I Don't Know What Your Saying But I Understand

I hardly speak French and understand very little, however, there are many times when I have a good idea what someone is saying. It’s a strange kind of phenomenon but after I spend some time in a place where I don’t know the language I get a more intuitive sense of what a person is trying to communicate.

Often I’ll meet someone and they will strike up a conversation. I let them know I that I speak very little French but they continue talking with an occasional English word thrown in. This has happened a number of times and the conversation may go on for a while. In the end I won’t really understand much at all but somehow I’ll learn they have 3 kids, one who is a chef, and a relative who moved to Montana 20 years ago to mine copper and just came back to France for the first time. Other times I’ll be walking along the Camino and a local will fill me in on info as to where to get water, coffee, or food and I'll understand even though everything they said was said in French.

Naturally I’m not able to hold a conversation of any depth, if at all, and some days I don’t know what anyone is saying about anything. However, sometimes I’m quite surprised at how well I grasp what is being said.

As far as studying the language I’m like most English speakers which means I’m pretty bad about it. The downside to speaking English is that almost everywhere you go there’s going to be someone who knows enough English for you to get by on. English is the universal international language and as an English speaker it’s very easy to be LAZY about learning a foreign language.

Europeans are by far the best about learning other languages and they are generally very good at it. A Dutch person will tell you they have no choice but to learn English, a German will tell you it’s necessary for business, and a French person is irritated by the whole English thing but reluctantly understands the value in it.

What’s really a shame about not knowing the local language is that it’s nearly impossible to connect on anything more than a superficial level and you miss out really getting to know people of a different culture. On the other hand people do seem to be a little friendlier and gentler with one another when they don’t s peak the same language. Smiles and thank yous go along way.