The Real World Nancy

Living with a few other people away from one’s home in a cooperative living environment with lots of time – the recipe for winning reality shows and an accurate description of our lifestyle here. The extra temps libre allows us to discuss things with one another and to pursue hobbies we may not have had time to do back in our home countries. It also means that some traits become exaggerated in this new context. For example, I am part of the “running” group. While I jog in the United States, I don’t think of it as a particularly salient part of my overall identity because other aspects like “student” and “worker” are higher priorities. But running is one of my primary activities here, so its importance becomes magnified in the vacuum. Similarly, I am one of the more religiously observant members of the community, though back in the States I don’t necessarily identify that way. Some completely new parts of my identity have emerged – my interest in singing for instance. Who knows where/what I’ll be in May?

I do, however, know where I will be next week. J and I will be visiting the lovely town of Geneva, Switzerland for a few days, so expect more pictures soon!

Sociolinguistics in Action

Since finishing my thesis on créolité in May (still need to work on revisions!), I’ve been reading a lot more articles about how language functions in given societies. In multi- or plurilingual communities in the US and abroad, languages often serve different functions. One may be the “prestige” dialect for news broadcasts and business, while the other is a “vernacular” used primarily with friends and family. Alternatively, one language can be used for communication within a group and the other for communication with other communities (a very common phenomenon for language minorities). Here at the lycée, we have 7 French speakers, 6 English speakers, 5 Spanish speakers, 2 German speakers, and 1 speaker each for Russian, Lithuanian, Arabic and Wolof. Obviously, a range of abilities is represented within each of these groups for the purposes of this post I’ll loosely define “speaker” as “able to understand and participate in a casual conversation.” (The difficulty in ascribing linguistic identities to people is the subject for another post entirely).

One of the fun aspects of living abroad is that every experience can be somewhat educational – including Friday night card games. We have regular games of Pitch and Blackjack (British version) with drinks and ice cream. Since some of the housemates don’t speak English that well, we use French. However, this weekend, we began using some Spanish at one point in the game. All of the non-Spanish speakers had stepped out of the room and A, the assistant from Nicaragua, encouraged us to communicate in her native language. It was a nice break before the others returned and the card game resumed. We didn’t completely switch out of Spanish, but used it amongst ourselves and French if we were addressing the larger group. Without consciously realizing it, we had established a separate language community within our own little group. This has been happening since Day One with the English speakers, but we have all made concentrated efforts to use French in group settings in order NOT to exclude others.

As for the card games, I came out in the bottom half each round. No Monte Carlo trips for me!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Living with British people has inspired some of us to take on fake accents or remember stereotypical images from movies. Who doesn’t love Julie Andrews?

My favorite French word is “éclaircie.” It’s a feminine noun that, according to www.wordreference.com, refers to “a sunny spell.” I think of it as the few rays of sunshine that pierce the clouds on a gloomy day. Thinking metaphorically, one of my personal éclaircies is to visit the small aquarium located at the side entrance to a nearby shopping mall. I love to watch the fish and their behavior – some hide in the fake shipwrecks, others dart out from rocky outcroppings to defend small territories. One particular purple specimen is fascinated by me, though I can’t tell if it’s out of curiosity or defense, admiration or revulsion (talk about projecting emotions!). It doesn’t go along with the follow-the-finger trick like the sheep at petting zoos, but it will approach the tank and give me a long sideways look before exploring another area of the tank. Watching the fish reminds me of why I became interested in science in the first place, and how some struggles aren’t that unique.

What are some of your favorite things?

