5th crêpe night of 2005 and French faux pas

We just finished another crêpe evening here. Our guests were our church's Swiss intern Christian, as well as 7 Wheaton College students (Rachel, Heidi, Brianna, Diana, Kirsten, Sarah, and Kristen) and their professor Dr. Sherri Abel. They courageously tried to speak French nearly the whole evening.

In learning any language, one must be willing to make mistakes in order to learn. Some of them can be quite humorous.

Last night, for example, one of them said, "Est-ce qu'il y a qqn dans la toilette?" She should have said "aux toilettes." Just by a change of preposition, she changed the meaning from "Is there anyone in the toilet room?" to "Is there anyone in the toilet?" I could just imagine one of the ladies swimming around in the toilet bowl.

Another faux pas using the feminine article instead of the masculine one in front of a word. Some words are pronounced the same, but have different meanings, depending on what article is used in front of them. Someone meant to say that her grammar wasn't very good ("Mon grammaire n'est pas bon."). But by using the feminine article, the meaning communicated was "My grandma isn't very good (or nice)" ("Ma grand-mère n'est pas bonne").

It is a humbling thing to learn another language. But it is also a rich experience when done in a context where one eats, breathes, and smells the culture of the language at the same time. Hats off to these students for their investment in learning French!