![](\"https:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/img\/avatar03.jpg\"){kind=avatar}
The fact that I can kind of half-speak French is annoying. I know enough to string together basic sentences but advanced speaking is hard. Also, understanding people who speak in French (i.e., native speakers) is difficult unless they slow down.<\/p>\n
It’s annoying because, say I’m sitting in the subway or at the back of an Air Canada plane and people are speaking to each other in French, I can understand enough of it to pique my interest and keep my ears trained on the conversation and yet not enough for me to truly comprehend what’s being discussed.<\/p>\n
I also remember several weeks ago, a girl came into the ASSU office to inquire about a French course and I gave her my card, saying, “Mon carte.”<\/p>\n
“‘Ma carte’ you mean,” she corrected me.<\/p>\n
I already had to grapple with my sleepy brain to come up with the French word for “card” in the first place and then ended up using a wrong term anyway.<\/p>\n
It would be nice if I could consistently practice my French and keep a grasp on it. That won’t happen anytime soon though, watching French television, reading French comic books and listening to Francoise Hardy is no substitute for speaking French.<\/p>\n
Before I left for New Jersey I managed to squeak out 13 comic strips. I’ve e-mailed the editor-in-chief of the Varsity<\/a>, and am now awaiting a reply. I’m probably going to have to keep reminding him.<\/p>\n