L'apprentissage (RC)

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle hiked her backpack up on her shoulders as she pushed the door open to the French tutoring classroom. True, she could probably have worked out her problems with her language class on her own, but it was so much more fun to learn with someone else. And she didn’t see anything wrong with looking for help if it was needed. No shame in asking another student for help. And you could make a new friend in the process! Pulling at the sleeves of her trusty jacket, Estelle scanned the classroom for an open student tutor.

She caught sight of a shy looking boy sitting at one of the back tables. Grinning widely, she made her way to the back of the classroom. “Hi,” She flashed him a little wave, one arm folded behind her back, “I’m Estelle. I hear tell you can help me with my French? Just as a warning: I’m totally a beginner, so feel free to mock.” She laughed lightly before plunking herself on the chair across from him.

“So, how does this work?”

[RC Manne]

RC’s mother had talked him into it. Being a tutor would be a great way to keep up with his French (which he loved!) and maybe he’d make a few new friends alone the way. At least that’s what she had said. It made some sense, and while RC wasn’t too keen on the social aspect of it all, it was worth some extra credit in his French class. All he had to do was sign is as a tutor,
and the other tutors said people didn’t even show up the majority of the time.

Easy right?

A rather sweet looking girl bopped in and immediately began to chatter with him, causing him to squirm nervously in his seat. So much for getting out of this without any awkward social situations. He shuffled some papers to the side, moving them so she could have a seat as well. “Hey Estelle. And yeah I can help…uh…usually we just sorta…” He wrinkled up his nose. “Answer questions if you bring them us and er--- I guess we could go over quizzes or tests or whatever. If you’ve had any of those yet, I mean.”

RC sighed heavily and shifted nervously again, laughing softly to himself. “Start over.” He smiled weakly at her, running a hand through his damp-looking hair. “Je m’apelle Raoul…RC, actually. This works however you want it.”

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle flashed RC an easy smile as he stammered through a brief overview of how things worked. He probably had never done tutoring before. At least, that as how it looked to Estelle. But that was okay! She’d never actually been to tutoring before. Maybe they could be friends. She felt a little bad, too. It didn’t seem like he had been expecting to have to talk to someone quite yet. Wanting to make him feel more comfortable about things, Estelle grinned, “Sounds good. I’ve never done all this before, so I yield to your judgment.” She chuckled a little, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She laughed merrily, “Aw, that’s okay. Oh! Ah, je m’apelle Estelle! Uh… Enchanté…? Is that right? Nice to meet you, right?” She rubbed the palm of her hand against her forehead. “In English! It’s nice to meet you, RC. I’m Estelle.” She held out her hand to shake his.

Estelle smiled helplessly, “See, the thing is, I do really well on the homework and stuff, as long as I have some time to think about the answers. And I do a lot better with reading and writing than I do with speaking. It’s the orality part that gets me, y’know?”

Estelle sighed, “I don’t know what we can do about that, but I’d like to try anything, really.”

[RC Manne]

“Fameux!” RC complimented. Her accent wasn’t that bad. Pretty good for a beginner, actually. She managed to get around the soft “j” and “ch” without much problem. Then again, she’d only said three words in actual French. Maybe her accent was secretly horrendous. RC wouldn’t judge. At least she’d come for help.

He managed a knowing nod, shaking her hand sheepishly. The handshake didn’t last long, as RC wasn’t too fond of physical contact. Everyone always thought his palms were sweaty. “A lot of beginners have your problem, Estelle…especially the ones with experience in other foreign languages.” He chewed the side of his cheek thoughtfully. “but if its just the speaking you have problems with, try immersing yourself in French.”

RC reached down into his backpack, digging around a bit. He spoke to the floor, making it difficult to hear, but it gave him a nice excuse not to have to make eye contact. “I used to watch Disney movies and TV and stuff in French…Music…that kinda thing. It’ll help you get used to hearing the language, and eventually speaking it.”

Popping back up like a freaked out gopher, RC stared to scribble on a sheet of paper with the pen he’d produced from his backpack. A list of arbitrary names and titles was produced, and RC pushed it over to Estelle. “There’s some of the stuff I listen to…Pop mostly. It’s the easiest to understand.” Smiling weakly, he tugged at the sleeves of his grey hoodie. “Quel genre de musique aimez-vous?”

