FSL 2

Retirement is a time for new beginnings.

Just ask my friend Ermes who recently began his retirement with lots of golf and a wonderful plan to take his 90 year old father to visit some family in Italy next week. My other recently retired friend, Mario, has taken up pickleball and has become a gym rat.

September has meant a new beginning for me as well. Last Saturday, I embarked on a ten week course, French as a Second Language, FSL2, at the Glendon campus of York University. The class is composed of five students and our teacher is a young man who grew up on the French island republic of Mauritius.

We were all encouraged to get speaking in French as quickly as possible and as an ice breaker, we played a game where each person had to tell two truths and one falsehood about themselves (en francais) and then the class had to ferret out the lie.

It was a lot of fun as I learned that one class member has a twin sister, another had been canoeing in the Yukon this summer, one is from Romania, and one has four brothers who live in Columbia.

I also discovered that my French has a long way to go before I have conversation either with Justin Trudeau or Celine Dion in their native language.

But it's a good start. Our first homework assignment is to prepare a three minute talk on any subject for the class next week.

With the help of Google Translate, I've already completed about half the assignment. But it's slow going and I realize I may need some help.

Maybe I should get in touch with Fran, Jacques Carron's kid sister, for some back up.

Francoise, j'ai besoin de votre aide.