Elaine apprend le francais

 No class. I traveled to New Orleans. Sigh. 

Most French verbs end in "er" (what we learned last week) or "ir", this week's lesson. And it is true, if I ever make it to France, at some point I will need to partir. partir (to leave) je (I) pars nous (we) partons tu (you, inf) pars vous (you, formal) partez il/elle/on (he/she one) part ils/elles (they) partent But before je part,  I must actually get there. And getting there? It's not as easy as I hoped. I started my research by looking at places available on a sabbatical exchange program. My job qualifies me for membership there, so I've been poking around. Do people in French want to live in DC for 6 months? A year? And if so, do they want to live in a little condo by the Wharf? Or would they prefer a big house in the suburbs? But really, where they might want to exchange is the least of my problems. I simply cannot just show up in France. I have to have a visa that allows me entry - and it is reasonable to expect I could stay for one year, but it ...

Unbeknownst to me, French has a handful of irregular verbs, and a whole host of "er" verbs. The "er" verbs follow a particular conjugation pattern.  parler (to speak) je (I) parle nous (we) parlons tu (you, inf) parles vous (you, formal) parlez il/elle/on (he/she one) parle ils/elles (they) parlent   manger (to eat) je (I) mange nous (we) mangeons tu (you, inf) manges vous (you, formal) mangez il/elle/on (he/she one) mange ils/elles (they) mangent Je parle francais. Ok, that's aspirational. But I am limited in my French and cannot tell you I would like to speak French, so for now, I speak French. I promise, this will get better. But being able to manger is even more important, because I very much would like to eat while I am in Paris. Even though the pattern seems simple, it's not natural for me - and mostly, my brain wants to conjugate everything in German, a language I studied for several years between high school and college. And I am struggling, reader, ...