I Don't Speak French.
I’ve reached a new level with my colleagues, a very lonely stage where I am no longer a novelty, they’re bored with speaking English to me, and my French level isn’t high enough to fully comprehend and converse.
Last week at lunch when I tried to ask Philippe what he got from the magic Easter bells, he informed me that he didn’t want to speak English over lunch anymore, it was too much thinking. Now I spend lunch time silently staring out the window.
Even my Spanish friend Irantzu has looked at me incredulously while I struggled to write something in French (a number, no less) and suggested I try to improve my language skills with books and CDs. Books and CDs! What a great idea!
People told me “in 3 months, you’ll be speaking French like a local”. Well guess what, it’s been 3 months, and I’m still speaking French like an infant.
On a similarly grumpy note, upon looking up the word “error” when writing an e-mail about a software issue, I noticed that many negative French words are feminine: fault, weakness, error, disappointment, breakdown (naturally), depression. Clearly the language counsel (yes, France has a board of people who make decisions about the language) has been comprised of men since the beginning.
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