As you may recall, though my French oral communication skills are progressing, my reading skills have proven... less than satisfactory. And while this unfortunate complication has helped me discover new-to-me genres (Graphic novels, Anime), it has been extremely frustrating for me to find myself without my usual reading materiel - my beloved novels. I am by no means an avid reader anymore (high school has ironically stolen me away from my paperbacks), I do love the refuge that a novel presents. So, finding myself here with bountiful free time on my hands and libraries full of books that I literally could not comprehend was positively vexing. But then - and this is the part you have been waiting for! - something happened. Something magical, something wonderful! I can read.
I'm not going to lie, I don't know what this something is. If I were to guess, I would say that it is simply time. I've been in France nearly four months now, and I suppose something just clicked. Of course, I'm no speed reader or French literature analyst by any stretch (let's be honest, I still have no idea what 1/3 of the words mean...) but I can understand a basic novel story line and I can connect with the characters! And boy am I pumped! I've already devoured two books in the last 3 weeks, John Green's superb The Fault in Our Stars (under the French pseudo Nos Étoiles Contraires) and Divergent (with an equally surprising French title of Divergente). Yes, I know both books are originally English and that I should be reading actual francophone novels to really progress my French, but hey, we have to start somewhere right? In any case, Odile has just loaned me a real francophone book called La Traversée or The Crossing which ironically chronicles the experiences of an American University student as she explores the Bretagne region... Sound familiar? Now, if you excuse me, I have to get on with Divergente 2!
No comments:
Post a Comment