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Erin Sadler
Mr. Campbell
UWRT
30 September 2014
Hard Times of Learning a Foreign Language
I have always been a huge hockey fan. I have been a full season ticket holder for the
Carolina Hurricanes since 2002. I was even there at the game when the Carolina Hurricanes won
the Stanley Cup in 2006, honestly one of the best nights of my life thus far. Because of being
such a die-hard hockey fan, I mean I was practically obsessed with it most of my life, I
convinced myself that I will marry a professional hockey player. I mean, I am so knowledgeable
about the sport, I would be so supportive of my future husband, so I am completely qualified,
right? I realized in high school that I was required to take two semesters of a foreign language.
The only ones offered at our school were Spanish, French, and German. There are quite a few
French-Canadian hockey players in the National Hockey League. This lead to my interest in
French. There are also tons of Swedish, Finnish, Swiss, Russian, etc. in the league, but those
languages are not taught at the high school level or at least not at my high school.
Students were advised not to take a foreign language our freshman year because there
were so many required freshman classes to take and because a foreign language can be a bit
challenging. So I had anxiously been waiting my turn to sign up for French and knew that I
would sign up for the class my sophomore year.
In a blink of an eye, sophomore year rolled around. I walked into my French I class for
the first time, on my first day of sophomore year. I remember being so excited, overjoyed, and
eager to learn. I was not prepared at all for what I had to do. For someone who hates studying

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and actually never studies, learning a foreign language is not right for you. So I did run into some
problems and issues with that because of my lack of studying and lack of trying to complete
work outside of the classroom. French I was somewhat challenging at times because you are
having to learn all of the rules and you are becoming exposed to the language for the first time.
Luckily, I made some friends in the class who were pretty smart and were not super lazy about
studying like I was. They helped me out a lot in class, whenever I did not understand something.
I was slightly intimidated by our teacher, so I hardly asked her for help in class and I would just
rely on my classmates. Although I faced some challenging times, I passed the class with a B.
Second semester rolled around and I was in French II. I was still super determined to
learn French, despite having issues my first semester. I had made some friends in my first French
class who helped me a lot whenever I needed help and they were really encouraging whenever I
felt like I was not doing well in the class because of not understanding some words or
understanding how to complete an assignment. At this age, I was still really dependent on others.
I always asked my friends for help with assignments or to explain the directions again.
Unfortunately, our one and only French teacher taught two French II classes back-to-back and I
ended up in a separate class from all of my friends. This really sucked because French II was a
lot harder than French I. I did not really like the people I had class with. No one in that class
really talked to me except for one or two people. French II was actually a lot harder than French I
because you had to start forming sentences and really had to understand the language. We had to
start using pronouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. all in the right way and the right context and it was
pretty complicated and confusing, but I still made out alright with a B in the class.
Even though I had a tough time in French II, I still had a desire to learn the language
more in depth. So, I decided at the end of that year that I would take French III my first semester

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of my junior year. I figured if I did well in that class, I could go on to take French IV second
semester and then take AP French my senior year. Then, I walked into French III on the first day
of my junior year. My teacher was raddling off questions that were somewhat familiar from my
previous French classes, but I could not remember what they meant. My teacher went around the
room asking questions like: What is your name? How are you? How old are you? When
is your birthday? What time is it? What is the date? I was freaking out. I could not even
remember how to respond to these questions, let alone it took me forever to figure out what she
was asking. Since both my parents worked as teachers at my high school and were coworkers of
my French teacher, and my teacher knew me before I even enrolled in her class, she would call
on me a lot. I was embarrassed. I could not answer a single question. A few people who were
sitting around me tried helping me out by whispering and mumbling the answers. I was so upset
with myself. How could I have forgotten everything I had learned over the summer? I mean it
was just a couple of months without learning and practicing it. Even worse, I was ashamed that I
had forgotten things, and some others in our class who had not taken French for a year or more
and they were doing so much better than me.
The next day went the same way. I was so overwhelmed and so stressed that after class. I
talked to my parents about switching that class and what class I would even take in its place (I
am very picky about choosing classes to enroll in). I made a deal with my parents that I would
stick it out for another day of class, only 90 minutes, and if I still did not like being in the class
and still did not feel comfortable, then they would allow me to switch out of the class. I suffered
through a third day of class, and then went to talk to my counselor during lunch about switching
out of the class. Normally, counselors do not allow the students to switch out of elective classes
but I explained to her how I was already struggling and luckily, my counselor really liked me, so

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I was taken out of that class and I enrolled in Sports and Entertainment Marketing I. I had mixed
emotions. I was disappointed, relieved, and joyous all at the same time. I was disappointed
because I wanted to learn the language but I was too overwhelmed, stressed, and embarrassed to
stick it out and stay in the class. I was relieved because it was a big weight off of my shoulders
and I did not have to stress about it anymore. I was also filled with joy because I learned that I
actually really like Sports and Entertainment Marketing (its a possible career field that I would
not have known about had I not switched classes) and I met some of my closest friends in that
class. Even though I was not pleased with my French experience overall, I guess it all turned out
okay in the end and everything happens for a reason, so it turned out the way it was supposed to.