When Bloxwich meets France..

It's a tough life being foreign! It's not uncommon at the moment for people to demand if I've heard of certain things, because I'm English... somethings I understand - No I didn't know LEJ was an amazing French cover band thank you so much - but other things, like Pokemon....some are shocked I know of it! How funny! Maybe England is a new universe?

When having a soirée eating subways, watching The Voice and one of the girls asks what are typical clichés of the French, it was always going to end in laughter! When talking about how apparently women do not shave, everyone has 2948483 baguettes and garlic, as well as constantly surrendering in wars - the French girls were in fits of laughter! For the English reader, apparently the clichés about us are we wear wacky clothes, bright colours and always drink tea. The latter I can vouch for.

Trying to clarify the truth about English people, however... things got a little tricky in ye'old francais!

When trying to explain the English love a good queue, you have to understand the word 'queue' in French is pronounced 'Qu'... however the word for butt is cul also pronounced 'Qu'. So when I said Les anglais aiment les queues they heard English people like butts.  In my defence of this misunderstanding, they did think Beyoncé 'Halo' was I can see your hello due to the pronunciation! 

Learning to articulate myself like a true French Northerner can be tough. No joke, I've sat in the car many a time this week making 'monkey' sort of impressions trying to get the 'ou' in écouter, Cou cou, and the 'U' in musique, to sound very French... This is all well and good until me and the French Mom start doing this in public places and people start staring...... :D

Being English in a foreign country can prove to be tricky but fun at times. When known as la petite anglaise I've been told the slight English twang my French accent has is 'mignon' cute and that I should try to keep it... yet other times especially in shops, people can't seem to place where the hell in France I'm from.... OooOooooops. People in shops, however, do talk too quickly as they're pressed for time, so yes sometimes you have to guess what the hell they've just said and add up their numbers quicker than a mental math test *soixante dix euros s'il vous plait* 60+10 OH SEVENTY!?! 

Strangers, like in shops, are difficult to talk to due to the French VOUS rule. Despite being an OK student at French, conjugating Vous quickly I wouldn't say is my strongest point....I'M ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING.  So English people what does this mean? To cut a complex rule short, I'm talking to everyone like we're friends, or I'm mixing two verbs up and sounding...retarded !! I do blame pressure! It's getting better though as the weeks go on. 

But some people are VOUS people. These aren't your young hipster kinda kids that will chat your head off, oh no these are the strangers you meet, your boss, your colleagues (some) and even elderly people who demand respect....I best sort this out...

Of course 2 weeks into France I'm going to be extremely foreign, it's just a world wind of an adventure after all!