French class

A bit of Megativity to start your day ...

Stop telling me French is easy to learn, that I just have to immerse myself – how? When? Don’t they get it – I live here ALONE. Work is in English (except when the team talks to each other in French, which is more and more often now, but when they do so, it is to the exclusion of English speakers). My cable box for TV isn’t working so I cannot watch that. If I have the radio on at home, it is classical or jazz, not talk/words. When I go shopping (rarely), I don’t have to talk to people – everything is automated in life ; and besides, I can get through the basic pleasantries and mindless shopping banter.

If the people who make these comments to me (‘aren’t you fluent yet?’) take the time to speak to me like a 5-year-old as I do to them in English, maybe I’d be trying. Or if they’d at least speak slowly and clearly.

Meanwhile, in French lessons, do the various instructors insist on :
(1) saying things like ‘there isn’t the same expression in French, you cannot say that’ (for learning things like on/off, in/out, etc.) Duh sh!t. I know it’s a frickin’ different language, that’s why I’m trying to learn it. I’m just asking you how I would say ‘turn the lights off’ and what would I use for ‘off’ – I’m not expecting a frickin’ literal translation, and I most certainly do not need you talking down to me like I’m a 7-year-old trying to grasp multiplication tables.
(2) talking loudly (there are only 3 of us in the small room). I’m not some 3-year-old or Gen-Y’er who needs constant stimulation or excitement.
(3) interrupting me after every word I say when I’m trying to convey a thought/sentence. By the time I’m half-way through with said sentence/thought, I’ve forgotten the point because of all the interruptions. Then the instructor gets a bit put off when I cannot repeat the phrase correctly. Just let me complete the phrase first!
(4) thinking they know what I’m going to say and thus try to ‘help me’ finish my thought when in reality, they are completely off base. Let me finish my thought/idea first, then correct me. You are not clairvoyant.
(5) correcting me when I use a word incorrectly when only 10 minutes before you told me to use it that way! I know, I have it WRITTEN in my notebook, i.e. using ‘devant’ for behind (as was originally instructed) when it really means ‘in front’ (but, and get this, it only means that a person is ‘in front’ of you when the person’s back is to you, otherwise, if a person is ‘in front’ of you and facing you, it is ‘en face de’). The instructor said behind=devant but then tried to pass it off 10 minutes later as my stupid mistake / miscomprehension.
Look, I know teaching is not easy and that everyone learns differently, but when all of this happens in one class, on a Monday evening, it’s a bit much.

And, to top it off, we were in the children’s room. i.e. bright blue carpet, one bright orange wall, one bright yellow one, one lime green ; a lime green table/chair set ; my colleague wearing a bright red shirt. Cripes. No wonder I was developing a headache. Thanks much (honestly) for offering to switch to a normal room for the last 45 minute session ; but, if I say no thanks, I’ll be fine, STOP ASKING ME. You only make it worse when you continuously ask.