Polly Voo Franzy?

I never liked languages much. Except for English, but that doesn't really count. Take French, for example. I only studied it at school because some deluded tosser (can't recall who) told me that it was easier to deal with than Hindi and Marathi *shudder*. I can't help it that I don't have any linguistic skills.

Quite frankly, I don't see what the point was. Taking a two year long French module didn't really make a world of difference to my marks. To add insult to injury, I can't speak word of it (although I do know that the Eiffel tower is 321 metres high). Fat lot of good that did.

I can't say I didn't enjoy myself though. The classes were occasionally and somewhat amusing. We had one teacher who'd wear rather... er... unusual earrings. They bore a striking resmblance to Christmas tree ornaments. She even taught us a song about planting cabbages. Apart from that, she was quite alright, really.

Moving to the UK meant I'd be leaving behind the Marathi and Hindi (mphmphahahaha), but sadly, not the French. Oh I didn't have to deal with it any more, but my sister did. And she used to be worse at it than I was... and that's saying something. Now however, she speaks almost fluently... with the proper accent... and she knows swear words too. All this in less than a year. I am miffed.

Sniff!

Maybe they do a better job of teaching it here. Maybe the teachers are actually French. I know my sister's teacher is French. He's also quirky and 'modern' and got one of the other teachers pregnant, but I won't go into that right now. They even have exchange programs, which I suppose do the trick. Throw a hapless student into the midst of a family that can only speak French, and they're bound to learn something, right?

My flatmates have gone on exchange programs before. Once we were having a discussion about how all five of us are so different, yet get along so well (Eris, don't roll your eyes). Then Pange said,"Isn't this great? Between us we can speak so many different languages! We can all speak English. Lor, Sez and I can speak French. Lou can speak Spanish AND Italian. And Lei can speak Indian!" Indian??? Excuse me while I laugh my head off.

pause (laughter in background)...

Right. I'll stop now. And for those who are wondering... that is IF anyone is wondering, I stole the title of this post from Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. In which Huck doesn't see the point of having different languages when the same things can be said in one language... that doesn't make sense, does it? Anyhoo, he says Polly Voo Franzy instead of Parlez vous Francais.

I'll be off then. And Eris? Try not to be too mean *makes puppy dog eyes and pouts*.