France – Page 2 – Summer Language Abroad 2022

Attitudes: Perceptions of America

Through talking with friends from my classes and with other French people whom I have met, my perspective of the United States is changing greatly. Of course, the stereotypes about being ignorant, without good fashion, and reasonably patriotic make sense to me. In fact, I was asked to verify a TikTok about American high school students who made egregious mistakes in basic geography, and my friends were shocked to find out what me and most of my fellow Notre Dame students normally wear to class. A classmate from Turkey even referred to me regularly as “le capitaliste”! Despite these negative stereotypes, a prevailing attitude about the United States is that it is a popular travel destination or even a desired destination for work, if one’s English is at a sufficient level. More broadly, however, certain policies and norms in the United States came under question as “backwards” relative to France. Between the recent leaked Roe opinion and the longstanding drinking age of 21, many of my friends see the United States as more socially conservative than France. Personally, I was shocked to find out that high school students start going out to nightclubs as young as 15.

Another cultural difference is driving. It is much less common for people my age to have a driver’s license, and the rules of the road also differ slightly. I personally prefer the more accessible public transportation and the smaller cars, but I would still be intimidated by the process of obtaining a driver’s license abroad. (You can also see Mont Saint Victoire in the background here!)

Another peculiarity that came up in conversation was the double-sided stereotype that Americans are overly nice and that French people are somewhat caustic in conversation. While the vast majority of my interactions in France were friendly, I was made aware that southern France, specifically Marseille, differs slightly in attitude from more touristic cities like Paris. Maybe it was because I was speaking the language, but I almost never felt dismissed or unwelcome. In fact, in talking with a girl from Paris at a concert, I learned that the perceived hostility likely comes from a lack of desire to converse in the excessively cheery American fashion. I actually found it refreshing to be free from the obligation to engage in small talk, and now that I’ve been here for some time, it sometimes feels uncomfortable to break those periodic moments of silence.

On the bus ride to a concert this week, I met a Notre Dame alum. I noticed that him and his wife were confused about which bus to take, so I offered help and soon learned that I was talking to a fellow Domer: Professor Thomas Cavanaugh at University of San Francisco!

Food: My Kebab Addiction

In both Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, there are plenty of diverse options for food. Of course, I had to try Provençal cuisine at least once. It was quite delicious, and I have also tried cuisine from prevalent minority cultures in the region, like Vietnamese nem chua, Moroccan tajine, and even Senegalese thiep. Above all, however, I have fallen completely in love with kebab. I am not familiar with an equivalent of kebab in America, but the general concept consists of a sandwich (bread or wrap) with meat, standard vegetables, french fries, and a sauce, of which you can choose from around fifteen different flavors (my favorites are sauce biggy and algerienne). In fact, I was lucky enough to eat at a kebab shop in which the sole employee was willing to walk through the sauce menu and describe each of them to me and my friends. I also performed some of my own research because of how much this menu overwhelmed me. Notably, both Algerian sauce and Samurai sauce have their origins in Belgium, and American sauce is in fact just mayonnaise and ketchup, a combination that I have yet to see in an American grocery store.

This was one of my favorite kebab shops in Aix. I asked the kebabiers there if they sell their t-shirts as promotional merchandise, but they are out of stock until after I will leave.

The prevalence of kebab shops also is astounding—on Rue de la Couronne in Aix-en-Provence, for example, you can pass five different kebab places, each with its own nuanced personality. In Marseille, most kebab shops will stay open until the early morning, and there are plenty of kebab kiosks in the less dense parts of Aix-en-Provence.

This kebab shop was my favorite in Marseille. By the end of my time there, we got to know this kebabier very well. My order was the 3.50 euro tournedos on galette with sauce algerienne.

While some might see the offerings of kebab shops as snack food that only tastes good after 3 AM, I am attracted to kebab as a fascinating mix of cultures: the traditional French sandwich meets meat from the Middle East meets sauces from around the world meets the global fast food staple of French fries. Perhaps because kebab is undeniably a global fast food, it is easy to meet other young people at kebab shops at any hour of the day over any combination of great foods.

A collection of some other food from my trip so far. Clockwise from top left: escargot, tapas the Panier neighborhood of Marseille, Provencal daube, a French cookout (grocery shopping is so much fun), and a Vietnamese noodle bowl.

