Sloths and French... lolwut?

I love how my parents expect me to be completely fluent in French after being in France for only one month... but then again, I guess that's what I hoped for too. I thought I could just march right into France, and by the time I left I would be completely fluent in the language, passing jokes back and forth with the locals in just a couple of months.

Alas, how wrong I was. Learning another language is such a slow, sloth-like process! You push yourself forwards, slugging one arm after the other in full effort, and when you look back, calculating in your head how far you must have moved, you realize you actually haven't moved much at all. By the way, fun fact of the day: sloths do pretty much everything hanging upside down, including: eating, sleeping, having sex (!) and giving birth (!!). I bet you don't want to imagine slow, awkward upside-down sloths having sex. Oops, too bad, I just made ya.

Ohaithar! Didn't see you there, was too busy chillin' upside down.

Right. Moving on.

So I've started learning French, with the aid of several guides: Collins Speak Fluent French, Pimsleur's audio guides, and my total beginner French lessons at school. I even bought a children's book called Le Petit Poucet (Don't ask me what this means... I actually haven't figured it out yet. It could mean either one of the following two: "Tom Thumb" or "The little underdog". o.0 If anyone knows what the title really means, please leave a comment!) at a second hand book-store to supplement my learning.

The owner at the second-hand book store, a friendly looking grandfather, who I swear looked just like the grandfather in Pinnochio (with the silver hair and glasses and all!), gave me a little smile, and asked me, "Oolala, Le Petit Poucet, pour vous?" [Translation: "Oolala... Le Petit Poucet, for you?"] I smiled in return and replied confidently, "Oui."

There you are, Mr. friendly second-hand-bookshop keeper near the palace of Versailles. I've been looking all over for you.

I wish there was a button I could press that would automatically make me fluent in French. But till such a button is invented, I guess I'll have to make do with my broken French and ridiculous body language whilst I study Le Petit Poucet.


Bonne Nuit!