Ma Vie in France

No blog on France is complete without at least one post about food, and I'm surprised it's taken me so long to write one! But as I started to think about all of the different things there are to say about food in France (and there are many) I realized that it's just as important to discuss how people talk about food as it is to describe the food itself. So how do French people talk about food? Below I'll give a examples of language relating to food that I think are important to help understand the French mentality and experience of eating. Food is an experience: je prends mon déjeuner For starters, in France food isn't just something you consume, it's an experience. There is a certain time, place, and way that you eat. The language reflects this, as it's seen more appropriate and polite sounding in French to say 'I take my lunch' (Je prends mon déjeuner) rather than 'I eat my lunch', sounding a little more vulgar or just rep...

My days here in France are often spent straddling two linguistic worlds. My professional life ‘happens’ mostly in English, thinking about its mechanics, how to explain ‘x’ grammar point, and how to speak clearly to my students. My personal life revolves around French, which we speak at home.  In short, thinking about language is a large part of my day, and in this post I’d like to comment on some reflections I have about language and language learning. Since moving to France, the place of French in my life has changed. Whereas in the US it was a beautiful object to admire, to study, to practice, here it is my survival tool, my key to sorting out my life in every way from administration to asking for something in a different size in a store.  French is my lifeline. My command of it, on both a linguistic and a pragmatic level, can make or break many situations. This can sometimes put me at a disadvantage, but this is also something you have to acce...