The ups and downs of starting from scratch
Being a Bachelor of Arts student means that knowing a second language is crucial to your education. When I first met with an advisor last summer, before my freshman year, I thought that I had already checked that off of my long list of requirements. You can imagine how surprised I was when I went to take the Spanish placement test after three years of high school Spanish and completely failed it. I was placed into Spanish 101 and had the option of either taking Spanish for three more semesters, or a completely different and new language for only two. So, after a lot of consideration, I ended up choosing to start taking French classes my second semester of freshman year.
At first, I was very anxious about being in the class because I thought I was going to be the only one in the class who didn’t take French in high school. I was also worried about pronunciation, all of the apostrophes and the accents, which all looked very intimidating to someone with absolutely zero grasp on the language. And at first, I’m not even going to lie, everything was extremely confusing. I was confused at the letter sounds, the number system and how each specific accent modified a letter. It felt like I was being bombarded with new rules and systems every day.
As the semester progressed, I felt better and better about going to class. I continued to feel confident in my ability to talk and communicate in basic French. I didn’t feel so nervous around my peers, and my teacher really helped create a great atmosphere for learning that wasn’t intimidating. The homework for the class was also very helpful in developing both my general understanding of course material, but my writing skills as well.
Now, as I’m taking my second semester of French, I feel pretty confident in my ability to speak in the most basic French. While it’s not very good, and I surely don’t speak like a native, I see it as an aspect in my life where I’m better than I was a year ago. Learning a new language has been very hard, but it has really helped me to slow down a little bit. The classes are fun and help provide a little boost in the middle of the day because they require a kind of thinking that is different from what I’m doing in the rest of my classes. The classes are also unique because of the cultural knowledge that they offer as well. In my classes we obviously learn a lot about France and French culture, but we also learn a ton about other French-speaking—or Francophone —countries and their respective cultures as well.
Ultimately, I’ve enjoyed taking French classes in college because they offer a different experience than a lot of my other courses. I’m not as nervous as I was on my first day of class, and I feel more confident in my abilities to speak another language – even if it is just a little bit. The change from Spanish to French was hard, but the language grew on me, and I am even considering pursuing a certificate in French. The experience, overall, has really broadened my horizons, something which would have never been possible if I hadn’t decided on starting from scratch.