En Francais, S'il Vous Plait

Woohoo, I signed up for French classes with the Alliance Francaise today! So that means I've got a new job starting Monday, I'm in the middle of my editing course and I'm going to start taking French classes in three weeks. I suppose a logical person would have started this earlier, and used their six months off of work (I bow to thee, unemployment gods) to do something constructive, but who needs logic?

I sat in a demo class (today was the AF's open house), and was really surprised at how much I understood (the teacher was speaking only in French). But when time came for me to introduce myself and explain why I was there--in French, of course--I could only manage to state my name and the fact that I lived in San Francisco before I started struggling to remember my long-lost vocab.

After an evaluation, it was suggested I sign up for Beginner Level 2. At first, I was frustrated--you would think six years of French (from 7th to 12th grade) would get me past the "beginner" level. But really, I haven't stepped inside a French classroom in eight years. So aside from watching Amelie repeatedly and spending a day in Paris a few years back, I haven't had much exposure to the language since high school. And when I read the description of their Beginner Levels 2, 3 and 4 ("You may have studied French a long time ago and are a bit rusty. With a little help from your teacher, your skills can re-surface faster than you think"), I figured it was a good fit...even if some of it is going to be review.

And to those of you wondering why I am taking French in the first place, I can only respond: Why not?