lingua

something i realized today, that caught me by surprise:

(:and so the story begins::.)

i took four years of french. i began the journey into the french language while in seventh grade. carmel schools allowed junior high students to take foreign languages, but they only taught half a year's worth of material during one school year, so in order to complete French I a student had to take french both 7th and 8th grade. i did that. my 8th grade year of french was by far the best year. we finished the curriculum for the year rather fast, within a couple of months if i remember correctly, and then figured we may as well learn some more, so we moved on to material covered in French II. we ended up covering all but the very last unit of French II. mme gayley wasn't on administrator's favorite list for that feat. BUT I NEVER LEARNED SO MUCH! it was great. i loved her. when we made mistakes she'd keep track of them on a line, and whoever made the mistake right before the end of the line would "get the guillotine." she was short, and wouldn't allow male students who were taller than her to stand up straight. she'd make them walk on their knees (just ask my bubs). and before every quiz or test we'd receive "le magic"....a baggie of little party confetti, usually something shiny. i think i still have my collection somewheres.

my mme. gayley high for french lasted three years beyond junior high. unfortunately none of the high school french teachers came anywhere near being as great as mme. was. in fact, i think they were all mentally incapable of functioning in society, but that's another story.

by the time i was completing my fourth year in the french program, i'd started dating a puerto rican and worked at fishers pizza hut, which at the time boasted a large contingency of mexican employees. i was hatin' myself for not taking four years of spanish instead. i was learning a lot of spanish at work, mainly bad words and insults. you know, the stuff you'd really use.

i didn't want to be languageless my senior year. i didnt want to take Spanish I and then just have to take it over again in college. and you couldn't have paid me enough money to take French V with mme. hensley. that's when Carmel High School decided to start offering Hebrew as a language.

i was overjoyed. i immediately signed up for it, as did my friend Alicia Ferlicca.

we were 2 of 3 non-Jewish students in the two Hebrew classes. the 3rd non-Jewish kid was Korean slacker who only took the class to be with his friend, who dropped out of high school two weeks into school that year. Mrs. Boukai wouldn't let the Korean kid drop. she was a stickler.

i aced Hebrew. i loved the stuff. Mrs. Boukai was pretty surprised the pale little Christian girl who'd had no Hebrew training was beating the pants off the Jewish kids who'd all had years and years of instruction in synagogues but hadn't bothered to retain much.

then i went to IWU and took a year of Spanish, but decided not to continue it since i obviously wasn't dating puerto ricans anymore.

i've lost most of my french skills. i think i can understand the written language fairly well, and i can sometimes get the gist of it spoken. but i can't really speak it any longer save a few trivial words and phrases. i didnt get to use it much (except that time i babysat for a french-speaking couple, that was fun).

i still remember most of the bad words and insults in spanish. and i know a bit more than that as well (pizza words). but i really don't need it anymore. at least not now.

and here comes the surprising part:

of the three foreign languages i've studied, i'd have to say the one i've used the most has been hebrew. that's probably due to the fact that i go to a christian college and take a large amount of bible and religion courses. but i find that interesting. out of french, spanish, and hebrew, i find that hebrew has been the most useful. it's the one that overlaps in my life the most.

neat.