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When I was at school I learnt French for five years. At the end of that, my French was pretty good, certainly I could visit France and not need to speak English to anyone.
So naturally visits to France soon dried up. When I went to Switzerland earlier this year the couple of days in Geneva (before moving to German speaking Switzerland) were my first opportunity to use French since... 2002.
Since 2002 I've been to German speaking countries *counts* 8 times (if you use a rather generous definition including transit and short stays) and each time been able to speak no German, or next to none.
A couple of months ago I started (formally) learning German, which I had never touched in school, having chosen Spanish as my second foreign language.
So where's the first place I visit with my new found German skills?
Paris.
Yuh.
And the worst thing was that my brain was so tuned to German that I found myself unable to speak French - VERY frustrating. I could do stuff like asking for one youth ticket, because I don't know that in German (well, I could guess actually, but I've not formally learnt it) but then when they'd hand it over with my change... nothing. I was biting my lip to stop myself answering "danke" and could not at all bring the word "merci" to mind. The worst was when my brain went "cheers... danke... kiitos... merci!"
Most annoying. (Although it was funnier the time that I was ordering icecream and randomly used Spanish in the middle of my French. Where did that come from!?)
Of course after a day and a half in France I managed to reboot my brain into French. Which meant that getting it back into German for yesterday's lesson was not fun. Although at least I managed to not actually use French at all in the lesson (others did not succeed on that count ;0) Apparently using French in German lessons is very common for that teacher. So I'm glad that I could be contrary like usual :0P
Auf wiedersehen! Au revoir!
I've never noticed before that the French and German expressions for goodbye are related. Heh. But my brain is completely blanking on Spanish (not been to a Spanish speaking country since, ooh, 2002) beyond hasta mañana/luego/la vista (sp?) which whilst they contain the equivalent linguistically, I'm certain are *not* how I know to say goodbye.
(Sidenote: I was in Paris to meet and stay with an Internet Person and she didn't axe-murder me even a little bit! Woo and yay.)
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AUTHOR OF THIS MESSAGE
admin
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
02 november 2006, 14:37:43
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
172.202.14.225
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