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle laughed a little gleefully. This could be fun! “Thanks!” She grinned happily, “I get nervous sometimes. I’m glad I didn’t totally mess up my French right then and completely ruin your first impression of me.” She waved her hand in the air in a helpless gesture. “That kind of thing does happen a lot.” She confessed with an easy smile. Estelle didn’t mind laughing at herself; she thought it was kind of healthy to do so. Taking yourself too seriously was the first step to madness. Or something very close.

She listened to the other teenager talk about her issues with the language. The boy certainly seemed to know what he was talking about, even though he only made shy, glancing eye contact. “Okay.” Estelle nodded her attention, “Immersing. Got it. Do you have any suggestions how to do that?”

And of course, he did. Estelle leaned forward a little bit as he ducked behind his desk to get something out of his backpack. “They have Disney movies in other languages?” Estelle looked surprised, “That’s awesome! Where can you find these? Like, are they on the internet anywhere?”

Estelle jumped slightly as RC popped back up with a list of things to listen to. She took it with a bright, grateful smile, “Thanks!” She scanned the list, noting the songs that she’d heard of and those that she hadn’t. When RC asked her a question in French, Estelle momentarily froze, taken aback. “Um.” She stared at the middle distance, concentrating. Okay. Context clues. “Genre” is an obvious word, he said something that sounded like “music” and it was a question. So, he probably asked what kind of music I like or listen to… “Okay… J'aime tous les genres de musique, en fait.” Hopefully, she got that right. She made a nervous, scrunched face, “Hope that didn’t suck too hard.”

[RC Manne]

Nervous sometimes? Boy could RC relate to that. He was a constant nervous breakdown waiting to happen. That and his moistness were pretty much his life’s only constants. And Jean. Being annoying. But that was something different. RC envied Estelle in a way, where RC would have been crippled by embarrassment, Estelle was able to laugh it all off and move on. That was a serious skill. It also managed to put RC somewhat at ease. “N-no! Come on.” He encouraged. “It was fine. Don’t be so down on it.”

He shrugged lazily. “YouTube has a lot of them, but they’re all in pieces. You can order some like “Toy Story” and “Aladdin” off teaching websites.” RC chuckled quietly. “Honest to god, you can find pretty much anything on the net. Just watch out, some of them might be international DVDs only, which means they won’t play in American DVD players.”

RC waited for her to decode her half of the conversation. He recognized the signs of trying to translate spoken French into English, but only mentioned it after she was done talking. “That was great! Just try and think in French…I know its weird, but it’ll help you. I know its hard too.” RC leaned languidly on his chin, slipping slowly down to lay on his elbow. “Have some confidence.” He smiled sweetly over his forearm at her. “You can do it. You’re just beginning.”

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle smiled brightly as RC encouraged her. He seemed like such a nice guy. If a little constantly embarrassed. She hoped he would feel better eventually. She certainly wasn’t used to making people feel awkward. “Thanks.” She grinned, “I’m working on it.”

“Okay, cool.” Estelle nodded, then laughed, “It’s so true. You have to be pretty careful on the internet sometimes. It can be tricky.” She snickered, cringing a little bit. “But I’ll check it out. Does it cost to get things off of teaching websites? I love Toy Story,” She confessed with a sheepish blush. She loved the Disney/Pixar movies. So. Much. It went right up there with the History Channel.

Estelle looked confused and thoughtful at his words. “Think in French…Okay. I can do that.” She rubbed the back of her neck, “Any tips on how to do that? My French vocab isn’t that great.”

She returned his smile with one of her own, “Thanks. And thanks for helping me out, too. I really appreciate it.”

[RC Manne]

“Yeah. You order them off of the sites. So it costs about as much as like, Amazon.” He explained, remembering how fed up his mother had become with him asking for the movies. She’d eventually just bought enough to keep him happy for a while. Sheepishly, he shrugged and smiled. “Actually, my mom bought me Toy Story and Toy Story 2 for Christmas this year. I can loan them to you, if you want.” He wasn’t sure why she was blushing. Toy Story was totally cool.

