Locals are Life-Savers: Navigating the 法国里维埃拉

From the time my American sneakers hit French soil, I knew I was going to struggle with the cultural and linguistic differences between the United States and 法国. 文化冲击是不可避免的, but I quickly found the best way to soften the blow was to be open about the barriers I’m facing, and ask questions from the absolute best teachers: locals. Clément, Romain, Justine, Octave, Theo, the manager at Choopy’s Coffee 商店. These are the names of the French people I have met, 还有一些和我越来越亲近, 在这短短的一个月里 法国留学. 所有这些新朋友, there is one who helped my American friends and me more in this transition than she will probably ever know: Justine.

学期的第一周, my friends and I quickly figured out the best way to meet 昂蒂布 locals and fellow students was by camping out on the beach at night with a speaker, 一些食物和饮料. We would pick a spot and just wait for people to approach or approach them ourselves. Groups of young locals would wander over and take a seat right next to us, as we’d all discuss our backgrounds and become familiar with each other. 一个特别的夜晚, 一个叫贾斯汀的可爱女孩, her boyfriend Cedric and their friend who was visiting from Avignon, 法国, 走近我们，加入我们的小组. All three of them spoke various amounts of English, Justine being the most skilled. My roommates and I speak no French at all, so we were excited to have the opportunity to talk to them. 当我们聊天时, our conversation was centered around the differences between our two native languages, with us asking Justine many questions about French, and her asking us many about English (even though she already spoke it very well). Fun fact: there is no French word for “shallow,” it’s just simply “not deep.“你知道得越多! 

因为我们刚到这个地方, we peppered her with questions about various key phrases we wanted to know how to say in French. 我们询问订购食物, 道歉, 介绍我们自己, 问别人是否会说英语, and we even learned how to ask to pet a dog on the street. Justine was amused by our curiosity, and gracious with her information. She even let us record her saying the phrases so we could practice. This interaction happened our very first week in town, and a month later I’m still using all these phrases, almost on the daily (especially the dog one!).

In addition to Justine’s linguistic help, there has been no shortage of new French friends excited to teach us about their culture. 我学会了怎么做。”la寒风,” the common French greeting of two kisses near the cheek. I learned how to order and pay at restaurants, which is quite different here. I learned how to work with the unique school administration and handle things such as absences or adding and dropping classes. I know I could’ve figured all of this out on my own, but having people who are familiar with this environment and are ager to help me has made my transition to this French lifestyle one million times easier. These locals are people I know I can call when I’m facing the inevitable obstacles of 宝博体育, and their friendship has already made this experience so valuable for me.