So, at the embassy, Chloé and I recognized Christopher Trott, whom we had met in Rouen over a year ago. Fortunately he remembered us (we'd already had a great time in Rouen), and kindly introduced us to his friends Peter Kulchyski from the University of Manitoba as well, and Frank Tester from UBC.We also met David Neufeld from Whitehorse. What happened is that Chloé saw "Northwest Territories" I think on his nametag, and started stealing glances at him and speaking in hushed, eager tones with me -- yes, just because of where he comes from (sorry Chloé!). I turned around and saw that he was smiling at us with an inquisitive look on his face. So, although I am dreadfully shy in this kind of situation, I went to him to explain the reason of our enthusiasm. He was very friendly and chatted with us for quite a while.
That night I also got to see two of the organizers, Béatrice Collignon and Michèle Therrien, whom I already knew, and they told me "oh, so, is your paper really in French? because it would be much better if it was in English, you know." Slow motion, close-up on my face, on which you could read total dismay. "I wrote it in French [until very late last night]! You really think I should translate it [until late tonight -- please say no]?" They said yes, it would be better, so the same night, I started translating my paper, with an enormous headache instead of a dictionary. At 2 a.m., I had only translated a third of it, and Chloé convinced me that I had to give up and sleep, and that I should do it in French as planned, and that no, I would not die from embarrassment.
It turned out that most people spoke or understood French, and for those who didn't I translated a bit of my paper and answered in English. And I didn't die from embarrassment at all.
By the way, up there is a picture of the new, rather controversial museum, where the conference took place.
7 comments:
Sounds like fun! I don't know how much you work on it for your blog, but your English is fantastic. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Thanks, Matt. Actually I hardly work on my English for my blog, but I'm just never statisfied. It's partly because our teacher always ask for the best, but mostly because I love it.
I could spend hours reading my dictionaries, comparing words, learning about their history... you wouldn't believe how long it took me to write my master's thesis. And I'm almost certain it would have taken me just as long to write it in French! I'm a slow person. :)
I know the way it is to sit there searching for just the right word, be it in your own language or another. Sometimes it feels like you'll never find the word you're looking for.
I always find the biggest problem in writing in another language (German being my second language of choice) for me is remembering to watch out for gender. I just can't get used to the idea of nouns being something other than just the one gender, especially since English hasn't had gendered nouns for hundreds of years. How is it moving from French into English? Is it hard to get used to not having gender, or is it something you get the hang of right away?
Umm... that last comment (by ladysir) is actually mine. My fiancée's sister was using this computer and seems to have logged in under her ID. Sorry about that!
No problem! I just realized that in my previous comment I ramble about never being satisfied, and the whole comment is full of mistakes. Nevermind...
I suppose it is much easier to move from French to English than the other way around when it comes to gendered nouns. But it still takes a little time to get used to the idea of neutrality, because you tend to use gendered pronouns, like "I saw a snake and was afraid he would bite me." I know neutrality makes more sense, but I like the use of gendered nouns, it reveals a completely different interpretation of the world.
The most difficult thing for me was to switch from French to German though, because the genders are often different, so you have to relearn all of them. Which must be your problem too.
Wow, you speak French, English, and German? I am truly jealous of European educations.
Oh, sorry but no I don't speak German!
I was supposed to learn it for five years (2 years in junior high, and 3 years in high school), but it was a disaster... our first teacher was young and obsessed about death, and made us learn pages and pages of vocabulary out of books of the thirties and forties. And no grammar at all. He still made us write essays (about death, of course).
The second teacher didn't make us do anything at all, she was quite old and acted like a grandma. She taught us a few Christmas songs.
So when I got to high school my level was so low that all I could do was try and keep up.
Now I have forgotten all I knew... I did a little Spanish in college, and even that is better than my German. So much for European education!
I think we're lucky that Germany, Italy and Spain are our direct neighbors, but we should take more advantage of that. We French are bad at foreign languages, so nothing to be jealous of, here!
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