This is Marcel Damen, our First Student of the Week
Judging
from his name, you'd think that Marcel was French, but in fact he is Dutch.
Marcel is Business Development manager for African Mining Services, based
in Accra, Ghana. AMS already has several mining contracts in English-speaking
countries of Africa, but Marcel wants to develop new business in Francophone
West Africa.
Marcel learned the basics of French some years ago in secondary school, but he hadn't used it much since then and his French was pretty rusty when he arrived at La Ferme. He only had a week to spend with us this Spring, but thanks to his hard work he is now able to understand most of what he hears, and is able to express himself correctly in survival mode. He also made a good start in expanding his grammatical knowledge and vocabulary. Marcel still wants to make further improvement in his ability to speak French, so that he will feel more at ease during meetings with high level company executives and government officials. that's why he's planning to come back for another week in the Fall.
Meanwhile, he'll continue to study on his own using the second set of the French in Action video course.