J'aime Mon Fils (I Love My Son)

Yesterday was my birthday. At dinner, Zach declared "My Mom speaks French". It got me thinking. On average, I spend about 3 hours a week on practicing French. As I said in a previous post, I have the same app on my computer and tablet.

I've been at it for a few months now. Only yesterday, with that comment, I realized how much French I actually know. It's still not enough to carry on a grammatically correct conversation. But, I know enough where a French person might be able to generally know what I am talking about.

By personal definition there are three levels of speaking a language:

1. know the words most people do
2. Can't converse without sounding like a caveperson, but can be understood
3. Fluent.


By "know the words most people do" I am talking the basics. Words that most people recognize. These are languages where you might know less then ten words, but you probably wouldn't even be able to identify that exact language if you heard it. You also wouldn't be able to even attempt a conversation in this language.

Sayonara ("Goodbye" in Japanese)

Ni Hoa ("Hello" in Mandarin)

Arrivederci ("Goodbye" in Italian)

 

When I say "Can't converse without sounding like a caveperson, but can be understood" I mean basically that. If I am talking to someone where either French or Spanish is their primary language, there is a chance they can understand what I mean. Even if I'm not using grammatically correct language. I'm far from fluent, but I know more then the bare bones basics. You can attempt a conversation. It would be hard, but do-able.

I might also be using some words wrong. Example, "Je amour mon fils" should be "I love my son". Je = I, amour = love  mon = my and fils = son. Yet, "J'aime mon fils" (pronounced: jay mon feese) is really "I love my son" I might do this when I know individual words but not the proper sentences. However, a French person would know what I meant if I said " Je amour mon fils". It's wrong, but they would know.

These are the languages you know letters, numbers, nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, colors, family names, ect...... and some basic phrases. They are also the languages you can identify when you see and/or hear it. You might not know all of the words, but you can correctly identify what you are hearing and/or reading as that language.

 

"J'aime mon fils" is "I love my son" in French. ("fille" pronounced "feel" is daughter)

"Amo a mi hijo" is "I love my son" in Spanish. ("hija" pronounced "E-ha" is daughter)

 

There is a big difference between "can't converse without sounding like a caveperson, but can be understood" and "fluent". Fluent is English to most people. It means you know almost every word in the language and can easily converse in it. You can understand and be understood in a language you are fluent in.

Do I really need to give an example of what I mean by "fluent"? Oh, right, I just did! I am currently only fluent in English. My goal is to become fluent in:

English
French
Spanish
Italian
German

Mandarin and American Sign Language were on that list. They are too hard for "fluent" without taking a class but my goal is still "can't converse without sounding like a caveperson, but can be understood". German might eventually fall into this category too. Nope, I don't have any plans to leave the country.

I love my son, J'aime mon fils, Amo a mi hijo. I'm pretty sure "bambino" will be in that sentence when I learn Italian but I'm not there yet.

J'aime mon fils. Sa couleur préférée est le vert. I love my son. His favorite color is green.

Mon fils is proud of me. He sees me doing these lessons sometimes. If he's around when I am doing one, I catch him listening. He likes learning other languages too. As I learn, I try to teach him some words or phrases he might like. It's a positive thing to set an example for.

Since I named this post "I Love My Son", I'll list why:

1. He's smart
2. He's funny
3. He is a great helper
4. He goes to bed really really quickly.
5. When he's not antsy, he is wonderful to snuggle with
6. He's a lot like me
7. He's got excellent taste!
8. He hugs me a lot each day :)
9. He's a fantastic kid!