For the last few months, I focused on having conversations with two friends who are fluent in French. Every Monday, Thursday and Friday for an hour, we chat – 30 mins in English and 30 mins in French.

I wanted to take a break from the Alliance Francaise courses because at times, I found them difficult because we weren’t getting enough speaking practice however, I did enjoy the social element of the classes.

Over the weekend, I chatted with Andrew about taking it up and seeing if I can wangle it with our budget. After all, I’m also focussing on golf too so that it could be my sport too so I do worry about how I can fund all my leisure activities. I guess that’s what my day-to-day work covers. ?

So I signed up today to two more courses.

The first one is an intensive speaking course that is 2 hours every night for 4 nights. The second one is a 10 week program, two hours every Tuesday night plus all the homework over the weekends. I figure between that and my conversations with my friends, my French will be kept ‘in front of mind’ so that it’s not forgotten.

Learning a language is something that you need to invest time and effort in and I would find it terrible if I stopped learning it now. I’m between a rock and a hard place.

Also, I reached a point where I’m now on the new text book and part of me wants to finish that. I’m someone who’s quite anal when it comes to wanting to finish things correctly – having completed all the bits and pieces.

The positive thing about this is that when I called the AF to register, I did the entire process in French. I asked some questions about the courses, I registered and paid and it was entirely in French.

I couldn’t believe that but it was a form of reputation and credibility too. After all, if you want to sign up for French classes at the intermediate level – you may as well put your money where your mouth is and say it all in French!