fandomhigh | French Language, Literature, and Culture, Friday Period 3

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French Language, Literature, and Culture, Friday Period 3

Great news! Your teacher wasn't homeless anymore! Not that you had been worrying about that, except possibly some of you had, because Booker recognized at least one of these kids from the airport.

"Good afternoon," Booker said to his students. He looked clean and reasonably sober. Five stars. "This is French class. It is the only French class this school offers, so I am going to assume that some of you are at differing levels of proficiency. Luckily, it's a small class, so individualized instruction shouldn't be a problem. For the most part, grammar and vocabulary instruction will be done by computer, at your own pace. If you have any problems ~~handwavily~~ setting up your account, if you have any questions about any of the exercises, or if you don't know what a computer is, please see me after class or on Tuesday when I'll be holding office hours.

"I am Mr. Booker, and I will be your teacher for this semester. If you're wondering about my qualifications..." He shrugged and grinned. "Je suis Français." You might notice that 'Booker' was not a French name. No, he would not be explaining that. "Now, I would like to know what I am dealing with, so please introduce yourselves, tell me how much experience you have with French already, and something you hope to get out of this class. If you can, you are welcome to do so in French, although keep in mind some of your classmates may not understand you yet."

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Like it's Friday

Ulysses Zane

Arabella Baylor

Wayne

Astrid Magnussen

Elli

Maeve Wiley

Tahani al-Jamil

It's a real class!

It was a real class! And one where no one was throwing balls at Ulysses or expecting him to deal with a random paintball warfare scenario.

So yeah Booker was now already his favorite teacher for the term. Though the bar was very, very, incredibly low.

Aww, they didn't get to turn into dinosaurs or French people or something?

You know the drill.

"Uh, I'm Ulysses," Ulysses said, complete with an awkward little nod of greeting. "I know like a couple of words of French? But, um, I used to take Spanish at my old school and they don't have that here, so... Here I am."

"You may find that you have something of a head start because you already know one Romance language," Booker told him. "...and then sometimes that'll just lead you astray. Languages are fun that way."

"Arabella Baylor," Arabella said. "I took two years of French at my old school, but I'm not really confident in it? I'd like to get more practice speaking...so I probably should have tried this in French."

"Only way to build confidence is to practice," Booker agreed.

"Jay may-pelle Wayne," said Wayne, and, yes, that was exactly how he pronounced it, Wayne's pronounciation of French was a special treat. "Do a lot of fishin' and business over in Kay-bec, so I've picked up a pretty decent amount of frawn-says over the years."

Booker's hands instinctually went for his flask, but he restrained himself. No. No drinking during class. Not even for...that.

"Okay, well." Pause. Gather your thoughts, Booker. You can do this. "Quebecois has some significant differences from standard or Parisian French. I'll try to address those at some point, especially, the, uh...pronunciation differences."

His ears might be bleeding.

It was not going to be getting better, Booker. Not even love would have improved Wayne's French, but, to be fairrrrrr....Marie-Fred was terrible and would just encourage it.

"Looking forward to it!" said Wayne brusquely, and just be glad he decided to say that in An-glaayze

"I'm Astrid," she offered with a faint, modest sort of smile when her time came up. "I actually lived in Paris for a little while when I was younger. So it's been a while, but I loved living in France. I'd like to go back sometime, and it definitely wouldn't hurt to brush up on it a little before I do, right?"

"Definitely not," Booker agreed. "Paris is beautiful, isn't it?"

The thing Astrid remembered most about it was the cold, just like she remembered the rain most about Amsterdam, but she smiled easily, almost wistfully, because even the bad memories were beautiful in their own way.

"It really is."

"I'm Elli," she said, a bit shyly. "I don't know any French, but I'd like to learn?"

"Do you really not know any French, or are you just discounting what you already know?" Booker asked her. "Even if it's just oui and merci and bonjour and you're thinking, oh, that's nothing, it's still a start. And if you really don't know anything and you're starting from scratch, that's a very exciting place to be starting from."

Oh hey, the guy from the airport was her teacher, neat.

"Maeve," she said. "I don't know any yet but I figured it would only help."

Awkward.

"What are you hoping it will be helpful for?" Booker asked. "Besides being able to talk to the neighbors across the Channel," he added with a smile.

"In case I ever get to travel." She said it wryly, but you know. Maybe someday. "Plus it looks good to say I took it."

"Bonjour," Tahani said in fairly perfect French, and then continued on. "//I'm Tahani al-Jamil, from London, and I've been learning French since I was a child because it is tacky, classless and very American to only know one language.//" That was her mother, right there, speaking. "//I have been to Paris many times and would some day like to study at the Sorbonne.//"

Edited 2020-09-05 01:21 (UTC)

"Bonjour, Tahani," Booker said. He wasn't touching the 'tacky and classless' part with a stick, thank you very much. "//What is your favorite part of Paris?//"

"//The shopping,//" Tahani sighed happily, "//and the art.//"

If he has to teach someone to use a computer from scratch...well, it won't be the first time.

At the end of class, Summer showed up to see how things went for her teaching buddy, and she came bearing gifts.

"Hi, Booker!" The radio report earlier that day definitely tempered her grin into something a little sheepish. "You, presumably, made it through your first class! Congrats! How'd it go? Also, I brought treats! I was thinking I might actually try to make macarons, but, like, the last thing I wanted to do was fuck it up and insult the Frenchman, so I just went the safe route and went J,GoB, and also? Coffee! I figured you were sort of a 'take it black' type, so there's that, but the other one is a PSL if that's more your speed.

"Also, sorry about the whole dropping the ball on the living arrangements thing and leaving you to sleep on a park bench apparently all week, but, well, you're a grown-ass man, so I thought you'd sort of have that part covered. My bad!"

Could something manage to sound both utterly sincere and completely sarcastic? It was Summer, so, actually, yes.

Booker totally deserved that sarcasm. Totally. He was a disaster of a human being and he knew it.

"Oh, uh, Summer, hi," he said. "Thank you, you didn't have to do that. And the housing, uh, slip-up is entirely on me, don't...yeah. I will take the black coffee." And make it Irish in a minute here, which Summer would fully understand if she had heard Wayne's French.

Oh, Booker wouldn't even need to mention the French; she'd understand at just Wayne.

"I know I didn't have to," Summer said, happily handing over the black coffee with a little secret thrill that her bet had worked out, meaning she got the PSL for herself. "But I wanted to. This teaching buddy stuff is really serious business, you know."

It wasn't. At all. But Summer did actually enjoy it, and she was actually a wee bit worried about this one. But making it through the first week was a big step.

"Well, I really do appreciate it. Sorry," Booker said as he broke and took out the flask, "it's just, one of my kids was--his pronunciation was..." What was the best way to put this? "An affront to my homeland."

I totally didn't forget it was Friday, shhh.

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French Language, Literature, and Culture, Friday Period 3

Sign In

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During the Lecture

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Introduce Yourselves

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Talk to Booker

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OOC