After some intense calculating, I realized that I've been in France for a whole month (UN-BE-LI-EV-AB-LE)! It's been such a wonderful adventure so far, and the country has in many ways exceeded my expectations. However, certain things have contradicted my original ideas about France and the French language, revealing that I sadly don't know as much as I previously thought. In the hopes of sparing others from falling victim to the same ignorance, I will post my original misconceptions and the truths that counter them below:
Fallacy #1: France and America share little in common. Before arriving, I suffered under the ludicrous delusion that France was a place completely different from the US. This assumption was a) obviously wrong and b) idiotic, stemming from my previous lack of exposure to European society and concentration on traditional France as opposed to the modern one.Though France varies in several ways from the US of A, the similarities between the two far outweigh the differences. It's been so interesting to draw parallels between two countries that I before found quite unrelated. I'm discovering that there are both societal and generational norms that transcend borders. Older people believe in dressing modestly; university students party like it's 1999; going to sketch parts of town at night is a no-no; McDonald's is not considered a legitimate restaurant (you get the point). Recognizing these commonalities between France and America has caused me to look at the world in a broader way. I feel that in the US, we're often too engulfed in happenings on the home turf to notice what's going on elsewhere. While watching news programs and reading books may seem like sufficient ways to learn about another country, I've realized that it's impossible to truly understand a culture, and thereby make assumptions, without being fully immersed in it.
Fallacy #2: "Salut" is a universal greeting. Anyone who studies French is well aware of the grammatical distinction between "tu" and "vous," and that there are different ways to speak to others based on which category they fall in. What few people probably know (and what I've discovered only since being here) is that even the way you greet someone is contingent on whether they're a "tu" or "vous". For as long as I can remember, I've used "salut" when speaking to both friends and people of distinction. However, this is very wrong. Only close friends or family members should be greeted this way. Those with whom a formal relationship is maintained should only be greeted with "Bonjour, " "Bonsoir," etc. So to those who are just learning this, remember: "Salut" pour tu, "bonjour" pour vous.
Fallacy #3 (more of a personal realization, but take note for those of you who feel the same): I've been studying French for 8 1/2 years, so I'd definitely consider myself fluent. Yeah, this is a total lie. I may be fluent in the Americanized, academic version of French, but when it comes to speaking fluidly in everyday contexts I don't know jank. My host family has been exceedingly helpful in correcting me and helping me become a better speaker, but I definitely have a long way to go until I become entirely fluent. The lesson here? It's good to be confident in your lingual skills, but always be open to learning more (because truth is you probably don't know half of what you should).
Hopefully these tidbits will help others who suffer from cultural delusions extract the truth. In other news, things have been going pretty well in the past week. I met up with some new friends from Turkey, Russia, and Algeria last Saturday and ate some super delish Turquish food! On Sunday, my host fam took me on a lovely hike to the top of one of Montpellier's mountains (I'm slightly confused as to which one it was as there are two or three, but I'll double check and enter deets later). Exciting things have also been happening at school. After two weeks of visiting classes, I finished finalizing my schedule and ended up only having class from Monday to Wednesday! I'm so happy with how it turned out and now have ample study and travel time thanks to 5-day weekends (HOLLA). I haven't done too much by way of traveling yet, but I have plans to visit Paris in February and will be updating about it fo sho! Schoolwork's also starting to pick up some, but it's nothing in comparison to the mounds at W&M so no complaints :) Aside from that there's not much else to report, but I'm sure I'll have something new soon. Plus, I haven't even shared my many stories of embarrassment since arriving, and it's me so obviously there are a ton!
Until then,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Mari (I thought that would have a nice ring to it, but it was a fail…)
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