Departing my Comfort Zone

Today, I leave for my six-week trip to Tours, France. Before this trip, I have only traveled outside of the United States once, which was a trip to Ireland for one week. Needless to say, I have never spent an extended time in a place where I have had to not only adjust to differing cultural idiosyncrasies and customs, but to also utilize a non-native language 100 percent of the time. With that being said, over the course of my life and education at Notre Dame, I know that I have cultivated the language and cultural competency skills to effectively learn and benefit from this immersion. I am currently a bundle of excitement and nervousness, ultimately because I know that this will be one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my life.

I have reminded myself particularly of the language challenges that will arise. Compared to my classroom experience with the French language thus far, I am prepared to hear a much faster speaking pace, one that may even be discouraging in the initial days. I know it will take some adjusting to comprehend that pace as well as the different formalities, slang, and vocabulary that I likely have not encountered in my 3 years at Notre Dame. Yet, with the challenge of keeping up with the native speakers comes the ultimate opportunity. I will be surrounded by experts of the language and culture 24/7. This is the perfect predicament for me to become a sponge, absorbing all of the differing nuances of the language that I hear and asking questions to understand the world through the eyes of the people I meet and form relationships with.

Along with that, I cannot wait to utilize my language and communication abilities to dive into French popular culture and cuisine. At the Institute where I will be studying, I will take part in excursions to cinemas, culinary classes, and art museums. Further, I plan to volunteer at a local organization in the area where I will interact with the native speakers and citizens of Tours, asking them questions about their day to day lives, their favorite foods, their favorite pop culture works, and their opinions about the state of France today. In doing so, I hope to gain perspective on how different people view the world and find joy and meaning in their lives.

Overall, I cannot wait to be challenged and to struggle in between the times of excitement, learning, and joy. I cannot wait to be in a position where I am in a place completely new and out of my comfort zone. I cannot wait for this experience because I know it will make me a more flexible, adaptable, well-rounded, worldly, and resilient human being.

See you soon Tours – Shelby

Language: Le Français Familier:

Adjusting to life in a foreign country

My morning commute starts with walking 15 seconds to the bus stop, where I have a direct view of Mont Saint Victoire (far left). In the foreground is an Optical Art museum, which I hope to visit at some point.

Having been in France for a week, I feel much more adjusted to living in a foreign country and immediately more comfortable with the region. Thinking and communicating in a different language has profoundly changed the way that I think about my own language and my own thoughts. Of course, there is always the question of the degree to which language frames thought, but I have been interested in the question of how we frame language, i.e. the particular aspects of language that change depending on the region and the speaker.

I saw this poster at store in Marseille. Among its itemized vulgarities and regional expressions, I noticed examples of verlan and even some words that I learned in my classes here.

Un petit dictionnaire

I have already grown attached to certain expressions used among young people, and I use the following almost daily:

du coup: an elusively versatile filler word. In my interactions, I understand it to function like “you know”, “like”, or “so”. I like to pepper my conversations with it in order to appear more natural.

c’est stylé: “stylé” is like an upgraded “cool”, but it carries a stronger connotation of sophistication or beauty

un beau gosse: an attractive young man. I aim to receive this compliment when I put on a good outfit.

une meuf: an example of verlan, the practice of reversing the syllables of words to give them a more colloquial meaning. In this case, “femme” is reversed to be “mme-fe” or “meuf”.

l’apero: a friendly gathering before going out

wesh: an interrogative adverb derived from Algerian Arabic. It most closely corresponds to “yo” in American English and is used more frequently over text.

au taff: “at work”

I anticipate learning more slang words and expressions as I interact more with people here, but I have been surprised at how easy it is to pick up these expressions without ever seeing them in writing. So far, the method of acquiring more French by brute-forcing my conversations, as gauche as it feels, has proven to be exceptionally valuable for expanding my vocabulary and increasing the fluidity with which I speak French.

Pre-Departure

A Shakeup at the Last Minute

I am writing this blog post on the plane to France. As last-minute as it may seem, I feel that enough has happened in the past few days (when I was planning to write this post) that my expectations and preparedness are markedly different than they were last week.

Beginning with what has remained constant, I am most excited to develop my French with other students from around the world. I feel that the opportunity to learn French outside of a university context will grant me a much more intimate study abroad experience, and I am certainly looking forward to making friends in my classes. Almost as important as the classes is the resulting immersion that I will get from living in a city to which I have zero existing connections. I’m curious to see how well I can pass as a non-American (or, rather, how quickly an Aixois can determine my nationality). Whether it be relaxing in an outdoor cafe or visiting the calanques on a hot day, I am beyond excited to make a dedicated immersion into the daily life of Provence.

