Languages

Languages. I haven’t really thought about it for the last couple of years. Yes, when you do IT, it’s kind of normal you understand English. When you live in Flanders, it’s kind of normal you speak Flemish. And when you live in Belgium, people want you to speak French too.
But I haven’t had courses of Dutch, French or English in 3 years. Until now.

I now have 4 hours of French and 2 hours of English every week (all on monday btw). French always was a difficult language for me. I hated it. I’m scared of speaking it.
My problem is: when I’m in an uncomfortable situation, I mumble and stutter. So guess what I do when I have to speak French? Right. You hardly know what I want to say.

When I was in Denmark, a lot of French guys lived in my building. I could understand them but what did I do? I talked to them in English. Stupid me. It would have been the perfect situation to learn French.

So now, my French courses. With the exams getting closer and closer, I’m freaking out. I’m watching all my favorite movies in French. At the moment I’m watching Swordfish (ok, I had to stop the movie because writing in English and listening to French is kinda hard when you are doing it at the same time). I looove the movie in English. I haaaate it in French. But I keep on going. “The Incredibles” and the “Looney Tunes” were kind of ok. I still need the French subtitles but I hope I can go without them before Christmas. I’m even reading some newspapers in French, just to learn. Why is it so hard? At least I can say I’m not giving up.

And the English courses? Well, I have no clue what my level of English is. But I speak it rather fluently. My writing is ok (I hope, sorry folks if it isn’t!), but I mix up American English and British English. I adore the British English, but should I write program or programme? This isn’t a huge deal, but I want to do it right.

As a kid, I went 2 summers for a couple of weeks to Canterbury. I had a lovely temp-mom and lovely temp-brothers. It really helped me with my confidence and I realized I just had to speak. Nobody cares, and everybody understands if you have some problems. You are learning and trying.
I did it one time for French. One week. It was a week I don’t want to remember. But now, I want to try it again. Go to Paris for a couple of weeks. Speak the language, use it, feel it. But yes, I’m scared to go to big city by myself. I could take a friend with me, but then I will speak Dutch all the time. And that’s not the point of going there :)
I have to think about it some more. But just so you know: I want to go.

Now I start thinking about my Dutch. I already had 2 friends telling me I speak totally different than a year ago. Is it because I read more books in Dutch? Is it because I work in a call center? Or is it because I started reading more blogs in Dutch? Or just because I like the language more than a year ago? I think it’s a bit of everything.
I’m even thinking about writing some pieces in Dutch. You guys are probably all from Belgium or Holland, so why not? The only thing that tells me “Don’t do it” is my love for the English language. And Dutch is a bit more personal too.

At the moment, I’m just tweeting a bit in Dutch. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be blogging in Dutch next year :)