Back to school for me

I’m taking a French class and it's pretty interesting. The class is made up of 8 students.

· Me, the oldest in the class and probably the second best student in the class.

· A young Russian girl who is really good with her French, probably doesn’t belong in the beginner class, she even complained, but they won’t move her. She knows a tiny bit of English.

· A girl from The Netherlands. She actually seems clueless. I think she is lost most of the time.

· A girl from Chili who is also good with French, but has a TERRIBLE accent. The teacher is constantly working with her. She thinks she should be moved too but with her terrible pronunciation, I doubt it will happen. She knows quite a bit of English too and she speaks it better than she does French.

· Two Japanese girls. They seem really smart but they just can’t make those French sounds. I feel sorry for them.

· A girl from (I think) Italy. She is really nice but she said that she has never studied French before!

· And the most interesting…. I talk to her a lot. She is a high school student from India. Her English is excellent. She is living with a French family and going to school here in France. She got “exchanged” for the son of the French family – he is currently studying in India. Here is the interesting part… she goes to a French school in the morning and comes to the French language place in the afternoon. Note… she is in a beginner French class… she said she is clueless as to what is going on in school in the morning. As a result of her studying for one year in a French school, she will have to repeat the grade when she gets back to India – but she is OK with that. She said that if she had chosen to study in the US, she would not have had to repeat. I’m not sure if it’s because her English is so good or there is some other reason. Anyway…. She was telling me about the family with whom she is staying. They are very strict with her. She must be in her room at 9:00 p.m. and lights out at 10:00. She has permission to stay up later if she has homework but she said that right now she couldn’t do the homework even if she tried. She has no idea what is going on in her French school. She also said that the family has NO TV. I asked her if she had any idea about what is going on in the world. She said no. Oh, and they let her use the internet for 30 minutes a day.

Pretty interesting…..