Comment ca s’appelle?!!

It has to be a bad sign if you move to France and realise you lack the basic vocabulary necessary to navigate the supermarket, the classroom, or even your own kitchen. It seemed so pointless back when we learnt it in year seven, but if I had known that the words for kettle, bin, and toothpaste (in my case especially the first) were so essential I probably would have been less keen to skip the ‘Around the house’ chapter of the text book and move on to something more exciting. It was when settling into my new home when I realised the grave consequences of my earlier beginner’s ambition. On day one I was left floundering around la cuisine (I remembered that one…) in a state of panic at how appalling my language skills were and resolving that the best course of action would be to get the first flight back to Angleterre (sadly has limited utility in France). After all, when one lacks the capacity to name the objects in their own home, the ‘best experience of your life’ year-abroad rapidly becomes crash course in mime. Luckily, a sympathetic flatmate and a pocket dictionary (which I had convinced myself I wouldn’t need) were at hand and the situation was resolved. Lessons learnt? Panic-not when the word evades you, its hiding among a plethora of undoubtedly more sophisticated vocabulary… or at the least its okay to be reminded of things we feel we should know by now. And practically of course, add an ‘Every day essentials’ section to your cahier de vocabulaire .

In the two days since, I have noted further useful terms (and some more random ones) and can now enjoy the child like satisfaction derived from pointing at and naming the objects in my own home.  Even if the objective this year is more native competency than GCSE refresher, we have to start somewhere, oui?

Not-so-useful word of the day: paratonnerre -  lightning rod i.e. that large metal pole used to attract lightning to prevent it hitting anything else. Stumbled across this one whilst watching television, and despite its lack of utility and narrow application, it’s a nice one to say.