Learning French

Belgium is divided by a language line or border. In the north, they speak Flemish. In the south they speak French. We will be living in the French-speaking area. Of course, most Belgians speak English (or so I’ve read) but I want to make every effort to speak their language and fully enjoy the people and the country. Besides we will be right next door to France and I am dying to visit Paris and the Normandy region right away.

So, that being said, I splurged and bought Rosetta Stone French (Level 1-3) and I have been toiling away at it for about a month. I have almost completed Level One.

The rest of the family, after the initial excitement, lost interest and thus I have left them all in my French-speaking dust.

Let me say that Rosetta Stone IS all that it’s cracked up to be. I never thought it would be so painless to learn a language. Even at my advanced age, I am getting it! But, alas, I do notice that my language learning curve isn’t as high as it was in my teens and twenties. My speaking has garnered wise cracks and snickers from the kids who are nearby listening. BUT I WILL NOT BE DETERRED. Who’ll be laughing when we’re overseas, huh?

There are a couple of drawbacks to learning a language on the computer. Mainly, not having a human teaching me those “sounds like” tricks and helping with pronunciation. I’m having a hell of a time with the French “R’s” in words like propre, voiture etc. They come off my tongue like I’m John Wayne speaking French with a super bad American accent. Also what’s with all the accents in the French language? They make absolutely no sense to me as to placement and pronunciation.

Well, I guess I’ll not get so hung up on the nitty gritty and just fumble along when I get over there.

I guess I'm just not as motivated to write when Thom is around and listening to every articulated thought that comes to my messy mind. He becomes my vent (lucky him) and I'm not as needy to unload what's on my mind by blogging.

Well guess what? He's gone again. This time it's on a solo motorcycle trip he planned a couple of months ago to visit with some of the wonderful people who have supported him throughout his two deployments to Iraq.

Today he is attending church in Gaffney, SC with some women of the congregation who have "adopted" him and written countless letters and sent him packages both in 2005 and during this last deployment. Thom tells me they are so excited to meet him that they've been cooking all week and have even put an announcement in the local newspaper.

After church today, he is driving up to Virginia to meet and stay with another couple who have corresponded with him over the past deployments. Following that visit, he heads to Tennessee to meet up with one of his Army buddies who has recently retired. Then it's back home.

Thom returns to work on the 16th. Pretty quickly thereafter, he will get his written orders for Belgium and begin the process of Permanent Change of Station (PCS) or in plain English: he will be given the written command to move himself and family to his next job.

We are hoping to leave the first week in November.