I Speak American???

In the past few months I have done my fair share of griping about learning the French language. I whine when I don’t feel like studying and I always wish the language would somehow morph itself naturally into my mind, without me putting in any effort whatsoever. That would be fabulous! However- today was a quick kick into reality that English is not so easy and user friendly either. If learning French is complex- teaching English just might be its equivalent.

I have spent all day trying to explain the intricate differences of the English language and parts of speech I realized, I may not even fully understand. How do you describe basic word definitions without using the actual word itself? For example in attempts to explain the verb “To do,” I stared blankly and kept repeating, “if you do something, I mean when you (don’t use do, don’t use do,) plan to do your homework. Ugh, I blew that again.

“What is the difference between too much and too many?” In my mind I wanted to say- I don’t know, but in different situations one sounds better than the other. You can never have too much ice cream. There are too many complicated questions.

I suppose the biggest difficulty I faced was explaining the differences between two similar words. “What’s the difference between wishing and hoping?” I don’t know… but I do know that Cinderella’s song is, “When you wish upon a star...” And that it would never work as, “When you hope upon a star.” But then if you have ever seen "My Best Friend’s Wedding," you would know that the intro song there, has lyrics that say, “wishing and hoping and thinking and praying…” And thus adds a whole new layer of confusion in my mind, on how to properly segregate the differences of these two synonyms, from one another.

For the next two weeks I will get to learn the English language all over again, while teaching it to others. I think once I am finished I will be eager to once again be the student, rather than the teacher and will hopefully (not wishfully) have more motivation to put some Oomph into my French study skills.