à la Suisse

“Traveling and living in a country where the common language is foreign to you is totally no problem”

– *cricket noises*

It’s mid-afternoon and my taxi car is nearing the area of Vieux Limoilou in Quebec City. The original route of a 30 minute walk and bus with baggage from the airport had been cancelled due to a torrential downpour. As it turned out, weather in Eastern Canada in the summer can be unpredictable, and these things happen.

Finally having arrived à la destination*, my roommate greeted me warmly, en français*. It was one of the first few interactions I had had in the city, and as I rummaged my head in search of various sayings, words, phrases taught to me by my French Immersion teachers I began to realize what the following few months had in store : speaking reaaaaaallllyyyyyy slowly so I have time to translate sentences and words in my head, challenges working with lab equipment using protocols in French, confusion as to what’s actually in that yellow no name brand French labelled box at the grocery store.

Well at least the cheese identification was not as challenging, but it did not make me feel like I was walking the aisles à l’épicerie* in a foreign country any less.

My take on what it’s like to face a language barrier when traveling about may or may not be what you experience. Here are some thoughts that I frequented during my time in Québec:

1.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

A phrase commonly heard in classrooms, lecture halls, has come to be truest of all. Ask questions about a word you don’t understand or sentence that confused you. Then use it, use that part of dialogue you learned. For me, the best way to learn was by practicing and mixing words in my head to create sentences that make sense, by using those that before I was confused by.

2. Be patient with yourself.

How glorious it would have been to wake up one morning with full comprehension and mastered verbal abilities of le français. Unfortunately, mes amis*, this is not the case. Learning a language takes a long time, maybe a lifelong task. Word by word, day by day, you gather your tools, you fine tune the details, and master those comprehension and verbal skills.

3. Don’t give up when things go not as planned.

To continue to shine light on the whole “this is a lengthy process” :
the first few weeks after you arrive can be the most challenging. The things that back home you could do mindlessly will need a mindful approach, and may take longer. And sometimes, not everything will go smoothly.

4. Learn what a dictionary can’t teach.

Make friends with your course mates, your coworkers, your colocataires*, listen to them carefully.
Make friends with the bus driver, practice rolling those “rrrr’s” on bonjour. Make friends with the cashiers at the grocery stores, “mais non, je ne besoin d’un sac*”. Make friends with the barista’s at the local brûlerie*, “un moyen latte, et le code wifi s’il vous plaît*”.

Mes amis*, I will not deny the challenge in throwing yourself head first to where phrases are shortened to as little as 4 words from 7 (ie. Est-ce que tu veux un boisson*? -> T’en veux tu un* (un boisson) ?) and spoken at a mile an hour. And where squirrel is pronounced as a tongue-twisting “écureuil*”, and peanut as “cacahuète*” or “arachide*”, the first originating and used in France only and the latter in Québec. And yet, most of all, I am very thankful for such an experience and would do it again without a glance back.

And 5 months from now I will be, in beautiful Lausanne!

Et voila, a sneak preview:

Photogenic, non?

.. I wonder how different the French spoken there is from Québecois French?

*Notes
à la destination (Fr.), to the destination
en francais (Fr.), in French
à l’épicerie (Fr.), at the grocery store
mes amis (Fr.), my friends
mais non, je ne besoin d’un sac (Fr.), but no, I will not be needing a bag
un moyen latte, et le code wifi s’il vous plaît (Fr.), a medium latte, and the wifi code please
brûlerie (Fr.), brewery, in reference to one of coffee
colocataires (Fr.), roommates
écureuil (Fr.), squirrel
cacahuète (Fr.), peanut
arachide (Qc. Fr.), peanut
Est-ce que tu veux un boisson (Fr.) Would you like a drink
T’en veux tu un (Qc. Fr.) Would you like one