My husband is an excellant linguist and speaks French beautifully. His Hungarian-speaking mother and German-speaking father met and fell in love in Paris in 1937, and two years later they fled Europe together on the cusp of World War II. They took their common language – French – with them, and Danny learned it as a child.
It happens I studied French in both high school and college, but I must admit I’ve always spoken it poorly, or as Danny would ungraciously tell me, “comme une vache espagnole” – like a Spanish cow.
So when I retired I was determined to finally master it with my handy, French-speaking husband to practice on. I enrolled at Alliance Francaise where I studied for an entire academic year. Then the following summer I went to France for real language immersion with my teacher Marie-France, and Tricia, Janeen, and Deborah, three game women from our class.
We had a fabulous time with lots of laughs and adventures, and of course great food and wine. My vocabulary did increase, and I mastered much of the grammar, but my ear and my pronunciation were still pretty bad.
So even now when I try to speak French to my husband, “il m’ecoute comme une vache espagnole”.
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Est-ce que c'est une vache espagnole dans le photographe?
Je pense que cette vache est fantasque!
Vous etes une sweetie pie!
Merci beaucoup, ma tres chere amie!
I could never master the nuances of the French language and don't remember much of anything I learned during my year of French at NYU. But my daughter, Rachel, twice spent time in France. Once as an exchange student when she was 10 yrs old and again a year in France as part of her year abroad in college. Today, college kids are not selecting French as their foreign language – they are selecting Chinese! Maybe they know more than we do as China is emerging as a powerful industrial and economic force.
Yes true about China and the Chinese laguage, our young cousin studies Mandarin in middle school. Love your story about visiting Rachel in France when she gave fluent French directions to the cabdriver. When she turned to speak to you and Bernie, the cabbie complimented her on her perfect English!
Oubliez la vache espagnole, ou bien adoptez-la sans crainte!
Marie-France
Merci Marie-France, en fait j’adore les vaches!