Writing on the airplane… and later at home…

Saying good-bye to Paris will always be difficult for me. It has become such a wonderfully familiar and comfortable home to me, so the tears will again flow as we part today.

It’s a city, and I’m a self-described city bird, so it works for me. Of course, it’s not just any city; it’s Paris. I’m not talking about the haute couture world at all, though there’s that. I’m talking about the ease of living in a city, especially for a woman.

Where else can one walk around for hours, even if momentarily lost or disoriented, and still feel completely safe? Where else can one hop on a subway for 1.90e and visit any museum for an additional 10-14e? Nowhere. There are warm and inviting cafés on every block filled with people who will always find you a seat, and who can become your friends for an hour or a lifetime. Sometimes they just want to ensure that you have a bon appétit and you know they’ll never come back to check on this because they just know you will. And while doing all this, you are surrounded by stunning architecture and ancient history – with a river running through the middle of it all. And the bridges — all of which tell their own story, add to the accepted every day beauty. Yes, even in cold and rainy January, Paris is beautiful.

I don’t know when the pull began for me to want to go to Paris, but I think it was somewhere around the age of 12. I‘d seen all the Audrey Hepburn movies, because my mother was a huge fan, including the one where she was a translator who worked in the the U.N. Building in New York and spoke beautiful French. That’s it! That’s what I want to do when I grow up! It was around this same time that I learned some of my ancestors came from France, and the next thing you know, I was signing up to take French as an elective in high school for the next four years.

Decades and many French books, courses, and studies later, when the dream of living there finally happened for me, there was of course, a part of me that worried it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. But as anyone who knows me or has followed my blog knows, it has more than surpassed all of my expectations.

And last night – my last night in Paris (for this trip!) – I was with some friends in a local café when another wish sorta’ kinda’ came true. A new friend was introduced to me, Jean-Michel, and he asked me « How did I become so fluent in French? »

Inside my head was this: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! But what I said out loud, was, « Oh, I’m not fluent… » He insisted I was, but I really know that I’m not quite there. However, I’ll take it. Because now a living, breathing Frenchman thought I was, and that meant so much to me.

My latest course in Les Phonétiques has really helped me understand even more the nuances in pronunciation. And while I’m not where I want to be yet, I know I’m closer.

And yes, they really do all have names like François and Jean-Michel.

I was that nerdy kid in First and Second Grade who so LOVED Phonics that I worked ahead in the activity book. We weren’t allowed, and I was a rule-follower, but I couldn’t help myself when it came to Phonics. I loved words and etymology at a young age. I was born and raised in an area known for a strong regional accent, but mine never fully developed. Why? Because when I learned how to read, I couldn’t make sense of the words on the page and the words coming out of the mouths of my family. They didn’t match. So, I consciously adopted the written word and never looked back. Later, in high school, we had to take a Literacy Exam for the State (Pennsylvania) and I was the only student in the state to get a perfect score. So, yes, it’s fair to say that language has always been a passion of mine.

And on that note, one of my mini language goals is to learn how to really roll my tongue for the R sounds as they do in the Spanish languages. I can’t do it. My son can make all these beautiful cat-like sounds with ease, and I just sound like I’m choking. I asked one of my classmates (from Chile) to teach me, but she couldn’t put into words how she does it.

I have so many little anecdotes from my life in Paris, and I’m sorry I didn’t write every day, but in my defense, I was living my best life. Plus, my hours were later in the day with this course. Anyway, I will continue to try to fill in the blanks now that I’m home.

Frida Kahlo Exhibit

After visiting the Frida Kahlo exhibit, I walked to a nearby café on the Seine, called Le New York. (How could I pass that by?) I was seated at the window with the most exquisite view of the Eiffel Tower in the mist that you can imagine.

After lunch and a glass of champagne, I headed toward le Métro. My heart was full. I had just seen an exhibit of artifacts from the life of a woman who endured, survived, and thrived despite enormous obstacles. Humbling and inspiring!

I was lost in thought as a French woman passed, who was apparently also lost in thought. She stopped at the corner to get my attention, and asked me where a specific store was, saying something about it being near the Eiffel Tower. I told her, in French, that I was American, and while I didn’t know the store – at this point I gently turned her to her left – saying, but I do know that the Eiffel Tower is right there. She doubled over in laughter! Truly funny! She was embarrassed, indicating that she’d only been looking straight ahead, lost in thought. We laughed at the irony of it all.

Je suis américaine, mais je sais que la Tour Eiffel est juste là, Madame.

I wondered what story she’d tell her family that night.

