PARIS II

The first days living alone in a new country were challenging, but the most challenging thing was by far the language barrier. I actually learned French in school and after graduating I had reached a B1 level. However, after graduation I still felt like my French was not good enough to watch movies or read books in French. This is the way I try to keep my English at a good level. But, I did not do anything to keep up with my French skills, I forgot most of it over the last three years. I still remember the basics and a lot of vocabulary, but having a full conversation is hardly possible anymore. A part of me wanted to come to Paris to improve my French again.

It started at the huge train station. When I was completely lost there, I asked for directions, and I only understood some parts of the answer. I still found my way through it. The next thing I had to do was explain my location to the taxi driver on the phone, who was not amused about my bad French. The worst part was getting my metro card, since Paris has a plastic card (Pass Navigo) that you have to create at the info point in a metro station. On the website it says that you can create the metro card at every single station. I had to visit six stations until somebody finally created the card for me, they kept sending me to a different station every time I asked for it. I asked for it in French every single time! I felt like they were making fun of me because I clearly am a lost foreigner. Another challenge was the call with the electricity company that I mentioned in the first blog. After ten minutes of telling me that there is no one that speaks English and me trying to do explain things in French, they connected me with an English-speaking worker. But all worked out fine in the end.

Over the last month I got more used to the language. I can easily order things at the restaurant or the “boulangerie” and do other daily tasks like grocery shopping. I try to communicate in French most of the time when I am asking for something, even though I get a little nervous about it. I am hesitant in trying to have an easy conversation with somebody in French. I try to always listen to people speaking in French, so I can try to understand more things. When I am under pressure it makes it more difficult for me to understand, because I am in a, for me, stressful situation. That is why listening to others is way easier for me. In Paris there is a language exchange event called “Café des Langues” that takes place at a Café every Monday. This is a place where people from all over the world meet to communicate in any language but specially to practice the French language.

In restaurants it often happens that the waiters can hear that I am a foreigner and just start speaking in English to me anyway. For example, a uber driver gave me the advice to always speak French, while I was speaking in French to him, but he kept answering me in English. Most of the times it seems like, if your French is not perfect you do not have a high chance speaking to Parisians. On the other hand, there are servers that turn kind of unfriendly when you do not speak French. I always try to think about what I want to say beforehand, to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. To improve my French, I started following French news accounts on social media and want to follow some French influencers in the future. In the future I want to regain some of my French skills and come back to practice them. Sadly, my home university does not accept the French course at my university in Paris. I would have really liked to take them, since many other foreign students take them as well and it would have helped a lot. If I could turn back time, I would sign up for the French course even though I do not get any credits from it.

Tanja Berchtel, November 2021