is in Paris (and there was no way I was buying a train ticket just for Chipotle... I wasn't that desperate :P) and I'm pretty sure that the closest Cookout is an ocean away.

I eventually decided the the friterie would be the closest thing I could get to cookout and would definitely make it full. I only had one class to teach this morning, so after doing some errands, I headed to the little stand near the Grande Place. My binge meal for the day? A cheeseburger and small fries. Yes, they still call it a cheeseburger... actually just "un cheese." They also have a "burger" sauce... and an "américain" sauce. I've tried the burger sauce before and I want to say it's like a mix of ketchup and mayo, but I'm not sure if it is or they added anything else. And I have no idea what the americain sauce is. I had the ch'ti sauce today.. and once again, honestly don't know what it is. I honestly haven't felt that full in such a long time. I was afraid I was going to throw it up when I went to the gym later. Also, this is France's version of a small fries (it can easily feed 4... so I also want to note that the rest of the fries were my dinner too...):

Anyways, back to the actual point of my post...

The guy at the friterie told me that I have a bit of an accent (thankfully my accent isn't super American and then they automatically know I'm American) and then asked me where I was from and then asked me if I was a student here. This happens a lot, whenever anybody finds out that I'm American, they ask if I'm a student (because otherwise, what would an American be doing in such a small town?) I told him that I'm an assistant at the high school and that I teach English. Then came the phrase I love to hear, "Vous parlez bien français!" "You speak French well!"

Like I said earlier, it's basically a confidence booster. I have days where when I speak, I feel like my accent sounds more American. Also, I know that I'm more conscious about my French when I'm around actual French people. When I'm talking to the other assistants, I don't feel as conscious, but if I'm talking to other teachers, I feel like my brain freaks out a little. There are also just some days where my mind just goes "blah" and I feel like I should go back to French 201. There are time where I'm more conscious of my English. There are times where I don't even notice if I slip in an English word in a French conversation or vice versa. There are times where I just can't think of the word in either French or English. In that case, I feel like my brain just switches between the two languages so often and sometimes it just gets stuck.

Also today in class, a student asked for a synonym of happy. My first thoughts were heureux, content, basically the synonyms in French. And sometimes when French songs come up on my iTunes, I don't realize that it's French/in a foreign language until halfway through the song.

But at least I'm speaking French?

Oh look at that... two posts in two days! See, I'm getting better!

Bis x
N