It's So Sexy

Level 1 general French at L'Alliance Française de Hong Kong was a piece of gâteau, not because I'd long completed grade 9 French back in Toronto (sadly, the only thing I could remember from the mandatory French I took back then was "Je ne sais pas"), but because most of my classmates have enough trouble with English as it is, let alone with our teacher's heavy Parisian accent. Hence most of the 30 hours was spent on explaining and further explaining the meaning of English words.

$1690 for 30 hours is bon marché indeed. The teacher explained that this is as cheap as language courses get in Hong Kong. Alliance Française made sure its courses were more affordable than those offered by the British Council and similar institutions for other European languages, so as to attract more students. In fact, the competitive pricing drew in a diverse student body, comprising highschool students, si-lais, and those in between.

The 20-student capacity we started with, however, was down to 12 students in the last class. Actually, the class pretty much shrank to that size only three weeks into the course. That illustrates: a) how little determination people can have with something they once thought they were interested in, and b) how well off these people (or their parents) are as to be able to fork out close to 2K (paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the term) for classes they do not attend.

Needless to say, I was the best student, and probably the only A student, in the class. I can't wait to master just enough phrases so I can pretend French is "my thing".