Fork-Knife-Spoon

     As you may not know, I arrived in Belgium with no knowledge of the French language. I had dabbled around a bit with “Rosetta Stone”, which could have worked if I put more effort into it, but in the end it only taught me a few words that actually stuck. I was lucky though to have two solid years of Spanish in high school, which has really helped me in learning French because a lot of the basic structures are similar.

     I was extremely lucky though because my host family, besides me host mother, speaks next to perfect English. In the first week here in Belgium I spoke no French with my family, only English. After that week though, they began incorporating more and more French into their conversations with me. At first it was a complete fail. I understood nothing of what they would say, which would just result into an English translation. But my family persevered through my horrible language skills, and stayed patient with me. I remember for the first few weeks, every night at dinner they would fill up several pages of a small notepad (front and back) with simple phrases, words, and translations for me to learn.

     My first words that I learned in French were fork, knife, and spoon. Every meal time a member of my host family would hold up a fork, knife, or spoon and ask for the translation. At first, I would butcher the words horribly, but after a few weeks I mastered these simple words. Now, it is the same with all of the new vocabulary I learn. After several repetitions, the word finally will stick. Now, besides learning new vocabulary, I am learning how to put sentences together correctly and how to conjugate verbs correctly.

     To help me out a little, and speed up my learning, my host parents signed me up for a beginner’s French course. I like it a lot more than I originally thought I would. The class consists of about 20 people, and no person is from the same country. We all speak different languages, so the only language we all have in common is French. It forces us to have to communicate in French, which is really helpful. I am still amazed that the teacher is able to teach us and make us understand the French language, only using French.

     I have been in Belgium for a little over two months, and I feel that my language skills should have been to at least this point before I arrived. Even though there is a language barrier though between me, the other students at school, my host mother, and other native speakers, I still find ways of communicating. I have found, especially at school, humor breaks down any language barrier that there is. My family still jokes with me about my original extreme mispronunciation of the word “knife” in French, but looking back to even a month ago, I feel like I have made huge strides in my comprehension of the French language.