When I walk down the street, people speak to me in French. Why shouldn't they? I'm in Belgium where one of the national languages is French*. The other day, I was walking to the park, and a man came up to me laughing, saying something I couldn't understand, and finally trying to get a response out of me by saying "Oui?" like "Right?". A few days ago, while waiting at a cross walk, a man in a VW stopped at the light and said, "Pardon" followed by what I believe was a question about where he could find a certain street. And again, while walking home, a woman asked me where she could find a subway stop.
In all of these situations my reaction was the same: look confused, put up hands and shrug shoulders, wish like crazy I'd taken beginning French. I must look foolish.
I thought maybe I'd find respite at a quiet museum where you only have to read, so I decided to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments. However, nothing was in English, except for small notes reading "Do not touch please. Thank you." I tried to read the history of the drum (tambour), piano (klavier), and violin (violon) in French but just starring at the words didn't work. Luckily for me, the second national language of Belgium is Dutch, and since I took some German some years back, I could make out the gist of what the Dutch paragraph was saying. At least that's what I told myself.
Since I'm in Belgium, I should know some French and so I am trying to learn some French phrases, one of which is "Je ne sais pas," or "I don't know."
*I don't want to give you the wrong impression however, English is spoken here by many and everyone is quite nice about it.
1 comment:
That's hilarious! I can just imagine the expression on your face. I'd recommend also learning this phrase: "Je regret mais je ne parle pas francais." (And I'm guessing I did not spell that right fyi.)
Adam says you should be used to not understanding anything since you're in the Chinese branch. :)
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