Chewing the inside of his cheek, RC hummed in thought, his feet tapping nervously against the floor. “Well, I know it sounds weird, but the less time you spend trying to use your brain like a filter-translator thingy and more just like…well…your brain; the easier time you’ll have speaking in French. It’s like…thinking more direct.” RC tented his fingers and squinted slightly. “It’s like…Instead of thinking ‘okay I need to say My favorite color is pink in French. Okay those words are…blahblahblah’.” He began. “You’d want to think “He asked me quelle est tus couleur préférée? so ma couleur préférée est rose. Make sense ? “

There was a short pause and RC sank into himself slightly, looking ashamed. “You’re…favorite color probably isn’t pink.” He grumbled. “but still. The illustration stands, I guess.”

[Estelle Flores]

“Oh okay, that’s cool.” Estelle made a quick note in her notebook. That would be cool; a really fun way to improve her French. And her friends made fun of her love of Disney movies. So silly. “That would be awesome, actually.” Estelle nodded eagerly, “I have to say, I’m really relieved that this is an option. I was worried that I’d just have to keep sludging through all the worksheets and stuff and that gets really tiring.” She laughed lightly. She enjoyed studying and academia, but rote memorization got pretty old after a while.

“Yeah, no, that makes sense,” Estelle nodded thoughtfully. “I guess this means I have to expand my vocabulary, I think. And touch up on grammar.” She made a face. Estelle and grammar had a strange relationship. She loved using it; wasn’t so keen on studying it. “Any helpful, magical tricks for that?” She teased, grinning at RC.

She giggled, “Actually, my favorite color is purple. But close enough. Yours?” Her grin grew wider, always willing to joke around.

[ooc: teeny >.<;;; sorry ilu]

[RC Manne]

“It totally does.” RC agreed. “And its important and stuff, but not always for language subjects…I mean…” RC scratched his head. “Like, we never learned English by memorizing stuff. We learned it by listening to the people around us, talking to our parents and watching TV or whatever. That’s the easiest way to learn a new language…just like you learned your first when you were a baby.” He explained. At least that was the way he saw it. If nothing else it helped with accent.

“Grammar?” RC repeated, making a disgusted face. “Unfortunately no. Grammar will always be the bane of your existence.” He said with a helpless shrug and little laugh. There really was no way to practice grammar like their was for vocabulary: you just had to get it. Otherwise you were sunk.

RC blushed a bit. “Yeah, you don’t seem like much of a pink girl. But Purple is cool.” Chewing his cheek while he thought of an answer to her question, RC twiddled his thumbs. “Uh…I…Like…Maroon?” He made a skeptical face. “Or I own a lot of stuff that’s that color.”

[Estelle Flores]

“That makes sense.” Estelle nodded, mostly to herself. “I imagine it’s less formalized as well, so you get a better feel for the language as a casual speaker would say it?” She wasn’t really sure, but that made sense to her. Truthfully, she was already planning a Disney movie night with Ruth. Excitement!

Estelle rested her cheek in her hand with a mock pout, “Bummer. Grammar and I are mortal foes, doomed to be entrenched in battle for all eternity or something.” She mirrored RC’s disgusted face for just a moment before breaking out into a wry grin, “It’s all very dramatic, I’m sure. But somehow, I will survive.”

“Purple is cool.” Estelle agreed absently, nodding. RC was a pretty cool guy, she decided. He was a little awkward, and lacked pretty much any confidence in the world, but he was fun to hang around and clearly not trying to flirt with her, which was nice. Not that it happened all the time, or anything, but it was something to consider. RC just seemed very…sweet. “Maroon?” Estelle repeated, grinning in surprise, “That’s pretty awesome. I have to say, I have never heard anyone say maroon is their favorite. That’s pretty cool.”

[RC Manne]

“Exactly!” RC agreed, nodding encouragingly. He then laughed a little bit. “I can’t say it will help you learn all the book words for how to speak French, but it will help you get the hang of it, I swear.” He chuckled as she played along with his joke, shrugging a little bit. “I’m sure. Besides, there are harder things out there than French.” He added.

Sinking a bit into his chair with embarrassment, RC cut his eyes to the side. “Uh…yeah. Maroon.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I sound pretty lame, huh?” He shook his head and smiled widely. “Oh well…can’t take it back I guess.”

[OoC; @.@ Shooorrrrt]