Let us address the elephant in the room.
I don't speak French.
Yes, I have studied it for maybe a half hour to an hour everyday for the past six months, even in Japan. And actually, I really can almost read it. But listening? Oh la la. And speaking even worse. When we walk into stores, markets, shops, and cafes we always endeavor to speak French. Simple things don't go terribly, usually. But often there will be a long string of French issued at me whereupon I freeze up like a block of granite, unable to move, speak, or respond. Sometimes, with no other option, we carry on. Sometimes they ask if we speak French. Sometimes they ask where we're from or what we speak. For awhile there people asked us if we were visiting and, full of pride, we told them all about how we were living here now!
At which point we would get a little lecture where we were told we need to speak French.
Which is what we were trying to do in the first place!
Now we just say we're visiting. Why not? We are. Maybe for a year, maybe for the rest of our lives, I don't know, but having been born in and lived in the USA for 60 years I'm not sure I ever managed to become an American. Becoming French seems considerably more out of the question. And what is retirement other than, if one can manage it, permanent vacation?
So we're going for that.
I'm still trying to learn French. We do, really, live here now. And if the lady in the ceramics shop starts telling us about how to pack up our purchases for the plane I do say "Oh, no. Yes, we're here on vacation, but for a very, very, very long time."
No lecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.
I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!
One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.