No More English

For Lent, my friend Kat gave up speaking English with all those who know French.

So basically, she gave up speaking English with me, seeing as all her family and friends back home can't speak French... and admittedly, I am the person who she speaks with in English the most here in Strasbourg. Kat really wants to become fluent (although she's basically fluent in my opinion) and I understand that speaking English with me all the time halters her progress. When she first suggested the idea back in January, I was quite nervous. It's been a slight refuge, being able to communicate in my mother tongue with Kat when I can't quite work out the right words in French; however, on the other hand I knew that the No-English rule would help my own language progress.

To feel proactive, I gave up speaking English with Kat specifically, since nearly everyone else I converse with here has a limited knowledge of English anyway. 

So, nearly four weeks into Lent, how is the No-English thing going?

Well, it's crumbled a bit, to be honest. We both started off so strong. Two days after Lent started, we took that spontaneous overnight trip to Luxembourg and it was a full 24+ hours of French-only. For me, that was hard. I was so used to conversing with Kat in English that sometimes I would forget the rule and just spit something out in my excitement, which earned me an amused glare and some silence from Kat until I repeated the phrase in French. After our trip to Luxembourg, the rule continued (even in our text conversations) and I gradually got a little better at speaking. 

Now, though... we take some meals off. I usually follow Kat's lead: if she's speaking in English when I meet her for lunch, than that is the language I speak as well. Sometimes halfway through our meal we switch to French, and sometimes not. We're doing the best we can, but it's unbelievably difficult to sit there, struggling to find the correct vocabulary and grammar to express each and every one of your thoughts, to a person who you know speaks your native tongue fluently. 

I've actually gotten into the bad habit of saying phrases or questions that are composed of mostly French along with one or two English words whose translations I don't know. I'm a somewhat-proud (and somewhat-embarrassed) speaker of Franglais over here in France!