Culture Shock

Expats Blog is running a series of fortnightly writing contests for the next eight weeks based around our different expat life themes. There are four prizes per contest totaling in $350 in Amazon Vouchers! 

Here is an excerpt of my entry 'HELP! There is an American in the front garden!' on the subject of culture shock:

It is the summer of 2009 and after leaving France I am spending a month living in England with my boyfriend’s mum and step-dad before heading back to America.

Today my boyfriend’s parents are at work and he has gone into town to get his hair cut, leaving me to my own devices. Although it is a beautiful day, I am inside, taking the opportunity to catch up on the dirty laundry that I have been neglecting since France. The only clean items I have left to wear are a pair of bikini bottoms and one of my old high school t-shirts.

While the washing machine is located in the house, the tumble-dryer is out in the garage. An arrangement I find peculiar, but the English seem to find this normal. I grab a pile of clean, wet clothes, pull on a pair of neon green wellies, and do a double take to ensure none of the neighbours are out.

With the coast clear I dash across the front lawn and put my clothes into the tumbler. It is around this time that a slight breeze picks up and I hear the slam of a door. With my task complete, I dash back to the front door only to discover that the slamming I heard was our door and I am now completely and utterly locked out.

I jiggle the door handle in the vain hope that it will magically unlock while the dog stares at me through the bay window with her tail wagging. It appears my only option, other than sitting on the front lawn in bikini bottoms, old high school t-shirt, and wellies, is to climb over the garden wall and get in through the open back door.

I go into the garage to grab a ladder, but am foiled again. It appears they either do not own a ladder or do not keep it in the garage. It appears I will be hopping this fence the old fashioned way. The problem is, it isn’t a fence so much as a massive door (that is also locked might I add) that goes just past the height of the garage.

With nothing to stand on, I have one leg on the wall of the house and the other on the wall of the garage effectively in a full splits (haven’t done one of these since my dancing days) and am trying to shimmy up the walls.

A car comes into the cul-de-sac, clearly one of the neighbours has returned home. I have been in England for a matter of days and have not yet been introduced to any of the neighbours. A point I find completely normal, but apparently not so normal to the English. So far, the only thing I know about these neighbours is that my boyfriend’s parents are the youngest by about thirty years.

Should I continue to try and climb over the Mt. Everest of garden fences or should I try and see if this poor pensioner has a ladder I can borrow? I jump down from the wall and head over to meet the acquaintance of the elderly man now bent over his car boot pulling out shopping, while at the same time trying to pull my t-shirt over my bottom. 

To read the full entry, please visit Expats Blog website and be sure to check out some of the other entries while you're there! Remember to leave a comment on your favourite post as the judges will be taking them into account for one of the prizes!

Erin x

Pardon My French

"Why learn a language when everyone speaks English anyway?" Every time I hear this, and I've heard it more times then you can imagine, a small part of me dies inside. Okay, so that might be a little melodramatic but the sentiment is still a painful one for me. The truth of the matter is that NOT everyone speaks English and never would I have it otherwise.

There are many benefits to learning a foreign language such as: boosting your intelligence, easing your travel experiences, assisting your career and even aiding your love life. In learning a foreign language I have experienced all four of these benefits in some way or another.

Learn English with Kaplan

Intelligence

I studied languages, Spanish and French, throughout my school career. Learning a foreign language has given me a better understanding of my own. For example, did you know you already speak a bit of French? The English language borrows a number of phrases from French, as well as others.

1. "I just got déjà vu." The literal translation of déjà vu is 'already seen' and the phrase has come to describe the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that what you're experiencing has happened before.
2. "He was given carte blanche." In French carte means card and blanche means white or blank. The two words put together in English mean free reign.
3. "We live at the end of the cul-de-sac." Cul-de-sac means a dead-end street but the literal translation of this word in French is something quite vulgar. Let's just say sac means bag and leave it at that shall we.
4. "I'm en route!" En route is a French phrase meaning 'on the way' that is commonly used in the English language.
5. "She was wearing a lovely ensemble" Ensemble can mean 'together' but in this context a more appropriate translation is outfit.

Studying French at university gave me the opportunity to go live abroad in Pau, France. Knowing some French before I arrived was a huge advantage as it made those first few weeks that little bit easier. I was able to get my mobile phone with relative ease and it certainly made the first trip to the supermarket a little less daunting.

Love

My decision to move to France was not motivated by the clichéd desire to find love in a foreign country. I wasn't expecting to be swept off my feet and certainly not by an Englishman. The fact of the matter is, neither of us would have met each other had we not been been studying French at university.

