Minu nimi on Pierre!!!

      I so wanted to start my Estonian classes. It’s been 2 weeks I’ve been here in Parnu and it was frustrating not to be able to talk to people in their own language. You feel like a stranger in a room full of people. I hate this situation so I prefer to be able to understand the local langue people talk when I’m staying long enough in a place or in a country. Talking the same language makes contact easier and you are more integrated. You can have good laugh when you try to say some difficult words!!

     So this morning after passing at the bank to get my card, we arrived at our organisation and finally meet our Estonian teacher, Katre. It’s a shame Katerina and me are not both French or both can speak this language as Katre is also a French teacher. It would have been easier to have the teacher using your mother tongue for a new language. We started our class by spelling words that are very similar to English or French, like bus, coffee (kohv in Estonian), and move to the alphabet. That will be the hardest part for me as some letters are very similar to what we use in French but they make it harder, lol. For example, U is pronounced as the same sound OU in French and if you want to pronounce it separately, you will need to write Ü. They also have the ~ in some vowels. The “J” is pronounced like a “Y” but they don’t really use the latter. Or is it simply because I haven’t met one word using this letter?

     The book we will use is not the simplest one but the more efficient according to our teacher. It has some kind of vocabulary at the end for Finnish, Russian and German. That may sound weird to you but Estonian is very close to Finnish and Russian but also to German as they were a German territory for centuries. I will need to be very good and work hard during the classes as the previous volunteer in just 3 months could speak very good Estonian and was able to write almost on his own the small exhibition he prepared for the French Speaking day he organised last year. The next one is next March, 20^th but I will talk about it in due time!! As they say here, Nägemist !!