‘Yes. Yes, I Think You Are.’

Another humbling experience in Switzerland….

Matt and I started our French class on Wednesday night. We didn’t make it through the entire class though. Prior to the class we took a written test to determine our level. We both barely tested into the A2 course (A1 is the beginners course). We were very apprehensive about starting at this level as we know our speaking skills are limited. We even expressed this to the school, but we were told that we needed to start at that level since we tested into it. We were told to just be confident in our skills.

Confidence had nothing to do with it. Five minutes into the class, we realized we were in way over our heads and had already agreed to make our get-away during the break. Most of the people in the class had taken several years of French in school! One girl even had seven years of French classes. We spent the first half of the class sweating and anxiously sitting on the edge of our seats because the instructor was randomly calling on people to read from the textbook and answer questions. I knew we were done for when Matt was called on to read. This is how it went from there:

Me whispering to Matt: “I think she just called on you to read.”

Matt whispering back to me: “I’m not saying anything.”

Me whispering to Matt: “You have to say something.”

Matt looks directly at the instructor and says in English: “I’m in the wrong class.”

The instructor saying: “Yes. Yes, I think you are.”

I wanted to die right there of embarrassment. The instructor took a break shortly after that and immediately came over to us. The first thing out of her mouth was, ‘Did you take a test to get into this class?’ She was surprised when we said that we took the test and passed into this level. We left right after that!