Children will be on the cards for us at some point, and when that happens we plan on moving back to France. Not forever mind you, but perhaps to begin the children's education in France so that they become bilingual. Having bilingual children is very important to both Luke and me as being bilingual can open many doors for you.

Travel

You don't have to live abroad to experience the benefits of knowing another language. Knowing languages has helped me on my travels. Whilst struggling to find somewhere to park in Barcelona, I was able to use my Spanish to ask for the nearest car park. (Although some of the people I spoke to in Spanish decided to respond to me in Catalan.) When lost in Brussels I was able to ask several people for directions to our hostel. The ones who actually responded in French (Belgians also speak Flemish) still couldn't help me but, had I not spoken French, I would not have been able to communicate with the nice police officers who eventually did help us find our hostel.

To this day, whenever Luke and I go abroad we try to learn some basic phrases in the language of the country to which we are travelling. Something as simple as ordering a pizza in Italian really can go a long way with the locals.

Career

Luke and I both use our language skills in our careers. Luke was specifically hired because of his ability to speak French. Luke's company has offices all over the globe, and whilst all employees are supposed to speak English, it can be very beneficial to speak foreign languages. His talent for languages has not gone unrecognised either; his company are paying for him to study German!

While I wasn't hired on the basis of speaking French, I often use it as I work at the European headquarters of my company. When we were organising an event in Paris, the employees of the restaurant, at which we were trying to book the formal dinner, only spoke French. Let me tell you, trying to explain the various allergies of the attendees was no small feat. Besides using my language on a semi-regular basis I am also fortunate enough to have several French colleagues with whom I can practice!

Q: Are there any words used in the English language you can think of with different origins? If you could learn any language other than your native one, what would it be?

Erin x

*This post was part of Kaplan's Inspire Language Learning Blogger Challenge.

San Sebastián Memories

Bad photos, we all have them and some of us more than others. When I got my first digital camera, I thought it would be the end of the bad photos of my disposable camera days. Now I know the digital camera is not a miracle worker - it just put an end to waiting to find out that you were pulling a gormless face that previously might have taken weeks to discover. But what if you could go back a have a retake of one of your bad photos, which would you choose?

When I first read the premise behind Russell's 'No More Bad Photos Competition' I thought it was going to be difficult to choose a photo, but once I sat down to write my entry one photo jumped out at me immediately. It was the first "couple" photo of Luke and I, taken on our first weekend away together to San Sebastián in March 2009.

Luke and I met during my first week in Pau, when we were introduced by my host mother, Domi, who was Luke's boss. (My apologies to the ones who already know this story.) We began dating almost immediately after meeting, but everything was casual. After all at the end of the summer I would be going back to America and Luke to England. The idea of it being anything serious, at the time, seemed impossible.

To this end, perhaps to convince ourselves more than anything, we tried to steer clear of what I would call "coupley" things. We didn't have any photos of just the two of us, if we were in a photo together someone else was always with us. We didn't call ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend. And perhaps most important of all, we didn't have the "so where is this going?" conversation that seems to plague so many relationships.

Our bubble of avoidance was shattered in mid-March when Luke asked if I would be interested in going away with him for the weekend, just the two of us. We considered going to Biarritz, but we had gone there a number of times already with our group of friends. Plus there was a strong likelihood that our friends would get the urge to go to the beach and join us. So we decided on San Sebastián - home of tapas, Basque cuisine, surfing, and the most Michelin star restaurants.

We spent the weekend laying on the beach, eating amazing Spanish cuisine, and visiting the same gelato place more times than I can remember. We taken a number of photos of each other but so far didn't have one of the two of us together. That changed on our last day on top of the San Sebastián Aquarium (we also discovered our mutual love of aquariums) when we finally had our first couple photo.

It is a little dark on our faces, and the pose is awkward because rather than find someone to take it for us, Luke is holding his hand out. But it still makes our photo album because it is our first.We may have fallen in love in Pau, but San Sebastián is where it all changed for us. I had no idea then that three years down the line I would be living in England, married to the incredible man posing right next to me.

We've often talked about going back to San Sebastián, the place where our relationship changed to the more  serious. Someday we will, and we'll pose on top of the Aquarium like we did that day, but this time I think we'll ask a passer-by to take the photo for us.

Remember: The truly bad photos are the ones that don’t exist at all.

Erin x

Entry for In Search of a Life Less Ordinary's 'No More Bad Photos Competition'