I hate French

Not the French, just french. I worked a really good rant up the other day and got it half blogged and blogger kablooyed and then I got twice as angry but in a deflated why-do-I-bother way and gave up. The anger has not dissipated so I'm going to blog and maybe it will go away.

So I signed up for French class at work thinking that it would be a good thing to learn and thinking I would expand my horizons and learn and grow and all that. Also, I like french and it would be good for my career and work was paying for it, so I figured why not?

First, I am convinced that the guy who assessed me was on some king of reality altering drug, cause the answers I gave I am positive didn't add up to the level of French I was placed in. Sure I know some french, but the level seemed a little iffy to me. Plus the assessor kept asking me odd questions like "Can you describe to me, in French, how to get to the boardroom?" I said "no, but I can't tell you in English how to get to the boardroom, either-I suck at directions." Okay. I suppose that wasn't the best way to answer. But it was the truth.

So I go to French class with a co-worker and I find out that everyone else has been in the class since October. October folks! Asti! How am I supposed to catch up to that? THEN they go through the last test they wrote, and I am quickly finding out that I am in the wrong level. It would seem deceptively easy and then WHAM, Tirade is beaten over the head with the french grammar. Stuff I've never even heard of.

Oh, did I tell you the part where they didn't have any course materials for me? The instructor basically said "oops, guess I'll have to order some more." (in french, I got that part) No mention on how long that would take, or really what I was supposed to do in the mean time.

THEN, because it took so long to go over the test, we didn't get any of the modules completed before the end of class, so she said "well, guess you'll have to do the next six at home and see you next week." No lessons, no nuthin. Apparently the instructor is just there for show, the book does all the work.

Did I mention that throughout the class the instructor would basically make fun of the students? She's say things like "you really should know this by now," and "that's easy, why can't you do that?" (of course she never said that to me cause I imagined I looked sufficiently pissed by that time). Nothing like a positive learning environment ladies and gentleman. By half way through the class I was thinking about how to fake some kind of emergency or start a fist fight with my co-worker to get thrown out of the building. After the lesson she and I had a major debrief and decided we weren't going to return. I talked to someone in another of her classes and she actually said that she found the instructor 'scary.'

So now I'm kind of scared of french, and I hate being afraid of things, so it makes me pissy. I am not sure whether I'll try again at any level. I know that I'll definitely not attend with that instructor. I'd rather take a staple gun to my own tender goodies than put myself back there.

So much for my fun learning experience. Next time I'll take up something more fun, like accounting.

I wonder if I'll feel less angry now?