There are many lessons and experiences I hope to take away from France. I have mulled over the possibilities and even made tentative lists of opportunities I hope to take advantage of during my time there; however, I also expect that much of what I learn in France will be things I could never predict.
My biggest goal, the motivation that has driven me forward in the journey to France, is fluency. I've been studying the French language for five years, fairly intensely for the past two. I don't particularly have an aptitude for languages, yet I am intensely interested in them. I'd like to study a bit of Italian once I'm satisfied with my level of French comprehension, and I try to pick up little strings of Spanish where I can. I tend to stick to the Romance languages, however, mostly because I think that's about all my brain has room for.
I chose Lyon over Paris because someone told me that you get more of a "French experience." Paris is reputed to have more of an international feel, in the way that New York City relates to the United States. If you go to Paris and find the English-speaking pockets, you'll waste your time being comfortable and never learn any French, I was warned.
This sent up red flags because it is exactly what happened to me last summer, when I took my French 202 equivalency in Montreal. To find housing for my stay in Canada, I went through a family friend and ended up living in a classy brownstone in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with three nice Canadian college boys. Not one of them was actually an Orthodox Jew, but they were all three bilingual and spoke better English than I spoke French. And that is the tragic story of how I learned little French in Montreal despite my four-week class, which was conducted in French for three hours a day. This enjoyable but limited summer experience also factors into the deep-seated dread that accompanied me every day on my way to French 331 -- Intensive Grammar -- the following semester at the University.
So, at least I know what I don't want, and that's a start, right?
As for what a "French experience" means to me, I have no idea what to expect. I've never been to France. Is it all about good pastries and snobby waiters?When I hear tales, they mostly recount the Parisian experience, and so it doesn't truly compare. When is the last time you heard someone say, "Yeah, during my vacation to Lyon..."
Is living in Lyon for four and a half months going to be a European experience? I've never been to Europe at all; I've only traveled to Canada. Is it like Montreal? My mother, who lived in Europe, including France, for a year and vacationed for two weeks in Montreal, decided Montreal has more of a European feel than America, but is not, of course, totally similar. Thanks, Mom, for the extremely helpful analysis.
When I think of the differences between Montreal and my own very personal American experience, I come up with a superficial list: architecture, street vendors and friendlier waiters. But, more significantly, there are the similarities. After a week or so in Montreal, I began to make friends with my classmates. We spoke a mix of French, English, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese. For us, French was the one language we all had in common. So, when we were all hanging out in a restaurant or chilling on patio furniture at night on the roof of a high rise, this sort of night-owly connected friendship energy started to emerge.
Scenes like these populate my memory as the most meaningful moments of my entire time in Montreal. So, with all these grand notions of learning another culture, what does it really boil down to but working to forge connections with the people you meet, those that are right in front of you? It's easy to make a list of goals -- I've done that. I'm even going to write down what I can do to make them happen and then expect nothing less. But the most challenging and most rewarding aspect of my trip to France is something I cannot plan for. I've got to cultivate an open heart and an open mind, and that's as much as I can do for now. Oh, and reading that book on French culture probably won't hurt either.
Andrenne is studying abroad in Lyon, France for the fall semester. She can be reached at alsum@cavalierdaily.com.
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