Parle vous Francais?

Quick recap: I am a History major in first year university with a goal of working in interpretation, so at a museum or National Historic Site.

It's pretty much unanimous among everyone I talk to that, if I want to work for Parks Canada (the people who run a lot of the National Historic Sites), I have to be fluent in French. I'm okay with that. I actually want to increase my French and knowing I need it for the job I want to do is a great incentive. I don't actually have a French class until next semester, and even that is beginners French. So that means that, aside from cereal boxes, I have had hardly any exposure to French for almost 12 years. (Hence the beginners class). Because of that, and because I'm really, really looking forward to getting back into the language, I've joined the French club at school. They are a fabulous group of people. Very encouraging and friendly. I've noticed even in the few weeks that I've been seeing them once a week, my French is starting to come back. I can't speak it yet really, but I'm recognizing a lot of words and for the most part I can follow conversations.

Knowing this, I'm looking for more ways to surround myself with French so I get used to reading it as well as hearing it. I have been listening to French CBC when I'm in the car, but that's not very often. Today I was talking to the president of our club and she shared a bunch of websites for me to explore. So far my favourite is this one for French Country Music Radio. Not all the songs are in French but I'm having a blast listening to it. This is my kind of music, in a language I'm trying to learn!

I also changed my Facebook language to French (and of course Internet Explorer is freaking out "THIS WEBPAGE IS IN FRENCH. DO YOU WANT IT TRANSLATED?" No thank you!!! LOL I'm looking at changing my BlackBerry to French too. Yes it makes it a bit harder to use but that's the point. Pretty soon it will be natural!

Who knows, maybe I'll even be ready to read by the time next semester starts!