Our French class is composed of lifestyle journalists Susan de Guzman, Leah Salterio, Margie Quimpo, Abe Florendo, myself and PR lady Joy Buensalido. And anyone who knows journalists will know that when you put them together in a room to learn something new, like French, the teacher must have the patience of a Tibetan monk.
Thank God, Gerry has the patience of a man who has five extra lifetimes to waste on us. There are times our pronunciation of French must sound like Freddy Krueger’s fingernails scratching a blackboard, but le professeur would just say "Tres bien!" in encouragement and sound like he really means it. As for the class, you can’t find a more supportive group who will not think ill of you for dropping your verbs every now and then.
"I don’t care if you’ve never taken French in your life," said Gerry when we first met him.
That’s how positive he was, never mind that language experts say children below seven are the best students to learn languages and that members of our class, to put it delicately, are well past their debuts.
Gerry majored in French and minored in English at the University of the Philippines. He also speaks Spanish and will soon start to study German and later Italian. "It was sheer instinct," he says of his choice to take up European Languages, even when he was being told back then to choose "a real course" (he had spent three years in the Philosophy program of another school and in Creative Writing at UP before transferring to European Languages).
After graduating, Gerry taught French at UP for five years, and at the University of Asia and the Pacific and Alliance Française. He also studied in France, at the Université de Franche-Comte in 1995 and at the Université de Caen in Normandy last year.
Some of the us in our class had college background in French – Susan had taken up French 10 and 11 in UP and Marge had taken up Level 1 French at Alliance Française. I also took up French 10 in UP as a language elective, but the only thing I remember from an entire semester is Je ne fume pas (I do not smoke), which doesn’t even apply to me. But I do remember my UP teacher as a young and pretty Filipina who walked across the room like she was wearing ballet shoes and that she was really annoying because when she spoke Filipino, it was with a French accent. I thought that was not only pretentious, but disrespectful to the our language as well.
So with a smattering of anglicized French words that we knew how to spell but could not pronounce, we started our class.
First lesson we learned: Le professeur does not speak English in class (even our workbook is in French). He will write it on the board in French (but never in English or your native tongue) because Berlitz’s emphasis is on oral language, not written (you’re going to learn that along the way). It actually makes a lot of sense because when you ask directions on the Paris metro, you do not have time to pull out a pad and pen. Besides, that’s how we learned our first language. When a child starts speaking at nine months old, his parents do not exactly say, "And how do you spell ‘mama’?"
A good percentage of each session is question and answer. Le professeur would ask us in French: What country are you from? What’s your nationality? Nobody seems to be from Manila or a Filipino as everybody would say Je suis Canadienne (I am Canadian) or Je suis de l’Italie (I am from Italy). Even when he would say, "La verite, si’l vous plaît!" (The truth, please!) we would go on inventing nationalities.
Since one of Berlitz’s rules is that the teacher can speak only 50 percent of the session, students are forced to participate in class. So when it is our turn to ask each other questions…let’s just say we don’t give each other an easy time. Like Leah Salterio, the class comedian, would ask Marge, "Qu’est-ce que c’est j’ai dans la main droite?" (What’s in my right hand?), holding an object for which we had no idea of what it is in French.
So, why bother taking up another language? In a world that’s increasingly becoming global anyway, isn’t English enough? Yes, it sometimes is, but because competition for jobs is so tough, a second or third language aside from English can sometimes get you the job.
"Learning another language opens a lot of doors for you as a person," says Gerry Se. "For me, just being able to communicate to the French using their language is wonderful. One of the reasons I took up French is because when I was in high school I read Les Miserables and I thought it would be nice to read it in the original."
Besides, you never know when you’ll be able to use it. About two years ago, my husband and I were in Nevers, France with some travel agents. We had just seen the museum of St. Bernadette and went to a restaurant for lunch. The only problem was the waiter could not speak a word of English and we could not speak a word of French. We ended up making animal sounds: Moooo for beef; oink-oink for pork; ba-aaaa for lamb; and clak-clak-clak for chicken. It was totally pathetic, mitigated only by the fact that the French do know how to cook.
"The hardest thing about learning French is the pronunciation," says Gerry. "But as students become accustomed to it, they learn how to how to speak correctly."
With 125 years of history and over 400 centers in 60 countries, there’s a lot backing up Berlitz Manila. The group that brought the center to Manila is a diverse one, composed of people who comes from different fields of businesses and experiences: Renato Constantino Jr., Wilson Go, Rita Kaw, Dr. Alfred Tong, Norbert Chingcuanco and Marika Constantino-Garcia.
"Theoretically, we can teach any language," says Renato Constantino Jr. "We will find a native of the country or a local who speaks it fluently and train him." Even Swahili? "Any language," he says resolutely.
Berlitz also accepts contracts with private and government institutions. For instance, the center has taught English to English teachers of some of Makati’s public schools. The teachers are first evaluated to pinpoint their level of proficiency and then the learning – in some cases the un-learning – starts.
The current instructors at Berlitz have as diverse backgrounds as the owners. Aside from Gerry Se, we met English instructor Parish Murray, an American who also conducts workshops on pronunciation, diction and script reading for commercial voice talents; and Helga Garcia, a Venezuelan who is a certified English-Spanish translator and interprets business, law, health care and industrial matters for New York firms.
Berlitz offers classes that range in size from one-on-one up to a class of 10 or 12. The more there are in your group, the lower the cost for each individual. They emphasize that just like with a university subject, you "buy units." For instance, Level 1 French usually has 50 units, but if students are fast learners and they finish the level in 40 units, the teacher would automatically go to the next level for the remaining units. Suffice it to say that if the class is slow, they may need more than 50 units for one level.
While the center admits that they charge higher fees than other language centers, they emphasize that they have the most effective and proven method of teaching a new language. "You will learn to think in the new language, in your case French," says Gerry. "That’s the only way to retain the new language." Kinda what a French philosopher said, "Je pense en francaise; donc je suis" (I think in French; therefore I am).
Helga says learning a new language is a life-enhancing experience. "It makes your soul grow. It makes you take part of a much larger world."
I’m sure she’s right. But I really have less than noble intentions. I just want to speak in a French-speaking country without that embarrassing pause as I look through a phrase book. You know, things like "Monsieur, est-ce vrai que vous avez honte de votre menu?" (Sir, is it true that you’re ashamed of your menu?) when a waiter has been ignoring us for half an hour.
As for us, Gerry’s Level 1 French class, we have been increasingly annoying non-French speaking mutual friends when we get together outside the class – and to think our sentences are still limited. Wait till we learn sentences like, "Une mode qui en a encore pour un bon quart d’heure" (It’s sure to be fashionable for at least another fifteen minutes). Then, they will have the right to complain.
Berlitz GM Marika Garcia confided to us once that Gerry Se said we were his favorite students and that he didn’t need to motivate us because we – me, Leah, Susan, Joy, Marge and Abe – were apparently brimming with it.
C’est impossible!
No, no, he really said that.
We had become the teacher’s pets without even trying.