pardon my (limited) French

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It's been around two years since I've started taking weekend classes in French. And so far, I've only been able to practice speaking it in school or mostly (outside school) with Matty and Val (when they don't use one of those code languages). When I was at UNLEASH, I could understand bits and pieces of conversations running in French but my listening skills with the European accent were still poor; I wasn't expecting myself to understand the African accent of my fellow participants.

And so when I was at the Philippines-France Forum on Agriculture, Matty made sure that I had practice time with French speakers (I think he gets a kick out of hearing me speak it with a Spanish accent and pointing it out). Tanguy Lafarge (from CIRAD) and another guy (I didn't catch his name) were speaking like my teachers in AFM... I understood many of their sentences when they talked more slowly than their usual pace. The second guy told me that I have to work on my intonation but my accent was already good.

Ha! I know that my French still sounds Spanish, but I shall take the compliment!

He also said that the best way to learn French is to be in France for some time... definitely more than the afternoon that I spent in Thonon-les-Bains just before I decided to learn the language. 

Hmm... but before I do go visit again, I should have better speaking and listening skills. So for now, I shall continue learning it in school. In a few weeks, my class starts Level A2.5. 

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