I just finished my first week of intensive French language classes at the University of Geneva—a sorry excuse for not blogging, but it's true, as I recall below.
After Monday's placement exam—much to my surprise—I was placed into level B1, lower intermediate French. How did that happen?? In any case, I am absolutely loving my classes. My teachers are terrific and passionate about teaching and the classes are a small size (around 18 in my morning cours de langue class but more in the lecture-style classes).
UNIGE's approach is full immersion into the French language by any means possible, be it grammar, literature, culture, cinema, or song. The program is 3 weeks long, with the possibility of taking an additional six weeks afterward. The days are long, as I'm up by 6:30h so I can arrive by 9:00h. Classes generally wrap up around 16:00h, but touring walks of Geneva or excursions could keep one occupied until 20:00h.
A sampling of my classes at UNIGE this session: cours de langue, grammaire intermédiare, prononciation laboratoire, two different pronunciation classes (with a teacher), cours de la suisse histoire, communication orale, stylistique grammaire, and chanson francophone. Among the songs we sang today were Le Parapluie and Les Petits Papier today (below).
This particular Wednesday R and I didn't get home until 23:00h. After class we had dinner at CERN with R's friends, a very vivacious older couple who are frequent visitors to world-renown physics research center. The husband, an older gentleman most likely in his 70s, is a pretty well known professor of Physics at NYU. For work, said professor and his wife travel to CERN every year to collaborate with other leading scientists.
During dinner the couple happily recounted how R had saved them many years ago. One winter long ago, the professor was cross-country skiing in the mountains of Lelex (probably backcountry trails with not that many people around) when he fell and dislocated his collar bone. Unable to drive to the hospital himself, his wife walked down to find help, flagging down R who stopped and offered a ride back to where the professor was. Not only did R bring them to the hospital but he also stayed to translate since they do not speak much French. ♥
On Friday evening R and I dressed in orange to attend our friends' World Cup party—can you guess what orange represents? Even though we got lost and missed NL/Brazil game, we arrived just in time to hear unbelievable news—that the Netherlands had miraculously defeated Brazil 2 to 1. Our friends and their friends are really nice..and again, super international. I met a woman from South Africa who I might be going to salsa classes together some time in the future.
We spent the evening talking, drinking and finished by watching the Ghana/Uruguay game. To my utter disappointment, Ghana was robbed of their win. If you watched that game as well - what do you think? What the hell with the red card at the end? I think that should have been an automatic goal for Ghana. I was heartbroken for the player who missed the penalty kick.
Are you following the World Cup? Have you ever learned a new language before, and what is your learning style? Tomorrow, I'll write about my football experiences in my own backyard today. Literally in my own backyard with my new Japanese friend and her family.
Bonne nuit mes amis. À demain!
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