A few more language barriers that are still too high for
Mother to conquer. This time, Mother tries her hand at French. Believe it or
not, I actually had high hopes for the French, considering when I test Mother
on her Spanish, she frequently comes out with the correct word in French (such
as voiture, etc). We were having drinks with a group of Belgians who spoke only
French and the party grew as the night went on, meaning even more confusion for
me (and more exciting challenges for Mother). Personally, I was struggling as,
even after taking French A-Level, my brain only holds the capacity for one
foreign language at one time and therefore I ended up speaking Spanish to them
or just hand motions and nodding and laughing when I thought it was appropriate.
Mother took on the French challenge with great enthusiasm as she insists that
French people, food, clothes, language etc is the best.
Adopting the same method as usual, Mother simply created her
own language by putting on an extremely-strong French accent but still using
the English language.
Examples include;
"Oui, oui, hahaha, how boo-tee-fuhl!"
"my job, urrh, oooh, welllllll, oui, urhhhh, oooorh,
oui, si, uh, is like, poo-blik .... relah-theon-é-."
"can I get you another ... " *resorts to hand
gesturing 'drink'*
"ahhh, je t'aime Pah-reee!" (from my fading school
memories, I'm pretty sure she just told someone "I love you")
*N.B. the throaty French rolled-'R' thing was a favourite
for Mother and she readily used it on every possible word she could*
So, we may very well have another evening with this group
and I very much doubt that, by the time we do, the Belgian's won't have learnt
any English and Mother won't have learnt any French.
xoxo
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