Frenchville, PA … the long lost enclave of French in the United States and no one has ever cared … until now! In my FREN 410 class (La Guerre des Langues), we are studying francophone communities of North America and we all had to do presentations on a community of our choice. Silly me, I chose Frenchville …
… bad call.
Not only has no one ever cared about Frenchville in the past, those who did haven’t published hardly ANYTHING on the subject. I checked journal databases, census data, the county historical society, every web page with even the slightest HINT of information …. NOTHING! At least not until the day my presentation was due, haha.
I spent weeks researching this place and the day my presentation is due, I find the mother load …. go figure! Still, it was a good thing — my presentation was excellente (if I do say so myself)! I was terrified that I wouldn’t have enough to say, but I definitely had the most to say of anyone (and the cutest PowerPoint presentation 
) I was totally nervous before I presented; I thought I was going to be sick! Now, I can speak until I’m blue in the face … in English … but French, yeah right! I thought I was having a panic attack!
It’s so bizarre too! I spent four months living in France, speaking French all day, every day. Who knows, maybe it’s just that now I feel like I should be good, whereas before it was okay that I wasn’t, haha! In all seriousness though, I have improved a lot from studying abroad. I think I was so nervous because this was the first time I got to show off my new French proficiency … not fluent by any means, but I finally learned how to pronounce a French “r” 
