French Lessons

Part of my summer is going to be spent studying mathematics in France, but international study is not complete without a foray into the language. I've always been very interested in linguistics, and one of my long-term goals is to be a polyglot (which first means turning my 4 years of German and 2 years of Chinese into actual mastery), so I was pretty excited when I found my professor had arranged thrice weekly morning lessons here at the CLA (Centre de Linguistique Appliquée) Besançon. Our lessons are complete immersion style; the teacher speaks only French, which was quite difficult at first. The only "experience" I have with the language comes from my exposure to Spanish this spring when I visited Mérida, Yucatán to work on a community garden irrigation project; other than the occasional Spanish or English cognate, I'm completely in the dark. Luckily, everyone in town is very helpful and accommodating.