Monday, April 18, 2011

Confidence

It's funny how I lack confidence when I speak French in America. But when I'm in Paris, or Nice, or even Northern France (where the dialects literally run wild), I let go, and just speak. I make just as many mistakes as I do in America, but when I'm in France, I feel like one of them. And I know I could never be Parisian, nor do I think I would truly want to be, but I certainly feel more confident when speaking over there.

In America, I feel misunderstood, strung up somewhere between confusing verb tenses, and mispronounced nouns. In France, my errors sounds like slang, or sound like a common mistake that nearly-fluent Americans tend to make. I feel at ease, one with my words. I don't stumble over words, stumble over their meanings and what I mean to say. For some reason I stumble over everything in America-- in French or in English. And it never struck me as odd until I started going to one-on-one conferences with my American French professor. It's not a big deal, but I'm not sure if or when that will ever go away.