Starting a new term

This language study lark is very ... discouraging. You don't notice when things go well. You notice every conversation where people say "eh? What?" and every time you have to stop to try and work out how to explain what you mean. And of course you forget that that happens in English, too!

So now and again it is helpful to realise how much progress we have made. And the start of term is like that. It FEELS different starting now. I am not scared of talking. Pat is confident and relaxed in class. The kids are happy and prattle cheerfully with their friends in French.

There is still some distance to go, but now it is possible to believe that we will get there, and even to begin to see the goal in the distance. It feels like we're in the foothills of Kilimanjaro now. All we have to do is climb.

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