Tuesday 29 November 2011

Miam-Miam!

Learn French In The Kitchen

Here I am, again in danger of appearing a 'foodie', oh dear. But I couldn't refuse this one. Having spent 6 years studying the French language at school I only recently got the chance to put it to the test whilst on holiday near Bordeaux last year....ahem, 13 years later. A simple request for a takeaway coffee resulted in a downward spiral of words crudely sewn together by a rusty memory. For your entertainment, it translated a little like this, "Is it that it is possible for me to buy a coffee for to take on the beach?" The concise response of "a emporter?" shall remain in my memory bank as will the titters of laughter that circulated the coffee shop. So I decided that my diligent teenage eagerness to study French should not go to any further waste. I found a short course, run by Alliance Française, that covers cooking in French, and we all know how much I like THAT particular subject. Plus, if I'm completely lost at least I can be sure of the subject matter and guess the rest, right?

I had an informal assessment prior to the course to ascertain my level of French. Despite my horrendous grasp of verbs (mon dieu!).  The tutor fed back that although I wasn't exactly fluent I was able to string a sentence together, sufficient enough to be understood (see coffee anecdote above...I got my coffee didn't I?!) so that was enough to give it a whirl.  I succeeded in bagging a place on the course and I was bound for la cuisine.

I turned up at my first class to meet my tutor, Iza, and my 2 classmates. Both my classmates had more of an understanding of the language than me, one was practically fluent and the other had the confidence to give it a whack, something I lacked. I spent the first class piecing together responses to their conversation, only to find that once I'd constructed a sentence that I was satisfied with, the subject had moved on and my beautiful sentence was rendered useless.  Pah! Weirdly enough, throughout the first class I seemed to think in Irish rather than French. Typical. 14 years of learning Irish with not a glimmer of fluency and NOW it rears it's head in my memory bank!

On the side of my academic journey I picked up some tasty dishes.  The first dish of the course was a Pumpkin & Celeriac Gratin, week two had us baking a Seafood Parcel and on the final week we took on a more complicated but typically French dish, a Tarte Tatin. As the weeks rolled on my confidence grew and, regardless of whether I had constructed a completed sentence prior to opening my gob, I went for it anyway. I had already missed the boat on far too many conversations. I found I wasn't so bad as the French came more fluidly to me.  The relaxed atmosphere of Iza's kitchen was a far cry from the days sitting in a cold classroom waiting avec impatience for 3.30 to creep along. 

The three classes ended far too quickly, I was disappointed that my regular chances to parler Francais came to an end. Not only did I enjoy chatting in French, I learned some scrummy recipes. I resolved that I really must look into night classes....but I'll just finish off this last Seafood Parcel first...


afbristol.org.uk
Image: Sinéad Millea