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alex vs. the french r

July 14, 2010 in FSI, French by Alex | 6 comments

After four years of Spanish in high school and then three semesters in college — just one semester away from fulfilling my language requirement — I quit. I started all over again with Zulu.

Why?

Well, a lot of reasons, but let me tell you about one of them: that stupid rolled R. It was my nemesis. I could never get the hang of it, and as a result I sounded like a silly American no matter how much grammar and vocabulary I mastered (which wasn’t all that much anyway, but that’s another story).

Doesn’t Zulu have click sounds, you ask? Aren’t those worlds more difficult than a simple rolled R? Well, maybe for some people, but not for me. I can click just fine; I can’t for the life of me roll.

Fast forward almost a decade to today, two weeks in to my French training. For the most part, it’s going fine. I’m catching on to the grammar quite well. I’m remembering more and more vocabulary every day. I can say nasal vowels. I’ve gotten the hang of the fact that half of the word isn’t even pronounced. And most importantly, I know more than Andy. (Nothing like healthy competition to speed up the language learning, eh?)

There’s just one problem: the letter R.

Determined to conquer it once and for all, I first did some research. Turns out it’s quite different from my old nemesis the Spanish R, which is apparently spoken from the tip of your tongue. The French R comes from your throat.

Here’s the most useful advice I’ve found about saying it:

  1. Open your mouth.
  2. Close your throat as if you’re going to gargle or to avoid swallowing a mouthful of liquid, and say K carefully, several times.
  3. Pay attention to where in your throat the K sound is made. We’ll call this the K place.
  4. Begin slowly closing your throat, until you can almost feel the K place. Your throat should be only partially constricted.
  5. Tense the muscles around the K place.
  6. Gently push air through your partially constricted throat.
  7. Practice saying Ra-Ra-Ra (where R = steps 4-6) every day.

Truth be told, I’m not really sure how useful I can claim this advice to be, since after hours upon hours of practicing in the language lab, all I’ve achieved so far is a sore throat.

I’ll keep at it, but in the meantime I’m also dreaming up a plan B. Think it’s possible to learn a synonym for every word with the letter R? Hmm…

Au revoir! Er, never mind. I mean, à bientôt.

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what language will we learn?

February 17, 2010 in A-100, FSI by Alex | 5 comments

One of the requirements for being tenured as a Foreign Service Officer is proficiency in a language other than English. This really excites me. It’s a personal goal of mine to be able to communicate intelligently in another tongue. Unfortunately, foreign languages have never come naturally to me, and although I studied four different ones in high school and college, I never advanced beyond the elementary or early intermediate level. Before the FS, I was beginning to worry that I’d never have the chance to go further.

While the FS’s language requirement is exciting, it’s also scary: what if I’m not able to achieve the necessary level? But people in the know keep telling me not to worry. There’s a big difference, they point out, between studying a language for an hour or two a few times a week, as I did in college, and the instruction I’ll receive at the Foreign Service Institute. If I’m assigned a post that requires a language I don’t yet speak, I’ll stick around in DC for up to a year, during which time language learning will be my full-time job. (If there’s room, Andy will be able to take classes too.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about language training lately, and more specifically, how it relates to my first post. Both because of the tenure requirement and because I’d genuinely like to learn a language sooner rather than later, I hope to be assigned a first post that includes language training time. I don’t have final say in the matter, of course (FSOs are public servants and must go wherever they’re most needed), but my preferences will be considered.

So, what language do I hope to learn? Something like Thai or Cambodian would be interesting — and living in Bangkok or Phnom Penh would be great — but it would probably be wiser to study a more widely spoken language that I would be able to use at various posts throughout my career.

Some good options:

French – Spoken in these countries, mostly in Africa and Europe.
Spanish – Spoken in these countries, mostly in South America, Central America and Europe.
Arabic – Spoken in these countries, mostly in North Africa and the Middle East.
Russian – Spoken in these countries, most of which were formerly part of the USSR.

If you’re interested, check out this outdated but still interesting list of where other languages are spoken.

Suggestions? Advice? Feel free to comment!

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