So there I was, Henri, walking along, lost in thought, when I realized I didn’t know where I was for a moment. I needed to get my bearings, so I stopped a woman to ask for help, and she turned out to be an American living in Paris – who spoke French beautifully by the way. <wink> Can you imagine? And she ever-so-gently told me the Eiffel Tower was to my immediate left.

Hey, a girl can dream.

My Last Class

My last class was Friday, and it was really wonderful. Everyone was clicking! Monica had joined our class this week/semester. She’s from Chile, and she was lovely with an enormous smile. The two women from Saudi Arabia did not return.

It’s been fascinating to watch, learn, and understand the different ways in which people of different countries struggle to pronounce certain letters. The professor knows exactly which sounds will be difficult for each region. For example, she knew that the letters F, V, and B, would be the most challenging for some in the class, but not me. My issues differed.

As part of our daily (!) exercises in sounds, the prof constantly tells us to smile “Sourire” for certain word pronunciations. I find this easy and helpful for me to produce the right sound. As I’ve mentioned, the mouth movement for French is EXTREME, and we all need constant, daily reminders of this. We even exaggerate the exaggeratedness of it all in class. It’s quite unlike how we use our mouths in speaking American English, but I am reminded that it’s even more dramatic for my classmates from Middle Eastern countries, South America, India, and elsewhere as I watch them learn and practice.

The Prof worked with one student for several minutes, trying every which way to help her form a particular sound. It was not happening, but teachers here never just move on. Never. (If you followed me last year, you’ll know this.) So, she had the rest of us join in to help. We were all repeating the sounds, chanting everything she said, verbatim. She’d say it, we’d repeat it. She’d say it, we’d repeat it. We were in the mode. Even when she told the student to smile in order to form the word correctly. We repeated that with the same enthusiasm, which was obviously not what she had intended us to do! We all instantly realized what we’d just done, and could not stop laughing. Imagine having the entire class chant at you to SMILE when you speak!

After we all recovered from laughing, the prof, too, she wasn’t finished with the lesson. She had one more idea. She took us all into the ladies’ room. (The determination with these teachers is unmatched in my experience.) We all squeezed in front of the mirror, and it was then, that my fellow students realized they were NOT smiling (at all!) not the French way. I mean, in class they THOUGHT they were smiling, but now it became so clear to them how different their mouths looked in comparison to the teacher’s. It was a watershed moment. Right there, in the third floor ladies’ bathroom.

Next, we moved onto the “R” sound, as she’d promised me. She asked each of us how we thought one made the sound. I told her I was taught that it came from the throat. Literally, I was taught to gargle (without water) to make the sound, and so for years, that’s where my French R came from. Nope. Not at all. Turns out, it’s all about the placement of the tongue. That’s it. And now, just like that, OMG, it’s so easy. What? She told me I was no longer blocked. She could see it, as she watched me. I got it!

Tu n’es plus bloquée , Lisa!

As usual in these classes, my fellow students have all been living in Paris for quite awhile, so they’ve learned how to converse in French. They attend these classes to improve their accent, and to learn how to read and write. Few have any background in French grammar.

It’s still bizarre to me how I’m stronger in READING and WRITING (and conjugating) in French, yet they’re more fluent in SPEAKING. It fascinates me, no end!

We had such a fun class. And Harvard, while he was a full 30 minutes late to class (eye roll), shared with me a web site I can visit to practice conversations in French. I was and remain truly grateful. He is a teacher of English as a Second Language, which is ironic because English is his second language. He then shared all of the resources he knows with me, the prof, and the class. I could see that he was finally in his element – leading the class. Aha, I thought to myself, watching him. But as soon as we went back into class mode, he was again on his phone, not paying full attention. But this time I watched him, trying to figure him out. Turns out, he is often looking up words and translations. Ohhhhh. Okay. Now I had a clearer understanding of his behavior.

We all discussed our difficulties and strengths, Harvard deemed that I have a great vocabulary in French, I just need more practice in conversations. I gave that some thought, for I’d been thinking all this time that my vocabulary was the problem. Now I’m looking forward to taking a new tack, thanks to Harvard, so it was nice to end on that note.

Le Musée du Louvre

Remember when another student and I missed the group tour and ended up spending the day together touring the Louvre? He was a civil and software engineer and told me he knew nothing about art, so it was up to me to impart what I knew. No pressure there.

At one point, as we were in front of a Leonardo Da Vinci piece, he asked me to show him some of my artwork. Really, I asked? Yes, he said. Ok. I pulled out my phone, and showed him some of the work I’d done in different mediums. And then I laughed and said, « Thanks to you, I can now say, my artwork has been seen in the Louvre. »