More on Languages

Since arriving in France I have eaten nearly every dinner with my host parents. As a result, I have plenty of face time and talking time with them. My host parents are an older couple who live in an apartment on a crowded street in the quarter of Angers. Their kids are grown and attending school in Paris and in other parts of France. They're very polite, they talk very calmly, and they strike me as in a grand parenting stage. They have had a number of international students before, and this is now, to some degree, how they occupy themselves (though my host mom does work part-time still). They do, however, enjoy occasionally poking fun at each other. When I pick up on this, what they are saying sounds really simple, in a way that almost makes it sound like contrived humor. My initial thought is that they are simply dumbing it down for me―that they are trying to be normal around be but still can't really be themselves because there's a new foreign person living in their house. If this were my parents and they had a French person staying with them, I imagine they would try to talk simpler for him or her. But in the last week or two I've begun to pick up on when my host mom is purposely rephrasing things to make them easier for me to understand. And yet, there are still these utterly simple things they say they aren't a part of that rephrasing. Are my host parents just simply drier with their humor? I can't imagine anybody having conversations with each other the way my host parents do without it being unnatural. Perhaps the natural flow of their conversations with each other are lost in translation―because it simply doesn't sound right in my head, in the way that I think. But every time I catch myself with this thought, it occurs to me: I'm not hearing English, I'm hearing French. Trying to mold what I'm hearing in French into an English way of thinking doesn't really work. Before I came hear, I unknowingly assumed that ideas are fundamentally unbounded and free by language. That's not to say that I thought that language don't influence the formation of ideas (and that different languages can express different ideas), but rather I imagined languages simply as different mechanisms for pinning down ideas which already existed. I can't say that there's a reason that I thought this, other than that language has always before seemed to me to be simply a tool for expressing ideas. Rather, it seems to me now that ideas don't exist without language. Put another way, ideas are created by language, and that different languages create different ideas. Sure, I can understand all the words when my host mom tells my host dad that if he doesn't stop eating so quickly he's going to become 'grand,' but I'm certainly not understanding the full idea that is being presented. Unfortunately, this view leaves little room for belief in ever becoming fluent in French or even understanding a single encounter, but I think that if nothing else it attests to how intricate and important languages are.

Quick Thought

I joked with friends before I left that it would be a lot easier being an American abroad now than before the 2008 election. However, this has proven to be somewhat true. On a number of occasions, when I have met people and it has come up that I'm American, the first thing out of their mouth has been “Yes We Can!” According to my host parents, European perspective of America has, as foretold by some of my friends, gone up tenfold as a result of Obama being elected.  In one instance, I ran into a mob of college students from another French university in Angers all dressed in ridiculous garb (apparently it was 'hazing' for Freshmen from that university―you had to go around the city singing dressed up in silly outfits), and they asked me and my friends if we went to school around the area. I told them we went to the Universite Catholique (apparently we were the rival school) and they started singing and yelling that we went to the 'bad' university. One of the students asked my friend where we were from, and she told them we were from the U.S. Instantly, the attitude changed and they started yelling the oft-quoted line from the election. “Yes we can! Yes we can!” and then they ran off. While it is nice to come from a country where your new president is loved abroad rather than hated, I find the whole thing very odd to some degree. I have never been terribly fascinated by politics, nor have I ever kept up with the political happenings of the world to the degree that some of my friends argue I should. Yes, I was happy with the outcome of the last election, but to me, it didn't mean as much to me as it did to many of my friends. All of the national politics of the U.S. (virtually) happen on the eastern seaboard, far away from my home in the West. And the West is where my heart is. More than I consider myself an American, I consider myself an Oregonian. For this reason, I find it extremely odd to be characterized on something that, to me, doesn't seem like a large part of who I am. But, this is the way people work. Seldom do people know a lot about a place and its variety and intricacies when they aren't surrounded by it, and it makes much more sense in a very human way to logically extrapolate what one knows into the realm of just guessing. So while it's odd being viewed for the first time as an American, rather than a Portlander, an Oregonian, or anything else that I would say defines me, I think it's alright to be seen differently now and again.

