Immigrant Thanksgiving (and Taiwanese Sticky Rice Stuffing).
La vache quiri free#
Meet Me at the Ferry Building 7/23- Free Cooking Demo.Summer Peach Burrata Caprese with Harissa from Spicebox Kitchen.Twitter yeahyeahyasmin I’d love to see what you’ve written about pawpaws- my new obsession! abrowntable PBS Amazing, congrats! 17 hours ago I knew my sentence construction was poor and my vocabulary elementary, but I was determined to get by, since my Creole and Hindi (two other languages commonly spoken there) are nonexistent. When we arrived in the French colony of Réunion, near Madagascar, I had no choice but to speak French so my family could survive. I gradually became more and more confident uttering very simple French sentences to adults as well. Getting appropriate responses to such simple questions as “ Quelle age as-tu?” and “ Comment t’appelles-tu?” stoked my confidence. Their French was at about the same level as mine, and they didn’t really care if I remembered the genders of French nouns. I dared to utter my first French words to the children my kids and I met at the beach. But outside of town, French would be the only option. Many people in the main towns of the French-speaking iles of the Indian Ocean speak some English, and I counted on that as my backup. I slowly dipped my toe into the gentle and warm French speaking waters of the Indian Ocean. Actual real, live people don’t speak as slowly, clearly, or as typiquement as you are taught in the textbooks or on language programs. As anyone who has been in this situation knows, it is a different story in the real world. I should have prepared more before my French-themed trip, but I only had time to listen to language CDs in the car, which gave me some degree of confidence and a chance to practice my pronunciation (albeit to my empty car). But that was a very long time ago, and even at the peak of my abilities, I never had a chance to test out my language skills with the natives. In junior high, I even received a trophy in some (probably obscure) national contest for American learners of French. I used to be so proud of my French speaking ability.
“Wow, Mama,” ma fille ainée said, “It sounds so strange to hear you speak English.” We were in a grocery, and I asked an employee for some help.
One of the best sentences to come out of my daughters’ mouths was uttered a few days after our return from our five week trip. In case you missed them, read my earlier posts on how I became such a Francophile, come along on a Parisian food tour inspired by David Lebovitz, see me try out his recipe for pain d’épices au chocolat, read my homage to lovely Montmartre, and see the Space Invaders in Paris. But it all works out, in a tasty way, in the end. This story is a lesson in linguistic and cultural confusion. I’m not yet over Paris (and never will be), but for now I’ll take you on a side trip to Réunion, a French colony in the Indian Ocean, where we spent the earlier part of our trip.
La vache quiri series#
This is the fifth post in a series on the French-themed trip I took this summer.
0 kommentar(er)
