So really, nobody speaks English here. Except for my roommate Morgan, who's Australian, which is a relief. But that's not helping my French any.
I learned my lines with difficulty, particularly because I pronounced everything wrong. Imagine someone saying "See you later, Alligator" - you know how that sounds, the rhythm and the accent of it - like "see YOU laTER, alligaTOR." That's me.
My co-star Jutta (like Utah) gave me pages and pages of International Phonetic Alphabet exercises. Turns out, there are three ways to say the letter "e" in French: EEE, AY, and UH. And that's just for starters.
I learned also that, while German and English speakers construct the sentence, "think before we speak" (mostly), and then say what we thought, the French think out loud. So the English tendency to drop the end of a sentence into silence has to really go away, because in French, we don't know what's being said until it done been said. And anyway, it's kind of artificial as a construct, since I'm reading from a script.
The exercise and linguistics lesson really helped. But still, I had a difficult day on Saturday, words just locking up in my mouth and taking up valuable time on the stage. (We have less than a month to rehearse and present this piece.) Then I woke up Sunday thinking in French. Well, so far as my limited vocabulary and grammar will allow. But still. Pretty awesome, no?
Mom, if you're reading this, I think I have a French textbook in the attic with all of the other books. Could you send it to me? I figure, if I practice some grammar and vocab I might yet get along here alright. Which is important, because my friends in the cast are helping me to get an agent in Paris, and maybe even one in Berlin. But they said that it's hard, if you have an accent, to get work. Still, I figure maybe I could do some commercials or something, if anybody wanted to represent me, and I could definitely play an American, should one become necessary in something over here.
Tell me, how would you better learn a language you find yourself stuck in?
