The other day, my friend and I were discussing how we felt about our French and whether or not we thought we had improved since the beginning of the program 3 weeks ago.
We both agreed that some days, speaking French was easy. Some days, the words poured out quickly and comfortably, almost as if it were truly a second language. But other days, the words couldn't come out - they would get stuck in the back of our throats, foreign and severe, our accents and mistakes blatant in every sentence we tried to get out.
My friend made an interesting analogy: a baby learning to walk. Some moments, the baby can walk, and even run. But other moments, the baby falls right back down after standing up - unable to gain balance even if he/she was just on his/her own two feet just instants before. She was so right; the process of learning a language is complicated and we are at the level where we are so close to fluency, but there is still much more work to do.
However, I can already feel the change happening - the growing comfort with full conversations, and even two hour long lectures, in French; the ability to participate in a discussion and properly voice an opinion... I truly hope that these past three weeks are a sneak-peek into the progress that will ensue in the next few months.
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