No, I’m not in Belgium yet–but twelve days from now I will be! And in keeping with the spirit of the mission, I thought it meet to post an update telling what I’ve accomplished this past week.
I’ve been doing Rosetta Stone for French since last semester, and now I’m about three-fourths through level one. Now, I don’t endorse it as the “best way to learn a language”–in fact, I’m not the biggest fan of its method–but it was free through the university, and I want to take advantage of it. Also, earlier this week I read a number of paragraphs aloud from Les Mis茅rables, to work on both my pronunciation and my reading comprehension. I was able to follow the story line, and was much enlightened upon a few visits to the dictionary. And today I watched Toy Story 2 in French. I had hoped to turn on French subtitles, but our DVD did not provide this, so I had to make do with listening. I caught words and phrases here and there (“Qu’ est-ce que tu fait, Woody?” “Je suis Buzz Lightyear!” “Non, je suis Buzz Lightyear!”), but overall didn’t understand much of it. But I do not despair! I am just beginning, and I plan to make this a measure of my progress by watching the same movie in French once I get back, to see how much better I can understand it after the completion of my mission.
And that’s about it for now. Au revoir, mes amis!