French As A Spectator Sport

On Saturday evening I met up with a few teachers from my school and their friends (one of the benefits of working in a ZEP school is that the teachers tend to be a lot younger and cooler). They all speak English (one would hope that the English teacher would have a mastery of very well and because I have a tendency to be very lazy we usually speak in English. Because I end up not using my limited French skills with them they have a tendency to think that I can't speak French at all. I tried to explain to them that it's easier for me to speak French to complete strangers such as fonctionnaires at the prefecture or at the offices of l'assurance maladie. So after a few glasses of wine on Saturday I decided to bust out my French skills and each time I was either greeted with a round of applause or the response "wow, good job."

So my speaking French with them has become a sort of spectator sport where they listen to me fumble through the language and then applaud me for my efforts. If this keeps up I just may start speaking French on a more consistent basis.