Students’ Views

Important conversations I’ve had in French in the last couple weeks: I explained my idea for my philosophy capstone (senior thesis,) religious beliefs (I was asked if I trust in God like it says on the dollar bill,) explained what It feels like to leave all your friends at school and explained to the little neighbor girl, Margo, why I couldn’t take a nap with her. This was easy but very important.

My favorite phrase I’ve hard this week is ‘Je mange de ça, mec.’ Literally: I eat from this, man. Friday was absolutely beautiful in Toulouse. It’s been rainy and gross for two weeks. So when the nice whether hit everyone flocked to the river. I went with the women and we sang songs and bathed in the sun. Haha. As I was leaving, this guy told me I sang and played well and offered me a beer. (why not?) So I sat with him and talked about music for awhile. He told me was a professional singer and a professional dancer like Michael Jackson. I asked him a couple times if he did any other work or if that was it. I was surprised because he told me he emigrated illegally at first from Algeria and cause he lived in a really nice part of town. Finally, he said. Je mange de ça, mec! I asked him to repeat it to make sure I understood. He obliged with hand gestures too. Imagine a sandwich turning into a microphone. He wants to record a song together like that Sting song, ‘desert rose’ with the Tunisian guy. (why not?) Also his name is Zeno. He said that Zeno and Walker sound like ‘deux gangsteeewrs, mec.’ I gotta agree! Typical awkward culture difference moment for me: Zeno is at the park with his wife and two kids. I keep expecting him to introduce me to his family, but alas it’s up to me to introduce myself. I walk up to his wife and say hello and that my name is Walker and then I try to ‘faire les bises’ (kiss on the cheek.) I can never commit to a side so I always end up having a super awkward head-shuffle with the person I’m trying to kiss. Alas, it happened. Then, I had to bend down to say hello to the kids. Kids have a lot of trouble understanding me when I speak. My head is about twice as big as these little girls. I go in for the bises and wouldn’t you know, their just as awkward as me. I end up almost kissing this 7 year on the mouth.

French is difficult for a reason that English is not difficult. The vocabulary is considerably smaller. Many verbs have several different senses that they can be used in. yes, there many verbs that we use over and over in English, but in French it’s out of control. You can you the verb arriver to mean, I arrive, I’m coming back, I understand it now, or I don’t understand. Ah!

The more I understand, the better time I’m having. Not only because I can have more meaningful conversations, it’s just more fun when you have options for how to say things! I think I know about fifteen different phrases to say when you see someone, and just like at home, there as equal non-sensical. ‘What’s up?” French toulousian cousin is ‘et alors,’ there is no actual question being asked! It’s just an extension of hello.

I’m so preoccupied with speaking French; I’ve ceased to dream in English. I’ve had several dreams where I can’t explain something in French, or where I’m just conjugating verbs. I’ve also had these terrible dreams where I can’t remember English and someone has to teach me again.

Well okay. That’s it for now. I’m going back in to the French speaking world. Bonne journée à vous