Doing Battle with a Teenager in the Language of Molière

Contributor blog post by Jemma:

“Moi, je veux prendre le penne au pistou,” Lolo says to the waiter in fluent, properly French-accented French. Her order is no surprise. Pesto penne is one of my 13-year old’s favourites.

The wiry waiter turns his gaze to Philippe, who sits beside me at this restaurant spilling into Boulevard d’Aguillon, a busy pedestrian street in Antibes.  “Je vais prendre le linguinis aux fruits de mer,” he says in decisive French, fluently requesting the seafood linguini even if his pronunciation isn’t exactly local.

…Continue reading here for Jemma’s amusing story about her “battle” with learning to speak French – the language of Molière – and living with a bilingual teenager. This story might prove that it is easier to learn a language as a child, but certainly shouldn’t discourage anyone from trying to improve their language skills. In a tourist-facing town like Antibes, the service industry staff are often multilingual so you can  get by speaking English.

But, should you?

Learning a second language is never easy, and as a uni-lingual adult, the long “road” to mastering French is daunting. Even native French speakers agree that there are more exceptions to the language’s rules than necessary, and let’s not even begin to talk about verbs. Read about these flexible French language lessons in Provence and virtually via Skype.

Via:: French Lessons