Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Elle est une comedienne!

I made a joke in French class last night!

After only seven classes, Madame Hella is mostly speaking in French now, except when she has to translate a new vocabulary word. The class is small (attrition from first class to seventh has been more than 50%) so those of us that remain get a lot of practice reading and speaking. So far there's been a lot of repetition of basic grammar forms and vocabulary.

At the end of class, Madame Hella usually asks if there are any questions. Last night, she did that, then quickly asked, everyone understands? Noha, a young woman in the class, only heard the second question, not the first, so she pipes up "oui!" Of course, Madame Hella thought she was replying to the first question so asked Noha, so what is your question?

Noha hesitated, looked puzzled. Mme Hella asked again, did you have a question? But Noha misunderstood, and answered "oui!" again. Mme Hella said, then what is your question? Noha again hesitated, frowning.

The guys at the table next to me began laughing. I began laughing. It was like the comedy routine "who's on first" except in elementary French. Noha was getting more confused, Mme Hella was now getting confused.

I said "Noha est une comedienne!" We had been working on articles and professions during that lesson so these were the very words we had been using for the past hour and a half. Everyone cracked up and that was the end of class.

1 comment:

Rover Mom said...

good job! guess I have some catching up to do!

Meanwhile, its snowing AGAIN.....