I’ve been taking French lessons at Alliance Française de Singapour for some time now and I have sadly not been making much progress. Maybe I’m just getting too old for it but this foreign language thing seems a lot harder than it used to be. Either that or I am getting lazier to study. There’s no way to tell.

Perhaps it’s because I am not actually wired to master a language through a structured curriculum. After all, I did learn Japanese (JLPT 1 certified) by watching anime — totally true story.

In order to attack this problem from a new direction, I’ve come up with a long-shot proposal that may just be crazy enough to work. I am offering “free” Japanese lessons to any interested French speaker (of sufficient proficiency) out there who shall in return give me — you guessed it — similarly “free” French lessons. I can start anywhere from Japanese basics to JLPT preparations. Side note: This proposal works a lot better if said French speaker resides in la République de Singapour.

So, French speakers out there (in Singapore?) looking to pick up the mystical Japanese language, do drop me an email… Please?

Other courses I can offer in exchange include: “Preparing for SAT” (2310 non-superscore), “How to write an A’ Level General Paper” (straight As) and “US university application for dummies” (my own Commonapp essay makes me cry).