Speechless

About a month ago Elise's teacher requested that we bring in a pear for the class. They were working on a unit about fruit and each student was asked to bring in something for the rest of the class to study and discuss. I was more than happy to contribute and followed all the french she was throwing at me about the project. Later that morning when I returned to pick up Elise, I was avec une poire and her teacher complemented me on how well my francais is coming along. Both her and her assistant think that I have really improved over the past seven months. (by the way, that was all in french too. I'm freaking rocking this stuff!)

So, second week of April and I'm on a language high! I believe I have made some huge progress in my understanding and I've built a descent vocabulary bank. I can follow a lot of what people are telling me, am feeling pretty confident, and know a lot more french than I did a year ago. I'm feeling good!

And then....

Speechless! It's now May and instead of making progress, I've regressed. People are saying stuff to me and asking me questions and I'm stuck! I can't get anything out. The other day a woman asked me for directions and I did a lot of pointing and apologizing. The worst part about our interaction is I just finished listening to the "directions" chapter of my language CD's...for the 50th time! I've got directions memorized. This was a big goal of mine since I am frequently stopped for help. Here's the other worst part, as we part and I go on my embarrassing, frenchless way, 35 different sayings pop into my head of what I could have said! I can't get a thing out when it's important but am a very skillful post-conversation linguist! It's terrible!

So, enough of this anglais for today. I've got number two down for a nap and number one engrossed in a movie. (Movies are a mom's best friend!) It is study time for me! Au revoir!