Sometimes, learning a foreign language can be so easy that it just makes things more difficult.
When Olivier & I had a couple of house guests here last week, I had the opportunity to play the part of translator & tour guide. This is a role that is usually filled by Olivier, but since he was at work during the day, I was left with taking the reigns. Not only was this ridiculous, but really, quite amusing.
But it gave me an opportunity to practice my French out in the real world, rather than just practicing on Olivier at home during conversations about monkeys in jumpsuits & what to have for dinner.
Imagine my delight when I had to enter a pharmacy to request allergy medicine for my American friend Ryan because of the fact that my cat was slowly destroying his sinuses & eyeballs. Of course, there was only one small problem: I didn’t know the French word for “allergy” or “allergic”. I would just have to improvise…
“Hello. I’m looking for a medicine for when the hair of the cat make sick the nose & the eyes”.
“Ok…your hair?”
“No. The hair of the cat.”
“Oh, ok…you need a medicine for the cat?”
“Oh, no…the hair of the cat make the eyes red.”
Well, she didn’t understand at this point what I was asking for. Luckily, a man who had been standing behind the counter during this absurd conversation was somehow able to comprehend my request. It was by speaking with him that I learned that the words I was searching for were “allergie” & “allergique“.
Ok…well, that just seemed to obvious. No wonder I was so confused.
[tags]French, Language, Medicine, Cat, Allergies[/tags]
I have to say though. Once we aquired the stuff we were looking for, Wow! The French sure do have some powerful “allergie” medicine. I didn’t feel a damn thing for the rest of the trip. Though maybe that was because they really did give me the pills for the cat… That’s cool. Whatever works.