I have zero ear for language... so I am really nervous about this class.

I have taken French before and do OK up to a point, then it feels like I walked into a room of people speaking Greek and I have zero capacity to interpret anything going on.

I have been in Quebec long enough now that I no longer get a heachache when I spend a day hearing and speaking only french, so this is a good time to start. Seriously I would get blinding heachaches to the point that I would just start to tune out everything and would go to "my happy place".

Been working on speaking more and more and even get lots of compliments on my "cute anglo accent" which in Quebec is actually a pretty big compliment... angos are not the chosen people here.

The classes run M-R from 6-10pm for two months, so I will not get much of a reprieve once I start. I switched all my radio stations to French stations today, and have been reading all week and listening to my dated language CDs.

Worst part is that I have friends from Quebec and friends from France, so as soon as someone teaches me a phrase the other has to correct me and let me know what is either "proper" or what is "local". So I end up learning it all twice and then trying to keep it straight depending on who I talk to.

An anglo in Quebec with Parisienne French is considered almost as pretentious as a Quebecois with Parisienne French...

Dare I say that language lessons here are as much lessons in regional politics as they are lessons in grammar and pronunciation?

UGH. Wish me luck. I hate not feeling confident in an academic situation (not something I suffer from often - I am arrogant that way).

Bruce