Star Pupil- Carolyn Wows Her French Class

(But not how you think)

Back in October, Roberto and I went to the Alliance Francais in Montpellier for two weeks to work on our French. Roberto wrote about his experience at the time. He was in the beginner French class and I was in the intermediate. I took French in high school and college and Roberto took Spanish. It says a lot about him that he is willing to move to a new country and start at square one with a new language. For what it’s worth, I was an advanced beginner a year and a half ago, and Duolingo brought me up a level (from A2 to B1).

We worked on the subjective - je souhaite que tu sois ici (I wish you were here) - and then conditional past - si internet n’avait jamais existé (if the internet had never existed). The theme for my week on the subjunctive tense was protest and causes. Il faut que nous aidions la Terre (we must help the Earth). One day our homework was to choose a cause and create a flyer for it.

We have already complained to you about the lack of ice in drinks in France, and we told you about their bizarre belief that it is actually bad for you and your stomach.

I asked for “beaucoup de glacons s’i vous plait.” A lot of ice, please. Good grief.

So I decided quickly on my cause: the promotion of ice!

Some of our readers know that I have another Substack that is a serial graphic novel that I create with AI. I decided to use my AI art skills on my homework (please excuse any grammar mistake. I am still a student after all).

Translation:

Everyone knows it is better to be dead than to drink a hot Coke.

Without ice, a glass of water is like a glass of sand.

The world is becoming hotter and hotter.

The French are too thirsty, too tired, to fight the problems of the world.

Ice does not give you a stomachache! This is a cruel lie.

Ice is very good! (This rhymes in French, which made me very happy. Glaçons sont très bons!)

My graphics knocked the socks off my teacher and my class, who had mostly used stick figures to draw their flyers. They asked how long it had taken and I told them around an hour, which they thought was unfathomable. During the break, the teacher took it to show the other teachers and I said she could keep it.

There were many questions for me at this point and this is where my French fails me. I can say the basic things like “I used artificial intelligence. I am creating a graphic novel using artificial intelligence,” but I can’t convey the nuances of why: It is my imagined memoir set in the year 2028. I am examining what the effects of AI will be on art and creativity and what the new role of artists will become, if we are needed at all. I am using AI to contemplate AI. It is meta.

I appreciate that even in English this is abstract. The name of my novel made no sense to anyone, in French or English! "This Memoir Will Be Written by Robots.” And herein lies the difficulty of me making French friends in French. I can speak, but I speak like a five year old with no complex opinions or capacity for critical analysis.

How I appear to the French.

This is part of why I plug away at French every morning on Duolingo and work with a tutor every week. Life in France will only work for us if we can be ourselves, and we can’t be ourselves without being fluent. Frankly, not yet being able to make a solid joke keeps me motivated. What is life without smart ass remarks?

About a week after I had finished my French class I ordered a Jack and Coke with beaucoup ice. And look what I got! You guys, my protest movement totally changed France.

So much ice we had to take a picture to prove it was real.

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time)

Carolyn & Roberto

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