All through high school and thus far in college, language classes have been some of my easiest. When listening to people who aren’t teachers or professors (because I know they slow down the language a bit to help us learn), I’m usually able to understand. Except for grammar being a huge annoyance (and admittedly it drags down my claim to speaking French) I’ve always thought I’m relatively strong linguistically. Ummm…apparently not!
On Thursday I got my first ego blow by not placing into Advanced French I. Besides really wanting to be placed at a high level of French for ego’s sake, I needed to test into advanced I in order to take all of my classes in French. Right now besides my actual French class the only class in French I’ll be taking will be l’histoire d’islam. International law had to be replaced by Atlantic Slave Trade and I am taking Senegalese Society and Culture in English instead of French.
Ego blow #2 was moving in with my host family on Friday and barely being able to understand them! Nor am I particularly efficient at communicating to them what I want to convey. Yet on an intellectual level, I know we “speak” the same language. This is surprisingly frustrating and very humbling (to anybody who is a hardcore believer in “You’re in America – speak English” keep in mind that it is so much more difficult than it sounds. Even if it is a language you “know” and have studied academically, actually using it around people who speak it everyday and expect you to understand them without repeating themselves 10 times is not an easy thing to do. When it becomes clear that you aren’t fluent linguistically it makes you stand out even more…here toubab is the word to describe somebody from away).
(As you might be able to tell I’m dealing with my first bout of homesickness.)
Today I walked around my neighborhood (Sacre-coeur 3) with a 5-year-old (Mahkmeesh) and an 11-year-old (Kinné). I was completely dependent on them for directions. When we were at the small garden with their friends I found myself surrounded by 6 girls all of whom where shrieking, playing with each other, talking to me, trying to talk with me, and calling me toubab all at the same time. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences I’ve had in a long time. I could neither hear individuals nor the group overall and had no idea what was going on.
Moral of the story: I know the next 110 days will make me much more fluent in French but right now I’m feeling pretty lost.
A bientôt.
p.s. I’m typing this during a power cut on Saturday evening so who knows when this will actually be posted online.
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