My interest in the French language

This post is a post about a reason why I am so interested in the French language.

My interest in the French language at Expo

I was four years old when my parents too the family to Expo 67 in Montreal. It was the worlds fair. I can remember it like it was yesterday. We drove up in the family station wagon, which had wood on the side. I was there with my two sisters and brother, my younger brother was not yet born. When we go there it was in the 90s, and my first impression of French Canada was it was hot. I did not know anything of north and south.

Crossing the boarder into Quebec, took a bit as there was a lot of traffic going to the world’s fair.

On that family vacation I was fascinated by the different culture of French Canada.

French language in Quebec – my second trip

My second childhood trip to Canada was a camping adventure. When I was seventeen years old with my childhood friend George Wheat, we took a camping trip to French Canada. It was in the area of Sherbrooke Quebec. We went camping just all over the border. It was back then on this trip, I got my real first taste of native speaking French.

We stayed in some campsite in the middle of a forest, it’s right over the border.

At one point we got lost hiking new trails. However, once we found a road a friendly Quebec lumber jack gave us a ride in his truck. I tried some of the French language I learned in school but he knew in two seconds that we were from the States. We were English speaking Americans. He was still friendly but had a different attitude towards us. It wasn’t the same as if we were French and for me at eighteen to being it was all a very interesting experience and a good experience for me to practice my French.

On that trip we had subsequent interactions with other French language speaking Canadians on that trip including buying ice cream from two beautiful French girls at a roadside ice cream stand. But that is another story.

These two trips, one to Montreal the other to Quebec, combined my childhood trip to Montreal, my amazing French lessons with Madame Lessard in Junior high school. Madame Lessard was a French teacher who made the French language come to life. Great positive memories as she was always encouraging. I thought the French world was something at least curious.

To a modern reader this story does not sound like anything amazing. But remember I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and back then people did not travel like they did today and we did not have the Internet or any exposure to foreign countries. We had three stations on TV and the world was very large and spread out. Our lives were very innocent. Therefore, any limited exposure was something, like the trips above were amazing. It is like little events had more significance.

After 18 and my interest in the French language

I studied French to the literature level at my University and even hitch hiked around France. I have since moved to Europe and am an EU citizen. My interest in the French language continues and I am writing French language programs. I will have French language French cards.

I think my early experiences fueled this interest. They were warm childhood memories and when you have something like that they can have an affect on your for your life. So these were my early experiences with the French language.

My interest in the French language