The last couple days I've been exploring on my own while Elise is at work. The first day I clung to my camera, hoping it made it obvious that I was a tourist and did not in fact speak French. Today, I ventured out camera free and went into a few shops to explore. I even purchased an apple pastery.
The pastery conversation went a little like this:
Shop Owner: Bonjour!
Me: Bonjour. Um.... I don't speak any French.
SO: something in French
Me: pointing to the pastery I wanted. Pum? (pomme is apple in french... i remember how to say it because it rhymes with bum)
SO: something else in French?
Me: Oui. [hopefully giving correct amount of money]
SO: Merci
Me: Merci
SO: Bye!
Typically my French conversations involve a lot of pointing and face-making, as my French vocabulary consists of very few words, most of which I can hardly pronounce. This is what I can say: Hello. Thank you very much. Good-bye. Yes. No. My dog. You are stupid. The petite whale. All in all, these are not particularly useful phrases.
The pastery conversation went a little like this:
Shop Owner: Bonjour!
Me: Bonjour. Um.... I don't speak any French.
SO: something in French
Me: pointing to the pastery I wanted. Pum? (pomme is apple in french... i remember how to say it because it rhymes with bum)
SO: something else in French?
Me: Oui. [hopefully giving correct amount of money]
SO: Merci
Me: Merci
SO: Bye!
Typically my French conversations involve a lot of pointing and face-making, as my French vocabulary consists of very few words, most of which I can hardly pronounce. This is what I can say: Hello. Thank you very much. Good-bye. Yes. No. My dog. You are stupid. The petite whale. All in all, these are not particularly useful phrases.
Well, off I go again to explore Chambery... once again with camera in hand.
Here are a few more pictures.... part of my window series:
1 comment:
Hooray for France! What beautiful pictures! Some missionary friends of ours who have lived in Geneva for years gave us good advice: the most important word to learn is "sil vous plait" (Please). They said that if you have good manners and say please, it'll get you a long way with the French. We found it to be pretty true! ...I'm jealous you're in France. We only got a couple days there - definitely not long enough! Enjoy!
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