When understanding a language, many people are very excited to try to speak to native speakers, but not me. I grew up with two parents who are fluent in French, had Au Pairs who spoke French, and I took 4 years of French in high school; so I can understand what most people are saying when speaking French as well as speak some French. But when I went to Senegal this summer I refused to speak or even let them know that I knew what they were saying. When trying to do something new, I do not like to do it in front of people who already can do it because I don’t want to be the only person making mistakes. I think part of the reason was that when I was learning French I would come home and try to talk to my dad, whose native language is French, and he would tell me that all the words my teacher was teaching me weren’t the words people use in every day conversation. I believe this caused me to be more aware of what I was saying and also caused me to not want to speak French for I was learning it wrong.