Portland (PDX) was always just a place I visited and never stayed long. A day long shopping trip or a trip to the airport. But what happens when you move to a big city after living in a small city all your life?
Sometimes I think the best part of going on trips to places is seeing things you don't normally see all the time. It makes them special. It leaves a bit of mystery.
I love it here, but I need to learn to never give up that tourist notion. There is a lot to see here, and I've barely even started.
I spend over six years studying French, though when I finally got to take a trip there I still felt unprepared. It wasn't as though I was mixing up my je, tu, il, elle, vous and nous or anything, but somehow through my nervousness I ended up blubbering out sentences in the wrong order or forgetting important nouns altogether.
Anyways,
The biggest lesson I learned while in French was to start every conversation by asking:
"Do you speak English?"
I probably offended about 50 different Parisians by trying to pronounce words wrong, stuttering on sentences and using the wrong form of "you".
Midway through most sentences, I'd get them to say "I speak English, you know" or a "Do you not speak French?" or "Are you a tourist?"
Sure, it hurt my ego a bit, but it was a lot easier to get around when I COULD speak in my first language. And it made my trip a lot more enjoyable, giving me the chance to learn French. Not be forced to butcher it.
Do any of you have language-barrier stories? I feel as though my French needs another buffering. I hope to go back soon!
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