Conversations en Francais

So it has already been pointed out to me that mon Francais est tres pathetique. One of my new friends, Piotr of Poland, noted that I have an error in my last blog entry's title. It should read "Paris, je t'aime". But despite my shortcomings, I've spoke more French in the past few days than I ever have before. That's saying a lot since I took two years of the language in high school and went to university in Montreal. 

Here people have been patient with my butchering of their beautiful language. Parisiens at the bars and cafes seem to want to engage in conversations with me and my fellow travelers. Last night I had a lengthy conversation with an old man originally from Turkey who only spoke French. With the aid of some over the top gesticulation we covered topics ranging from my travel plans, American politics, the beauty of Paris and even the Olympics. We really had a breakthrough in understanding when we put on a reenactment of  the Americans stunning victory in the 4 X 100 meter men's swim relay using a handful of peanuts.  Michael Phelps was quite delicious.

What I discovered was how quickly one can improve in a language just by diving in and holding little conversations with the locals. Within one afternoon of just talking and asking questions, I was already noticeably more fluent by the end of the night. 

So I would encourage people visiting a foreign country to attempt these little conversations in the foreign language. Just swallow your pride, and perhaps a little wine. And some impromptu food puppetry couldn't hurt in the slightest.