My memory of school French is of sitting in a wobbly grey pre-fab block placed thoughtfully where our netball court should have been, with a rather glamorous Mademoiselle. It was a severe all-girls school and she stood out by being the only one to wear heels and fluffy sweaters in bright colours.
And apart from having to take on a pseudo name just for use in French classes (the point of which still eludes me, and incidentally mine was Bernadette), the only actual lesson I remember was when Mademoiselle spent an entire afternoon with her lips puckered and her tongue rolled upwards against the back of her teeth, repeatedly saying ‘tea’.
The point is, that when you do this, you come out with the perfect ‘tu’
And you know, it works really well, except when your rusty mind is preoccupied with finding the word you need to follow ‘tu’ or if you’re really advanced, the one that will come after that one. Or perhaps you’re wondering whether you should be using ‘tu’ at all; maybe this is one of those intimidating ‘vous’ situations?
And in either case, pausing to pucker and roll and think ‘tea’ instead of ‘too’ really isn’t an option.
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