Did You Catch That? No Worries

One of the other main themes in my life during the past few years has been a continuation of my love affair with la langue française. While I do not claim to be a “superior, native-like” speaker, I can manage quite well and we’ve hit a comfortable stage. For the moment, I’m trying not to think about the effort it will take to move off this plateau and up to the next level. Additionally, I’ve been trying to work on local language during the Unbloggable EventsTM, but since it isn’t spoken in this region or by the other PCVs I’m with, I’m reduced to repeatedly going over the same notes. Oh well, at least I’ll be able to buy anything in the marché. Instead of focusing my attention on these two languages which will play a very large role in my life here and probably in the future, I’ve been futzing around with German. Why German, you say? It’s not for reasons of family heritage or a deep longing to better appreciate beer. No, it’s rather precisely the lack of this volonté (will) that makes studying it so enjoyable. I feel no obligations towards it, nor have any preconceived notions. I will always be fascinated by French and Francophone literature, but sometimes one just needs something different. To wit, I’m reading The Sorrows of Young Werther (in translation) and listening to some Learning German podcasts I downloaded from Deutsche Welle. Fluency is nowhere near the horizon, but some carefree summer fun is just what the doctor ordered.