I dunno about the French part, but if you do mean 'start studying' then you could be more specific by saying 勉強し始めるかもしれない (べんきょうしはじめるかもしれない）.
Decimus, it looks like you're quoting me as well as somebody else in your post. I realize most of it is directed at me though.
While I agree with a lot of what you're saying and understand it there are a few parts where I disagree. I will agree to disagree with you. I read the article you posted a few times actually (and yes, I realized it clearly stated that ちゃetc are one "syllable" things). Part of the flaw of this kind of thinking is we are talking about the realm that is Japanese in terms of syllables-- when it is really better to think of Japanese in terms of moras (you can perceive them as syllables in English, but they will not line up equally all the time). Haikus and poetry like that have rules based on moras and not syllables. But we're talking about diphthongs as well... and we're defining them by syllables in a sense, which don't really exist in Japanese. The idea that Japanese does or doesn't have diphthongs is not set in stone as far as I can tell. It's a very conceptual idea. You think it doesn't and I think it does. You can give reasons and examples why it doesn't and I can give reasons why it does. If you look you can find articles (scholarly or otherwise) on google or possibly in your college library that go either way on this concept. Personally, my ears hear diphthongs in Japanese-- especially in my dialect (but I hear them in other dialects and standard Japanese as well). If I listen for syllables, I obviously hear different things than you do. I don't think I have the best hearing or the best accent, but I do have a little bit of pride in both of those regards... and I think all of our hearing is colored by how our brains work so I'm not going to say my hearing or my way of perceiving things is better than anyone elses. Thinking the way I do about this has definitely helped my critical listening skills though (not just in the realm of language).
http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/linguist...1_kubozono.pdf
http://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/pglingu...racts/Hara.pdf
If nothing else, look at the references on both of these. The second abstract refers kind of to what I'm talking about-- there are many outlooks on the subject. I'm sure you and I could both find many articles that contradict each other. This argument is endless and while I enjoy it I'd rather let this thread go in a more helpful direction for the original poster. Although I do think both of our perspectives might give some good insight on the Japanese language from an English speakers perspective
.