Toshi's CCF activities (as of April 2009)

People -old friends, new acquaintances, random strangers I meet on the street, far relatives who had just seen me— still inquire me regarding what I am doing these days.

Well I tell you here: I'm studying French on a daily basis now.

I am no longer learning French by that usual self-study method. Nah, of course not.

Rather, there is a French-based institution that I attend in the Kebayoran Baru district of South Jakarta: CCF (centre culturel français), where I am taking intensive French lessons from 8 to 12 every Monday to Friday. For one whole term which lasts seven weeks, one is obliged to pay Rp 2.1 million (inclusive of books and CD). Not a bad deal indeed.

Since the class I attend in CCF requires one to be able to come every workday, the types of people who take these intensive lessons are mainly limited to:

• Those who are looking forward to take their Bachelor's or Master's degree in France, Belgium, Switzerland, or other Francophonic countries.
• Those soccer moms who have a lot of pastime to spare.
• Those who had just graduated from university and finds that since it is difficult to find a job during this economic crisis, it is better for them to add a mastery in French to their job résumés.
• Those who are merely adding one more language proficiencies to their collections, hoping that it will provide useful several years down the road    <--- (Yep, Toshi belongs to this group!)
• Those nouveau riches who have just picked up basic English after a shopping spree in Singapore with their similarly Louis Vuitton-toting bitches pals and looking forward to master French in order to show off their classiness when invited to their husbands' colleagues' parties. However, since it is an undeniable fact that they only rely on their large stacks of cash that their husbands earn (but little amount of brain cells), they are discouraged from attending the lessons after a day or two when they find out that French words are too difficult to pronounce.

Ah, forget the last part.

If you happen to be a dude, here I tell you: French learners everywhere consists of a gigantic majority of 95% female and 5% male.

What a pathetic imbalance, I say. French is just a language, not some other methods to understand the nooks and crannies of modes, fashion, cosmetic, and other female-related hogwash.

CCF is by far the best language-learning institution that I have ever attended. In a mere duration of seven weeks (which had ended yesterday), all pupils have been equipped with the abilities sufficient to make a two-paragraph simple story, make a short speech, and conduct an intermediate-level conversation of French.

And that was just for level 1.

Now I am looking forward to attend level 2 which is going to commence on this 13th of April.

To begin a new intensive class, CCF requires a minimum threshold of eight pupils and as of today there are merely six pupils from level 1 who has confirmed of taking the second grade. Gee, I just wish there would be at least two newbies who sign up for this new class!