Reflection and Redirection

Reflection: I've been in this country for a little over one month now. I've gone to Paris, I've ordered food, I've conversed briefly with people in French, and I've developed a routine. I'm living the dream and I am well aware of this fact.

However.

There was someone who told us that we would hit a three week mark and that three week mark would feel like rock bottom. We would feel like we would never learn this language, we would miss home, we would be depressed. My three week mark came about two and a half weeks late. I just started my classes yesterday and I'm drowning already. It isn't that there's a heavy workload or anything. It's just that I'm so overwhelmed by everything French. I have three professors and they all seem really awesome. One was the same professor who taught me for that 2 week refresher course and she's really cool. I even think the one who told me today that maybe I should go down a level or two is cool. The answer is not for me to go down a level or two, and that's decided. I've taken too much French in my past to not be at least at this level, it's just not clicking yet. I keep thinking maybe there's a switch in my brain for French and I just haven't flipped it yet.

So, Redirection: I'm going to focus even more on French language and learning to speak it. I'm going to show my professor that I belong in this level, maybe I belong in a higher level too. I'm going to get it, I'm going to master it, and I'm going to be French before I know it. Having her say that kind of hurt. That would make me the lowest level of all my American friends and I've taken more French than a lot of them. I've learned that all the French courses I've taken, however, differ greatly from the difficulty of their French courses. Anyway, this kind of lit a fire under my butt and now I have to learn it even faster.