Brisbane on his Manesca Lessons

….Albert Brisbane pg 60

regarding what to bring, he mentioned only copybook and pencil. I asked if I should bring my grammar. "No!" said he, "you want no grammars. They are made by grown men who know nothing of the requirements of a child. Why, they are almost too complex for me" , he added.

On commencing my studies with Mr Manseca, I was at once impressed by the naturalness of his method, and I felt a thrill of pleasure at the idea of being able to comprehend what I had hitherto considered beyond my capacity. Seating me at a table, with a blank sheet of paper before me:” Draw a line through the middle” he said, On the left put the English and on the right the French. How write, “Have you?” The French, that is, avez vous? Below it put ‘I have’, in French J’ai. Now pronounce avez vous. I repeated it after him. J’ai, he continued. I followed him again. Avez-vous? He asked. J’ai, I answered. Now, he said, put down The bread – Le Pain. He spelled it for me, and said: the last consonant in French is not pronounced when not followed by a vowel. Then he asked, avez vous le pain. I answered, j’ai le pain. To this was added the salt, the wine, the butter, the sugar, and so forth, with the negative form of the verb and some adjectives, and we entered into at once quite a conversation of questions and answers on the common necessaries of life. After an hour of such exercise I had fifteen or twenty words at my tongue’s end. I remember that on returning to the French Boarding house, to dinner, I rather astonished the persons present by asking in a very confident manner, Avez vous le vin? Avez vous le bon vin?

This first lesson was a revelation to me. I was overjoyed to find a method that I could understand, something at which I could work intelligently; and in my joyous energy I wrote out four foolscap pages of composition. When I returned to Manesca the next day, he was astonished at my voluminous exercises, for he rarely got over half a page from his pupils, he told me. The French lessons, thus started, went on very rapidly. He explained to me afterwards that the secret was in the quantity of compositions that I wrote. “Writing” he said, is the most important part of study. With me you have verbal instruction, with yourself, you have sight and touch.

I gave so much diligence to the subject, and mastered so perfectly all he gave me to do, that finally he said: There is no use in my looking over your compositions, I find no faults.” Set up by this flattering appreciation, and desirous of knowing many things at once, I suggested one day that such and such words should be given me, offering my advice with the characteristic freedom of an American boy accustomed to rely a good deal on his own judgment, and with a strong tendency to follow out his own will. Manesca looked at me with astonishment at first, then came an expression of indignation, that a pupil should presume to dictate to him the course he should follow. What! You wish to direct your won course? Then go and do it! I will not give you any more lessons, young man; you can find another teacher.” With this, he turned away from me. I sat a while confused, and considering what was to be done. Presently, he turned around and said “Why don’t you go?” I replied, “Mr Manesca, I am not going. I know your method is the only one by which I can learn French, and I am going to stay with you.” “I won’t teach you! I would not be troubled with your suggestions and dictations for any consideration” He resumed his position, waiting for me to leave. I, however, stuck to my seat, thinking and pondering how I could mend matters. Soon, he turned again and repeated, “Why don’t you go?” I repeated in turn, “I am not going I am going to stay here and study French with you”. Another pause, when to my great relief he wheeled suddenly round, and, facing me, exclaimed: Well! Well! Go on” That was the end of suggestions on the part of the pupil. I 120 lessons I had acquired such knowledge of French that I was able to carry on a free conversation on any ordinary subject, and to write a letter with ease and fluency.

After I had completed my French, I studied Spanish and Latin on the same system. At the schools in Batavia I had studied Latin some three or four years with very little result. By the new method, I saw my way clear. As it was the difficulty of the verbs that bothered me, I traced out in big characters on a large sheet of paper the conjugations of the different classes of verbs, and pinned them up on my bedroom wall. They were constantly before my eyes, and when not engaged in other studies I would look at them. Usually in the morning, before getting up, I would run over my Latin verbs.