French Classes in Geneva ~ تخت سارا

Considering that we are going to be living and working in Geneva, my friends and I thought that we should explore opportunities to learn French in the city. None of us have had any formal instruction in French before, so classes of some kind are definitely necessary. We found a great deal through the Geneva Interns Association network and enrolled in basic beginner's French. Classes are twice a week for an hour and a half each. There are about 12 people in the class, and we all struggle-bus it through together. It's actually a little funny that one of the perks of living and working in Geneva, even with a law school seminar and biweekly writing assignments, is that you don't have law school classes - and here we are, voluntarily enrolling in more classes. It's going to be quite an adjustment graduating and becoming a "real adult."

French is actually harder than I thought. In Spanish and Farsi, the alphabet is at least phonetic, so everything pretty much is read and spoken the same way. Not in French. Even though the words on the page look similar enough to Spanish or English, with masculine and feminine words as in Spanish and Arabic, the pronunciation is difficult. Most of the letters are not pronounced, so words that are spelled completely different with different meanings are pronounced the same way.

Our first class began with learning the difference between subject and object pronouns in French.

Subject Pronouns (sujet)
(Singular)		(Plural)
I	Je	We	Nous
You	Tu	You (formal/plural)	Vous
He/She/It	Il/Elle/On	They (m/f)	Ils/Elles

Object Pronouns (toniques)
(Singular)		(Plural)
Me	Moi	Us	Nous
You	Toi	You (formal/plural)	Vous
Him/Her/It	Lui/Elle	Them (m/f)	Eux/Elles

Then, we stepped it up and learned the verbs for "to be" (etre) and "to have" (avoir) and how to conjugate them. We then spent the rest of class practicing moving between the subject/object pronouns and picking the correct conjugation and verb endings for ETRE and AVOIR. Along the way, we learned some more vocabulary and rules of pronunciation while filling in the blanks for the sentences in the exercises.

Être = To Be
(Singular)		(Plural)
Je	Suis	Nous	Sommes
Tu	Es	Vous	Êtes
Il/Elle	Est	Ils/Elles	Sont

Avoir = To Have
(Singular)		(Plural)
J’	Ai	Nous	Avons
Tu	As	Vous	Avez
Il/Elle	A	Ils/Elles	Ont

Our second class focused on the endings for -ER and -IR verbs, as well as memorizing the endings for a few irregular verbs. Luckily, the -ER verb endings are for about 80% of the French verbs, so it shouldn't be so difficult to learn, once I get the basics down. Notice how similar both of these endings are to one another, as well as how within the endings, there are not many differences in pronunciation where you would clearly know what each one is talking about without using the subject. Unlike Spanish, you always have to have the subject in French (like English, I guess).

-ER Verb Endings
(Singular)		(Plural)
Je	-e	Nous	-ons
Tu	-es	Vous	-ez
Il/Elle	-e	Ils/Elles	-ent

-IR Verb Endings
(Singular)		(Plural)
Je	-is	Nous	-issons
Tu	-is	Vous	-issez
Il/Elle	-it	Ils/Elles	-issent

And now for the irregular verbs! We did seven of the most common irregular verbs. The endings tend to look a little similar to the rules, but it's still tricky, tricky, tricky!

Aller = To Go
Je Vais	Nous Allons
Tu Vas	Vous Allez
Il/Elle Va	Ils/Elles Vont

Venir = To Come/Go Back
Je Viens	Nous Venons
Tu Viens	Vous Venez
Il/Elle Vient	Ils/Elles Viennent

Pouvoir = Can/Able to
Je Peux	Nous Pouvons
Tu Peux	Vous Pouvez
Il/Elle Peut	Ils/Elles Peuvent

Vouloir = To Want
Je Veux	Nous Voulons
Tu Veux	Vous Voulez
Il/Elle Veut	Ils/Elles Veulent

Devoir = Must (have to do…)
Je Dois	Nous Devons
Tu Dois	Vous Devez
Il/Elle Doit	Ils/Elles Doivent

Faire = To Do
Je Fais	Nous Faisons
Tu Fais	Vous Faites
Il/Elle Fait	Ils/Elles Font

Boire = To Drink
Je Bois	Nous Buvons
Tu Bois	Vous Buvez
Il/Elle Boit	Ils/Elles Boivent

To practice, I think I am going to try to work on memorizing how to say something new each day and try it out with my coworkers who speak French. My Genevois colleague already taught me one funny thing in French:

Hilarious. and Adorable. LE PHOQUE!

French is difficult in the sense that there will be more verb endings to memorize and the pronunciation rules and spelling will be tough to lock down, but after learning Spanish, the rules and structure are not so different. I think flashcards might help in terms of memorizing vocab. But there's no way it will be as difficult as Michael Scott learning Spanish in an office-appropriate way:

The Office - Michael Learns Spanish par justintyme4me