Oct 22, 2023
Facing my biggest fears in France.mp3
One of the main reasons for moving to a new country was to prove to myself my lifelong belief that I was terrible at languages was a load of crap 💩. To prove to myself that I shouldn’t listen to anything I believe without proper scientific evidence.
So, twelve weeks ago, I set out to prove myself wrong.
That’s right, I’ve been living in France for nearly three months now!
That’s nearly 25% of the way through my visa allowance. And, while I can now order you one of each quiche in a bakery, and ask for the wifi password in a cafe, the idea of actually starting a conversation with a french person on the street still terrifies the hell out of me.
Of course, there’s one major reason for this:
I haven’t actually taken any lessons.
The last time somebody tried to teach me French was nearly twenty years ago.
Of course, I totally planned to learn. It just didn’t ever seem to happen.
I had plenty of excuses those first few months.
I’ll do the online courses first! (Which I mostly haven’t)
I need to bring in more business for work! (Which I did)
I’ll do it when I get to Chamonix! (Which I’ve done)
All of which provided the perfect cover against the real truth of the matter: that the idea of paying to walk into a room in an attempt to converse with a French teacher scares the bloody pants off me.
Enter: childhood trauma.
Starting secondary school as a child, it was clear there were a few things I was not good at: