Monday, April 26, 2010

Monday, April 26, 2010

The WeWrite4Ten assignment for today is:

If you had the opportunity to do one activity for one week without any worry about
finances, cost or other outside commitments,
what would you love to do for this week.
I decided to answer this question with the very first thing that came into my mind.
I graduated from the smallest school district in Pennsylvania. Truly, we were, and still are, the smallest school district. My graduating class, the largest to graduate at that time, had 25 members.
Needless to say, we didn't have the best academic choices available. We had two languages in our school, Latin and French. The way it worked was that you could take Latin your freshman and sophomore years and French your junior and senior years. Planning to further my education after high school, it was essential that I take language.
I wish I could say that I learned a lot and thrived under the tutelage of our language teacher(s). Such was not the case. We had Miss Collins for both languages through our junior year, when she retired. I liked and respected Miss Collins. I did all I could to please her, but I did not learn much from her. The boys used to say she knew Latin because she taught it to Julius Caesar. She had been teaching long past her prime.
Mrs. Fickinger came into my life at the beginning of my senior year. She was wonderful. A beautiful person and a very good teacher. Alas, I had a lot of ground to make up, and when she left in January, I hadn't done a lot to rectify the problem.
As teachers weren't exactly clamoring to teach at our school, our illustrious board hired Mr. Meier, who besides having no classroom management skills, knew NO French. Non, nada, none. So, you can imagine how much French I know today.
Which brings me to what I would do this week if I didn't have to think of the cost. I would order Rosetta Stone French and begin my studies of that language all over again. If the truth were to be known, I probably could afford to purchase that program without the unlimited finance tag. However, I am afraid I would not stick to it and that's a lot of money to sit on my bookcase.
So, although I'm not sure whether I'll spend my personal money for Rosetta Stone French, I'm positive I would spend my fantasy dollars on it.

3 comments:

  1. Ohhhh, I'd love to have Rosetta Stone to refresh my French and to learn Spanish! If I could manage it, I'd have the Spanish, for sure, and from everything I've heard, it is very good and a fun way to learn, and I 'spect I'd stick it out. I've tried a couple of cheaper ones, and they were b.o.r.i.n.g.

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  2. Hmm, wonder if Rosetta Stone teaches Hungarian? I could use a refresher! My French is very limited (only had 2 years of French) my German is so so. And one week wouldn't improve them all that much. For my week, I think I'd like to spend it visiting New York City!

    I enjoyed your write for ten assignement for today. Au Revoir! :-) (Probably spelled wrong.)

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  3. Alas, I spent a year in France ('67-'68) timeframe, married a French, have visited France numerous times, have stayed in French homes (from million dollar houses on the Marne to 4th floor cold water walkups AND I still don't speak French.

    Fortunately, our two daughters spent summers every other year with grandmere and grandpere and all of their (nine) cousins, so they are fluent.

    I do understand a little and I know enough to shop and order food in a restaurant, but I am far from fluent.

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