My First French Lesson with Italki

I just had my first French lesson with Mika on italki. We spoke in English and French, often with her correcting what I thought she was saying. I learned that my pronunciation and enunciation need improvement. I thought my main struggle was listening, but I think it’s confidence. I don’t always feel confident with French. But I want to. So this was a great first lesson. It was awkward at first, at least for me. I was sweating in my chair. Mika displayed a lot of patience. She was especially patient with my attempts at “crayon” and a few other words that require almost a rolled “r.”

I spoke a little about reenacting, camping, and my friends. She listened, provided positive reinforcement when I nailed something, and lightly corrected my phrases. I mumble, so one personal challenge will be enunciating clearly in French. I mean, they practically mumble through their words, but at least I’ll be understood! Mika helped me work through the lack of rules when it comes to regions. Cities, states, and countries are all over the place when it comes to how you incorporate them in a sentence. La France. Au Quebec (province). A Quebec (city). En Maine (I think…)

The hour-long lesson came a week after I had initially planned one. Strep canceled the first class, so I was happy to finally get rolling. A lesson of one hour is $22 (with Mika). We worked straight through with just three minutes remaining. I think my favorite pronunciation is “En Géorgie”. It’s pronounced, “on jha-orgie”. Orgie. Haha! Dalton will get a kick out of that. The lessons are well worth it, even if I’ve only had one so far. I’m going to order a few more to continue. I will also practice with the people who speak it here.

Overall, italki seems like a great option for learning French. Sure, I’d like to converse with the people here, but I like this format. One, I’m paying for it. There’s more incentive for me. Two, it has a classroom feel, so I stay focused. The first lesson was all over the place. I think it allowed Mika and I to assess my capabilities and gauge interest. I’ll see how I progress. I hope to be more comfortable before my Quebec trip with Will.