I remember as a kid being utterly fascinated by the idea of a foreign country. I remember "hiking" in the Pyrenees with my parents when I was six or seven, and one day we were in the Cirque de Troumouse (cf. map); my mother was pointing at elements of the cirque and naming them, and then she told me "...and this whole line of mountains is the frontier. Right behind this is Spain." I wouldn't believe her: surely that was not the real frontier, Spain could only be much further away! It was irrational, but to me, a foreign country was so remote psychologically that it was physically impossible to stand so close to one.It was my first frontier. I tried to imagine what it was like beyond, people living in the same mountains, but speaking a different language. If they were so close, why couldn't they speak French, the real language?
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I have more I want to say, which I'll probably say in a post on my own blog, but I just wanted to mention an anecdote that I still giggle about. When I was young I used to be fascinated by the concept of French. Living in Canada, we see and hear it all the time: written next to English on signs, spoken on children's TV shows, occasionally bumbled through in classes. I remember once, when I was probably 4 or 5, since it was before I was in Kindergarten, asking my mom what English sounded like to French speakers. I just assumed that what I heard as "Bonjour, comment ca va?" (apologies for any mistakes--my French is terrible) actually sounded like "Hello, how are you?" in the minds of French speakers. My mom, on the other hand, couldn't figure out what I was trying to ask. I don't know when I learnt the way things actually are, but I still remember sitting there for a good 15 minutes or so, trying desperately to figure out what English sounded like in the ears of a French speaker.
Your French is just fine :)
I love this kind of anecdote: when you remember a moment in your childhood very clearly when you asked yourself this or that question for the firt time. It's like a freeze frame of a crucial moment for your growing mind.
I always forget that English-speaking Canadians are constantly in contact with French. I also wonder what it sounds like to you: really like a latin language (like Italian and Spanish), or more like German gone all wrong...?
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