I’ll soon be off to Italy to start studying the Italian language. I know what I have to look forward to because I remember my French classes from years ago. I remember my confusion and my struggles with strange grammar concepts. But being able to speak French is certainly worth it and I know that whatever new difficulties I will face in Italy will be worth it to speak Italian. They say that a second foreign language is easier to learn than the first one. I’ll let you know. I wrote this little poem several years ago about those foreign language learning struggles.
French Class: A Poem by Margo Lestz
French Class
The teacher speaks French and what do I hear?
Noise! Gibberish!
What am I doing here?
What does he mean, all nouns have gender?
Masculine books? Feminine chairs?
How can I remember?
The teacher speaks French and what do I hear?
A word? I think I heard a word
Though it wasn’t very clear.
Oh no, more grammar. Here we go again
With un, une, des and le, la, les,
My head is in a spin.
The teacher speaks French and what do I hear?
Words! I definitely heard words!
I want to jump up and cheer!
I hear a beginner complain, and to myself I smile,
It’s not so hard, I say,
You’ll get it after a while.
-Margo Lestz
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