Vacation to Marseille and Paris

This last week was a vacation week before real classes start. As I mentioned before, this past month was an intensive month of French called the 'le stage' and our real classes start tomorrow. For our week-long vacation, the Willamette group took an excursion (planned mostly by Joyce Millen) to Marseille and Paris. We were in Marseille from Sunday to Wednesday and Paris from Wednesday to Saturday. The part of our trip to Paris was a somewhat classic one--meaning we went to the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Musee d'Orsay and other famous sites. It was pretty spectacular for me though, as it was the first time that I have ever been to Paris, so the tour of all these places was a lot of fun for me. Marseille was a less expected trip, however.

Having never been to France before this year, I had no idea what was in Marseille, nor did I have any recollection of ever hearing of the city. As it is though, Marseille is the second largest city in France, and one of the oldest ports in the world (it's on the Mediterranean) and the largest port of entry in France. All this makes for a city that I thought was much more pleasant than Paris. Marseille was very relaxed, for a large city, and there was an endless variety of music, and of course, swimming in the Mediterranean. I have pictures, which I hope to post soon, but for the time being I'm going to get some sleep before classes start. Hope all is well!

Speaking French

As I mentioned in my last post, the most difficult piece for me thus far about being in France is the language. Having only taken one year of college French, I am finding myself often at a loss for how to communicate with the vast majority of people here. I say this as though I am surprised by it, but in reality I knew it all along. As a matter of fact, I came here especially for the purpose of being in this situation of struggling to communicate so that I could get better at it. Nevertheless, there really is no way to prepare for it. People can talk all they want to about culture shock and how to deal with it and all, but in the end, what I am finding out, is that you just have to go through it and make whatever decision seems like it will reach the best ends. Certainly, I've managed to make a fool out of myself at times (for instance, asking the bartender 'where does the bar close tonight?' instead of 'when') but that's all part of it what it's about. I only better off for having made these mistakes. And besides, now that I've done that once, I know that I'll never ask 'Ou est-ce que vous fermez ce soir?' again!

However, while it's easy to know rationally that it's good for me to wade through this language until it starts to make some sense, that doesn't make it any more easy to do. It can be very disconcerting at times, knowing that it takes a concentrated effort to order a cup of coffee, or ask for directions somewhere. But like anything, the more difficult it is, the more rewarding it is. Every day I'm able to talk with my host parents a little better, and each time that I go somewhere I'm able to talk with somebody in French a little more effortlessly. It's the best feeling! It makes all the difficulty of struggling to communicate worth it, instantly.

On a separate note, the farmers markets here are awesome. Not only are there three or four big ones in Angers, but all the local foods are very cheap! As opposed to in America, where more processed foods are cheaper than locally grown or organic ones, the locally grown foods are more abundant and cheaper here. At any rate, things continue to go well here! I'll attempt to write again in the next several days.

Steven

First few days

So I've now been in France a little under a week and am beginning to settle in finally. I am living with a retired couple who live in an apartment building in downtown Angers. I live in the top story loft of their place. Luckily, my host family lives close to the university and the downtown area, so I only have about a ten minute walk to either of those.

The town itself is very nice. It's about the size of Salem, but it seems much bigger as there are no suburbs. Rather, the town very urban. There are also two universities in Angers, so it's a pretty youthful town, and nightlife is said to be pretty good (though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet). Additionally, Angers is a very old town, older than any in the U.S., and there is a chateaux in the middle of town that the Willamette group visited a couple days ago.

In general, the town is not all that unlike a town in the U.S., and adjusting to the layout of the town hasn't been too difficult. Adjusting to the language, however has been the difficult part. I'm out of time on the internet for now though, so more on this later.

Cheers!
Steven

Leaving tomorrow

Hi All-

I'm heading out tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8:30. I've got a good couple days of travel before I actually arrive in France, but the adventure begins tomorrow. More to come later!