J’aime le français!

The last time you heard from me, I was on my way to China. I stayed with two families--the Hu's and my wonderful Chinese tutor from Brattleboro, Tian and her American husband. Tian works with an NGO that helps Chinese families who have children with autism. Some uneducated Chinese people think that autism is the result of bad karma from a past life. Tian is working to help them understand that ASD is a medical diagnosis.

China is a very different culture from ours. It is less relaxed and it is very easy to accidentally insult people or make a faux pas. Because of my autism, I basically faux pas-ed my way across Shanghai. 

Let's just say that on the way home from China I made a list of 13 things I would rather do with my life than keep studying Chinese. After all, I was already fluent and my school doesn't offer much beyond Chinese 5, which I had mastered...so time to move on. Which brings me to....

J’aime le français! (Number four on my list of 13.)

Bonjour, je m'appelle Casey. Et vous?

I know that autism has been a big obstacle in my life. It is why I eat lunch alone every day (okay, I have a para-educator with me, but that's not the same as eating with my peers). But autism can also be a gift in certain ways.

Like with languages, I am able to be super-focused on learning languages because I am able to block out all other stuff and dedicate 100 percent of my brain to soaking in French. In the ASD world, French would now be what is called my new "restricted interest."  It kind of like is an obsession but obsession seems like a negative term.

So now I am learning le français both at school (French 1 with Madam Cassidy) and on weekends with my new French tutor, Madam Ashley, who lives in Brattleboro but is from Paris. There are lots of French-speaking people here in Vermont because we are near Quebec, a French part of Canada. There are a lot of families who have relatives across the border. I hear a lot of people speaking French here on the street, in stores and in restaurants. 

Well, au revoir for now!