La Muse English & French Classes

Just back from the first bilingual conversation course offered by La Muse at the social hall here at Labastide Esparbairenque. It went well!

The idea was to offer French conversation courses to La Muse artists and writers (which we've been doing for years) but to extend the sameopportunity to locals needing to learn French, as well as locals wanting to learn English.

First, our attendees like to know about the area and often find themselves at the bread truck wanting desperately to be able to communicate with our French neighbors who want desperately to communicate with our Anglophone clients. Also, we have all these newcomers (a lot of them previous attendees) who've bought houses here and, come on, need to learn the language of their second home! Call it a lingual bridge class...

So, Helene Geyre - she runs a Lama Farm - the French teacher, had two students, Ralph (a toothless Englishman who is often spotted walking in a kilt with his dogs; he lives in nearby Mas Cabardes) and our attendee Michelle Lovegrove Thompson, a writer and filmmaker from Canada (her 26th birthday is Friday). I (Kerry) had three students, Claude and Lillian (both neighbors) and Yvonne (from Roquefere). They're all around 70. I tried to teach them the basics of introduction (What's your name, Where are you from, How old are you, What do you do, etc). It was my first class ever. They were all looking forward to coming back next week...will keep you posted on how it goes!

Salut! (And thanks to John for taking care of the boys!)

Kerry