As September rolled around, my Mom joked that she actually missed back to school shopping. For the first time in who knows how many years, there is no purchasing of supplies of textbooks or lugging anything into campus housing! As a December grad, this is the first time I haven't been headed back to school in the Fall.

Instead, I'll be spending my free time tackling something I've been meaning to do for a while- practicing (and improving!) my French skills. Instead of back to school, it's back to full immersion French classes (at French Academy DC) for me!

I'm both nervous and pretty excited- I actually started studying French early by American standards. Starting in seventh grade, we had the option of adding French or Spanish to our schedule. I was already interested in French, and had taken a short course for middle schoolers the previous Summer. I was so excited to start- I decorated my binder, bought my first French dictionary, and dutifully studied my vocabulary and conjugations. I had an amazing French teacher through middle school, and it quickly became one of my favorite subjects.

As I've mentioned before, my department required all undergraduates to pick a language to study through the 300 level. Of course, I picked French, making it my minor. Here's the kicker- no matter how much quality academic instruction you have, it's nearly impossible to become fluent in a foreign language without living in a country that speaks said language.

As a result, my French is very academic- I can read and write much better than I can understand. This was confirmed during my time interning at the United Nations- some of my attempts to practice by listening to speeches on complex political and humanitarian issues given by native speakers weren't particularly successful :)

This is just another little step in my path towards ultimately entering the diplomatic world, so I'll face my fear of actually speaking up in my second language, gather up my notebooks, and enjoy my back to class, but not back to school :)

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