Why bother cultivating patience? Learning a foreign language, and especially French, can be frustrating. It is so difficult to develop a steadiness of mind to have patience. It’s so easy to, just like an electrical switch, flip on the anger, frustration, and panic. Information is traveling faster and it makes us feel as if the world is turning faster. We can know so much about events in the world, but they can be troubling — famine, earthquakes, floods, forest fires. It is important to stop, breathe, and find beauty. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a French writer who lived in the time of the Enlightenment (18th century). He wrote that patience can feel bitter, but it bears sweet fruit. It is hard work, but there are rewards. Rewards, whatever they may be, can increase over time. It may be better skills at listening to people, better skills at forming ideas and saying what we think, better skills at handling a schedule that seems hurried, harsh, and exhausting, better skills at finding patience to help us develop more peace in living the life we wish to live. Rousseau was famous for his ideas which influenced the Western world and our American founders.
Rousseau also had some interesting ideas about children and parents. He said that children should have time to be exactly what they are — children. Amazing. Generally, in his age, as soon as children could handle going to the bathroom by themselves, they put on adult-style clothing and were treated like adults. No childhood! Imagine that! Boys began to wear britches and girls kept wearing dresses. Both boys and girls were taught how to sit, walk, and behave in public. Both boys and girls had to show respect for their elders.
So what does this have to do with French? Well … it helps to respect people. Teachers and parents worked hard to get you where you are. Developing patience will help when having conversations with them. Call on patience when learning a language, especially French, which is so exasperating with its liaison and funny sounds. But it’s just how other people say and do things. That is all. With patience a whole world opens up and things just seem so much more straightforward. Here are some simple expressions in French using the word “patience.” Notice how the verb, “avoir,” is conjugated.
J’ai de la patience. I have patience. Tu as de la patience. You have patience. Il a de la patience. Elle a de la patience. He/she have patience. Nous avons de la patience. We have patience. Vous avez de la patience. You have patience. Ils ont de la patience. They have patience. Elles ont de la patience. They have patience.
Ayez de la patience! Have patience!
Si on a de la patience, on aura de bons résultats. If one has patience, one will have good results.