One major recent development has been a change in my housing. Two days before my arrival in France, the Alliance Française informed me that they had to cancel my existing arrangements with a host family and could only offer the hotel student residence instead, an option that was well outside my budget. This was naturally anxiety-inducing, as I was no longer certain that I would have a place to sleep in a foreign country. Yet after heavy searching and many cold emails, I was able to arrange individual housing for a similar budget.

I really enjoyed waking up to this email !

This new arrangement significantly changed my expectations: now, I’m tasked with living alone in France for a month. Although it brings much uncertainty, I feel attracted to that level of independence. I get to take full advantage of public transportation, and I will get to go grocery shopping for myself. In a way, this switch up has pre-exposed me to the immersion in which I’m about to embark. Already, I have had to read housing contracts, communicate quickly via email, and decipher bus schedules, and all of that has certainly boosted my confidence in navigating Provence in the weeks to come.

Pre-Departure Reflections

While my French courses in the US have been very rewarding and challenging by being surrounded by other peers who are eager to learn the French language, I am excited to be immersed in the French language. Studying in France provides greater accessibility to being surrounded by French and pushed to integrate French into my daily tasks, such as navigating the grocery store. I believe that with total language immersion I will gain confidence in my French-speaking ability, while learning the less formal, everyday nuances to the French language. In addition, I hope that being immersed with native French speakers will aid my development of a better French accent, to hopefully allow for more effective communication.

During my time in Biarritz, I will be using French to volunteer alongside a beach cleanup group to improve my ability to discuss the climate crisis in French. I am excited to simultaneously learn from my peers in navigating different approaches to addressing the climate crisis and finding ways to lead a more sustainable life, while also recognizing my own assumptions that I have from living in the US regarding sustainability. While in Paris, I will be volunteering alongside refugees in different sports and leisure activities, where we will help each other practice French. I am looking forward to using French as a medium for building relationships and learning to communicate in regards to migration and humanitarian issues. Through my study of the French language, I hope to strengthen my ability to communicate with a greater population. In order to build these strong connections and have a mutual learning experience, I am eager to strengthen my French skills and I am excited for the opportunity through SLA to hone in on my French skills.

Getting ready for France: Thinking of languages

Language is fascinating. It has always excited and interested me. It is not only about different sounds and melodies we make with our words, but also about the way we think and see the world.

When I, as an adult, started learning foreign languages, I realized how many things different native speakers have in common. For example, there are phrases which are very difficult to translate from one language to another. However, sometimes languages which lave little in common share the same phrases and follow the same logic. I experienced this as I was mastering Spanish a few years ago, and I am seeing this now as I am working on my French.

My experience is limited to the languages which originated in Europe. My mother tongue is Ukrainian, and I speak English, Spanish, and, somewhat flawed, French. The languages I speak are quite close geographically, but they are not that similar. They show me how diverse my home region is, and how diverse the world is as humanity managed to produce such different and rich ways of communication.

When I started learning French, I could not help but notice that even though it was a Romance language with a heavy connection to Latin, it still made a lot of sense to me as someone with a Slavic language background. But then, very often, it didn’t make any sense. I understood why the French had different “you-s” when speaking to different people, but I couldn’t understand the logic behind many of their tenses. So, language learning was always a culture learning for me; it made me see how studying foreign words helps you understand the reasoning behind them and fill the gaps that were missing.

France as I remember it. Central Paris. Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

I have been to France many times before, but I have always used English to communicate with people. This time, I hope to use my French despite the many mistakes I am certain I will make. The good thing about me as a language learner is that I am never shy to speak the language however wrong I may sound.

I hope to be corrected by the French, and I hope to be able to pick up some of the sounds and phrases from them as well as get insights into their culture, local life, and society not as a mere foreigner, but as someone who is genuinely curious and invested in digging deeper. My previous experience in France – and the fact that I am from Europe – gives me confidence and comfort about my time there. But I am ready to shatter a lot of stereotypes that I may unconsciously have, and I hope to pick up some street conversations and other things that can only be appreciated when interacting with people in the comfort of their native land and language.

I want to take my time in France to learn the language not only via school, but also through going to community events, movie theaters, social gatherings, and other experiences which make you feel like you belong – to the language, and to the culture, too. I am already watching French movies and listening to French podcasts, and they give me a lot of insights into France as its own universe. The movies and podcasts are made for the French, so sometimes, I don’t only lack the vocabulary to understand the words, but also the cultural context. My goal with this summer experience is to see whether I can fill in some of the missing gaps, and whether my cultural knowledge will improve as much as my vocabulary – or even more.

I hope this will be a fun yet challenging experience because I know that languages are not easy. They require our time, love, and care so we can fully appreciate the power of communication that they give us – and the power to open new universes.