Le professeure began class by asking what everyone did last night. I didn’t participate, because I didn’t want to admit that I spent hours studying and working on the homework assignment.

Today was to be a sort of reality check for myself: How am I doing?

I’m happy to say I’m hanging in there. My work was more correct than not, and I’m starting to maybe sort of kind of grasp these demonstrative pronouns. My neighbor from the Czech Republic was no different from me and we both felt a sense of relief as we compared our homework and realized we were in the same boat.

And guess who was asked to answer the first homework question? What can you do? Thankfully, it was one of the ones I’d gotten right. No matter, I still replied with a questioning tone, because confidence. LOL! It’s coming, just slowly.

Le prof Caroline has an interesting style. She questions everyone’s answer. At one point after I gave another answer, she turned to ask the entire class, basically, “Do you agree with her answer?” I immediately turned my pencil upside-down, ready to erase, thinking OK, I guess I don’t understand this either. She saw me do this, and rushed over, cupping her mouth to whisper: Non, non, you’re correct, I’m just testing everyone.

During La Pause, I sat with 3 of my friends from last semester. Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. We all realized we feel the same about B1 being a challenge. “Iran” feels it more than most because she has young children at home and can’t study as much as she’d like. I don’t know how she does it. I really don’t. She is already considering taking this class again, and it’s only day 3. I think she’s being premature. She’s doing fine and she’s super bright. But I’ve watched this language make all of us – surgeons, architects, engineers – question everything we thought we knew. Truth is, none of us feels as comfortable or confident as we did with Annie. The class is still new, and we just don’t know Caroline yet. Her style is different and can be off-putting. “Saudi Arabia” said she hesitates participating in this class because while Annie didn’t mind if you were wrong — Caroline corrects every aspect of what you say. I said, I think that’s just B1. Expectations are la lot higher. I’m personally happy to be corrected, and I don’t mind being wrong. My concern is making sure I’m getting the concept before we move on.

Isn’t it strange how we’re all here TO LEARN, yet all of us – from different nations – seem to think we should already know the material. Humans are weird. I keep having to remind myself – this SHOULD be hard – you don’t know it yet.

As we headed back to class, my friends then told me I speak English well. I really thought they were teasing me, and laughed. But they were serious. Wait, what? To me, they’re all fluent in English, but they swear they’re not. They said they can understand me because I speak clearly. I hadn’t considered this at all. I do tend to speak slowly, naturally, so I guess that makes it easier for them. I’ll be more sensitive to this from now on.

We learned that we all have to do a presentation at some point during this semester. I’m actually looking forward to it. I want to introduce “the world” (my class) to my little town in Bucks County, PA. Next week, we start with presentations: New Zealand, Iran, Chile, Vietnam, and Uganda are on deck.

Oh, and I saw le prof Annie after class! She wondered why I hadn’t texted her yet, so I promised to do so today. (I did.) I told her I love grammar, but really want to work more on SPEAKING French. She concurred. My conversation class starts this Saturday morning. I told her I’d text her afterwards.

So, in summary, I’m still here. I am learning the pronouns, and when I watch the news, I definitely pick up more words! And finally, tonight’s homework (no pronouns) was easier. I hope that’s a good sign. Stay tuned.

My hair’s not really sparkling; it’s a fun filter. LOL! Désolée, je n’ai pas pris de photos aujourd’hui.