by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: March 27, 2009

There is something incredibly elegant, sophisticated, and romantic about French culture and life in general. The language is no exception. If it possible for a language in its rawest state to be poetic, the French language accomplishes that.

Some of the most exquisite literature ever written was written in French. Marcel Proust was a genius at taking the simplest and most mundane every day things, and through his careful crafting of the written word, he turned those things into memories that are known the world over.

We swoon over French food because of its elegance and simplicity. No one can deny that French food, fashions, architecture, art and more are all laden with the most incredible elegance and sophistication. For some people, the language is an extension of all of this, and because of that, they grow to love the language in a way that is difficult to articulate. I feel very much that way.

My introduction to the French language began at a very early age. My grandfather was living in Paris, as he had been since just after World War II, and my very pregnant mother took my sister and me to Paris for a summer to visit our grandfather. He had a fabulous apartment on the Left Bank, and a housekeeper who didn't speak a word of English. My grandfather's housekeeper was my first French teacher.

One of my most vivid memories involved watching the housekeeper as she did the laundry on top of the stove, boiling it in a huge pot that reminded me of a garbage can. I would sit on a kitchen counter, and she would take food out of the refrigerator, telling me what it was and asking me to repeat what she said. That summer, I only learned a few words, but I was introduced to the French culture, and I fell in love with that culture and I've been in love with it ever since then.

By the time I reached 5th grade, French was part of the curriculum, and I was fortunate enough to be able to really start learning the language at about age 10. I learned that the French language can hardly be separated from the French culture. The two are as inseparable as American English and our culture are. I continued to study French all the way through high school, and when I first went away to college, I did so as a French major.

There is something so logical about every aspect of the French language. Nothing is complicated and everything relates to everything else so neatly and perfectly. The study of any language involves a lot of memorization, but with French, it is so effortless.

When my grandfather

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