Earlier this year, I had decided to have another try at learning French. I had learnt it in high school and had many holidays in France, so thought I would be able to pick it up again fairly quickly (and thought I had good conversational French). My family members had also been re-learning it for the past year, giving me some motivation to do it myself. I’m studying for my PhD at the University of Victoria, which have beginner/intermediate level classes for attending students at low prices — another incentive to get going. I signed up for a practice session with the French department in January, ready to find out my “French speaking level”.
At the practice session, a teacher in the French department showed me into a room with a single computer (a la windows 1990), told me to sit down and take a 20 minute test. The teacher then left, locking the door behind me. I took the test — a series of definitions, french-english conversions, and grammar questions — and waited for my score. It was pretty low, and I felt pretty stupid. I left the room, left the building, and went back to my office resolving to learn French another way. It’s now July, I’m visiting France (and Quebec) in August, and I probably can’t say much beyond “Une biere s’il vous plait”.
So my experience in the French department completely demotivated my plan to relearn French. The solo computer test and lack of conversation with the teacher really put me off taking a beginner course. I should have gone back and found the teacher, sat down and talked about my level and asked what I should try next. On the other side, the teacher should have been more personable with me, and the test should not have been entirely computer based. I hope I’ll get motivated to give it another try soon, but right now I have no desire to put the hours into a French course.