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| Plage Nord (North Beach) Argelès sur Mer, our village |
Day 44 - The seventh week of French 'confinement' continues. We wake up and it's sunny. At the breakfast table, my partner and I have a typical conversation while doing our morning Facebook posts. It's typical because although carried out in French it has a bit of English thrown in just to get ourselves totally confused. The English is usually mine but sometimes he switches over thinking it will help. Sometimes it does, sometimes it's so unexpected that I'm left trying to figure out a French word I've never heard only to realize it isn't French. It's English with an accent that I have come to love with all my heart. We laugh about our Franglais a lot. I pour the coffee and he asks a question in French.
"C'est quel film ou le mec se reveille et c'est toujours le meme jour?" (Which film is it where the guy wakes up and it's always the same day?) I have to think for a minute and then I say
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| Y's post on FB about the days of quarantine seeming to be the same |
We have all been living in a topsy-turvy world for the last two months and it matches the state of my mind. For the last sixteen years, I've lived in France full-time. I love it. But I still think in English. At least, I am fairly sure I do. I arrived here in 2003 and I had high school and university French. It was nowhere near enough. Even when I was ten years into my retirement here, I can vouch for being misunderstood and misunderstanding a lot! I know it's my
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| On our daily walk it seems we are very much alone! |
A little bit of language is a dangerous thing. I remember how smug I felt when a French friend told me a story many years ago about an English friend who asked if he would like "Leemon" in his tea instead of "Citron." But I am just as guilty of trying to Frenchie-fy a word to communicate with my partner and it causes him no end of amusement.We met over a year ago and right from the start we both thought the language difference would be a complication. Fortunately, I was fairly fluent in everyday conversation and even have a certificate from the French government to prove it! We decided to take a chance and began to date.
During the months that passed, we have had confusions over language on a daily basis. Take the time I made one of my favorite sweet and sour chinese dishes for dinner and he pronounced "C'est pas terrible." Now, although it wasn't praise, I thought he was saying it
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| Hirondelles (small swallows) seen from my village window |
I didn’t make that dish again. Then at another point I said, "De faire mon premiere livre a été un boulou formidable." By which I meant the work had been a bit frightening. But Y said, "Tu t'es amuse." (You had fun.) And I suddenly remembered that to the French "formidable" means "Great!"
French is a Romance language and English is basically Germanic. They do share some commonalities being influenced by - LATIN. Yeah, and I didn't study Latin when I had the chance. Happy I chose to study French. Phew! So why is it so tough?
Well, maybe part of it is because some words are "vrais amis" (true friends) that is to say true cognates. These are words that look or sound the same in the two languages and have the same or almost the same meaning and usage. These are words like "salade" though that can mean just lettuce so be careful when ordering in a French restaurant - you probably want to go for a
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| Close up of hirondelles |
"Faux amis" are false cognates - as in words that sound or look the same in the two languages but don't mean the same things or are used very differently.
I continue to forget that "Souvenir" doesn't mean something I've bought to remember an event and is actually the verb "to remember" so I keep trying to use this "false friend » in the wrong way. And then I sometimes say, "Je memoire." instead of "Je me souviens" for "I remember." (Oh how I detest these reflexive verbs!) My partner gives me a funny smile and says, "J'ai te compris." (I understood you.) I often think how much like a child I must speak!
But when Y says, "Attention!" he's telling me to "Watch out!" And charmingly once said, "Clock out!” to me in an attempt to use English. It did get my "attention." While a crayon is the French word for a pencil and I sorta know that, I invariably ask him for a pencil. I forget to
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| Our daily walk in solitude |
I think we're getting there. This morning we were talking about which soaps I preferred and I said, "Les savons qui sent comme bois - le santal." (The soaps that smell like wood - sandalwood.) And I said, "Tu sais les savons?" (You know the soaps?) To which he made a joke "Nous savons que ces sont savons." And I laughed! Because I caught the pun. He had said, "We know that they are soaps." But the words "Savons" meant both "to know" and "Soaps." Yes! I was happy for hours afterwards at my little triumph.
The 44th day of quarantine went by like nearly all the others. There was the long walk for exercise. There was a good lunch, reading, music, TV, and a stellar omelet made by yours truly. (Yeah, I'm getting the hang of this cooking lark too!) It was time to write to you and share some of our joy. And now I have. one last thing never do what I did. Don't call your french boyfriend "Spécial" We were eating out one day in Perpignan and I said to Y, "Tu es vraiment spécial, mon amour." He put down his fork and knife and looked at me with concern. Then he laughed and told me he knew I didn't mean it. I had to talk it through with him and use other words. Eventually I understood the mistake I had made. (When you describe a person as 'special' it means handicapped, as in mentally.)
Language is a gift. With it we can paint pictures in the minds of people far away. With words you tell me you are thinking of us and we promise you this. We are thinking of you too. And sometimes it’s in Franglais.
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| The festival held at the Palace of the Kings of Majorca is held once a year to welcome newcomers to our region |
Tu me manque - I got that one down. You are missing from me. But at least with words, we are all still in contact with each other until this time of confinement it over. May it be soon! A demain, les amis! (Until tomorrow, friends!)
Link to Day 45
I love studying languages! I am in no way whatsoever an expert, but I I find language fascinating. I did take Latin in high school. Not that I benefited from it, but I took it. My second language is Spanish. I’m not fluent, but have been close to it at times. You know the saying, “Use it or lose it. “ My sister, Nancy, speaks some French. We used to have conversations where she would only speak in French and I would only speak in Spanish. It was amazing how much we were able to understand one another. While living in San Diego, I took Sign Language. My teacher was deaf, and he was a good friend. He taught at the local college, where I took his class for beginners. I’ve forgotten a lot of it as well, but I think it is lovely. ❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteSign language is cool!👍🏻 How interesting to learn from a deaf teacher. Yes, Spanish and French share a lot of commonalities. I can stumble along and read it but to speak is very difficult as I wind up using French accents and words.🤣
DeleteOne of the things I learned many years ago in a linguistics course is that the one syllable words in English are Anglo-Saxon (those which came first and make it, as you say, a Germanic language at its base). But in 1066 French became (and remained for many years) the language of power and the original inhabitants became bilingual (French for work and Anglo-Saxon for home) When the monks started educating boys, their language -- and the language of the Church until Henry VIII was Latin. So that added yet another layer of vocabulary. Since medieval poetry in England was based on alliteration, poets were always looking for synonyms -- especially those that began with different letters. So for a time all of these words were useful at least to some and understood by many. Though as the centuries have passed many of these original synonyms have followed their only pathways thus leading to all the "familiar but not the same" words in French and English that you have amusingly desribed in your post (and which bring memories to all of us who have struggled with communicating in whichever language we didn't learn first.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Sandy. I could go on and on about Language but not all of my friends would appreciate it. I bet you have some stories about your life in Paris that we would all love to read!
DeleteUf, false friends! My students have learned to hate them. A famous one in Spanish and English is constipado/constipated. The first means a head cold, the second means you need a laxative. Both mean blockages, but of different ends of the body.
ReplyDeleteI studied French for three years in high school. I've forgotten a bit, but when I read something in French, words come back to me. Sometimes I understand snippets of conversations. I suppose that knowing Spanish helps a lot. So does having studied Latin, though I never put much emphasis into "studying" Latin. Something else is how words are used colloquially, kind of like the Bostonian "wicked."
THat false friend could lead to interesting misunderstandings!
DeleteLanguages are really interesting! Thank you for giving us a new pair of words to add to the « interesting » category, Maria!
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