Nice
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2008
1
16
39
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Nice,
Provence,
France
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
I was put in the advanced french class AGAIN. For some reason they think just because I know the Conditionnel Passé tense that I am fluent. I can actually barely string a sentence together, except for things like "Can I please have a Baguette?" "My name is Tara" etc. So I asked to be changed and now I feel like I am back to square one, learning about passé composé again. I did that in the first few weeks of learning French. I think they learn quite differently here, with less emphasis on grammar and more on speaking and vocabulary. Which may explain why my grammar and speaking skills are at such different levels. Sydney Uni is too theoretical. I am OK with this class though because I still do make mistakes on basic concepts, so it is good to revise, and also to learn some more vocab in a relatively stress free environment.
I am also feeling a bit lonely because I haven't really come across anyone who can speak English well enough for us to be friends (and I can't speak French well enough).
1
It is very exhausting trying to use my limited French to communicate. It's just too basic. It's hard to make friends because there is no common area for the studio apartments, and I never see people in the foyer. I hear Russians screaming occasionally but that's about it. The class is a little impersonal, and is quite big. People just leave straight afterwards. I'm here for another 3 weeks, hope I don't get too lonely. I walked around Nice to get a feel for it and have decided that I quite like it. It is brimming with cafés and beautiful buildings, and the weather is perfect. The city is embraced by the azure Mediterranean sea. It has the sophisticated edge you would expect from a French city, yet still seems grounded and down to earth. People are laid back and pleasant, and wear whatever they please - usually something bright, colourful and revealing. Especially the old women - I saw a woman who could not be any younger than 80 wearing her bikini and a see through top, off to the beach. Though perhaps the old women are actually 30 and just prematurely aged from the sun. People are way too tanned here. In Paris, their style is dull and conservative, with various boring shades of grey and black. It isn't too big and overwhelming - I walked around most of the central part in a few hours.
I'm having a very relaxing time, eating, sleeping as much as I like, reading, going to the beach. Quite an appropriate place to recover from Ibiza and Big Chill madness.
Comments
why not learn some vocab?
Maybe classes aren't enough to learn vocab? You need some better way of learning vocab... personally I find that any vocab I hear in a class goes in one ear and out the other... you need some way of systematically revising your new vocab every day... otherwise you'll always be stuck with the same problem.