I had my first TalkAbroad of this semester on February 28, 2024. This was my third TalkAbroad conversation since I began taking French at ODU.
This conversation was awful. There was very little that I was able to understand. Even after adjusting the volume multiple times, asking for my partner to repeat herself repeatedly, and letting her know I didn’t understand, it was nearly impossible to move forward. I would look at the question that I was pretty sure she was asking and what she was saying didn’t sound anything like what I would expect to hear and I could barely even pull out recognizable words that would help me piece together what she was trying to say. What I was able to understand is that her name is Nawel and she is from Tunisia. She has a brother, sister, mom, and dad. She eats similarly to me.
I was about to give up and stop the conversation because nothing was being accomplished, but I decided to move on by asking the questions from our TalkAbroad Devoir #1 and answer them, even though I had no idea what she was saying. I just wanted to move along through the questions.
The first two TalkAbroad conversations were difficult, as someone who has only been learning French for a few weeks, but I actually enjoyed the experience. I felt like the conversations went pretty well and the partners were very accommodating to a new student. I left both conversations with more confidence in my ability to speak French.
This most recent conversation was not the same experience. I did not gain any confidence in my ability to speak French and I’m feeling more apprehensive about my next conversation. The one positive I will add from this conversation is that my partner did repeat words I mispronounced so I could hear them pronounced correctly. That kind of practice is extremely helpful.