Emerging Technologies Consulting

As you can probably tell from the links in the last post, I’m coming down from a trip to Paris.  Today is Bastille Day and because I was just in Paris a few days ago, I thought it appropriate to celebrate by cooking a few things.  I am, at this very moment, waiting for croissants to rise.

What I wanted to talk about, though, is language.  I took 4 years of French in high school and another couple of years in college, thinking I might even major in it.  That was 20 years ago.  I failed to seriously brush up on my French before we went, so although I tried to speak it a little, I got a lot of funny looks as people tried to decipher what I was saying.  Usually, they then switched to English, for which I was actually grateful and not in the least offended.  I had a slightly better experience 20 years ago when I took a trip to Paris in that my French was more current and I think I sounded a bit better, but still, I didn’t have to use it that much.  I gave someone the time.  I ordered bread (pain) and coffee (du cafe).  For more complex transactions, my friend, a fluent French speaker, did all the talking.  I find my lack of real knowledge about French, despite so many years of studying it, rather disappointing.  It would be nice to truly be able to speak the language.  I think two things kept me from really learning the language.  One, we did not speak French that much in class and two, when we did, it was not to ask directions or order food, it was about, as Eddie Izzard demonstrates so nicely–cats on chairs and monkeys on branches (La chat est sur la chaise et le singe est sur la branche.)  Mostly we learned to read French and to write it.  I actually read a Zola in French, but I don’t think I’m going to have a conversation with a waiter about that.  Now, I passed up a couple of opportunities that might have helped.  Every week, there was French table in the cafeteria where only French could be spoken.  Presumably, the conversations were about real things–what we were eating, what we were going to do on the weekend, etc.  By the time this came into my consciousness, I’d decided to drop French as a major.  I also could have gone abroad to France and studied.  Again, I’d dropped French before really exploring this option.

When I was in college, the Internet barely existed.  The web didn’t yet exist.  We barely even had computers, much less networked computers.  Now, though, there are many ways I could immerse myself in a language, thanks to the web.  I can read or watch French news or tv.  Better yet, you can actually have conversations over the net with real people.  The Mixxer is a site where one can find people to converse with in different languages.  I’ve signed myself up despite no forthcoming trips to Paris, alas.  But I’d like to not let my French die and next time I go to France, I’d like to avoid such funny looks.