Reflections Part II

My faith is a very private affair for me, and the ritual of going to church is only one manifestation of it. The diversity of religious experiences I encountered at college showed me different ways in which religions and societies can interact. For example, while my denomination has been associated with various immigrant groups, I don’t think of it as an ethnic affiliation. I learned that being “Jewish” was an ethnic as well as religious term and that while several media outlets refer to “Muslims,” followers of Islam are highly ethnically diverse. During my semester abroad in Senegal, where many religions are accepted but atheism is not, I saw how social forces such as feminism worked in the context of a religiously-oriented society. I highly recommend Mariama Ba’s wonderful novel “So Long A Letter,” which tells the stories of how two friends chose very different paths when confronted with the same issue in polygamous marriages. Some characters see Islam as a patriarchal burden to be abolished; others believe that the practice is flawed and wish to change their religion from the inside out.

My current group of friends includes committed atheists, observant Muslims, spiritual sojourners looking for connections outside of organized religion, lapsed Catholics, and many others. None has reproached me for going to Church, just as I have not tried to drag them to Church or engage them in long meditations on theological issues. If it works for you, fine – I just ask to be allowed to practice my faith in peace. My American Sociology course in college gave me data and theories that allow me to contextualize my observations. I had never heard the term “culture wars” until I got to college, but these first few interactions during my freshman year introduced me to some serious divides in American society. We discussed that in general, as the evangelical movement grew stronger in the Sunbelt states and became associated with the Republican Party, so too did the rejection of religion develop. The best argument in an excellent book, On Toleration, that I read for the course is that toleration is not about forming some sort of Kumbaya-chanting, completely melded society. I don’t have to absolutely agree with everything else others do, but I do have to accept differences. The argument isn’t foolproof – there are many things done in the name of religion that I believe are human rights violations and that I will not tolerate.

As I said before, religion and society is a complicated issue that takes a lot of time and thinking to unravel. Moreover, while I am quite content with my religious life today, things may change in the future. Who knows if my future spouse will have a religious life, and if so, what? How would raise our children? I am also interested in the intersection of different forms of belief. Do folktales resist organized religion, transform to conform to it, or adapt to changes in the popular culture? Hopefully I will be a bit closer to answering some of these questions at the end of my time in France.

Reflections: First in a Series

First, an update. Thanks to S, the German assistant, we have successfully figured out how to circumvent the block on Skype. No more worries about expensive phone calls or running out of credit!

On my way to church on Sunday, I began thinking about the complex relationships between church, state, and society in the various nations I’ve lived in. While France is quite a secular nation, the policy of laïcité (laity) has not solved all church-state conflicts (cf the continuing struggles over Muslim headscarves in public places). As I will have been in France for a grand total of one month on Tuesday, I would like this post to serve as the first in an ongoing series about my perception of these relationships. I will not generalize to “societies” in general, but rather speak from my own personal experience and let the reader take it from there.

I have participated in the same religious tradition since I was born. Growing up in my Midwestern hometown, this was nothing so unusual. Most of my friends went to the same church or other Christian denominations, and the rest belonged to families who had some sort of religious worship experience. As you can imagine, going to college with people of many different belief backgrounds (from atheist to very pious) was quite an eye-opening experience. I encountered three distinct reactions at my university upon uttering the simple phrase: “I’m going to church on Sunday.” Most people replied, “Oh, OK. We’ll meet for dinner at 6 pm instead of 5 pm.” Some responded with: “What church? Are you sure that it’s leading you to Truth? Would you like to develop a deeper bond with God?” The third reaction: “Oooooh, you’re religious. I walked away from that brainwashing and social control years ago.”

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Keeping up with people after a move is easy at first, when others want to know details of your new life and you long to hear stories about the one you left behind. This usually lasts for awhile, but inevitably people move on with their routines and, especially after summer, get busier nearer the holiday/exam seasons. E-mail and blogging are nice alternatives to phone calls, but I still crave the sound and immediate sharing nature of a phone conversation. While email is generally more efficient for administrative tasks (especially if you can’t remember directions and need maps), I treasure the unknown twists and turns that phone conversations take. Over the years, I’ve noticed that I tend to talk more about certain subjects with certain friends. International and social matters with R, literature and academic/college life with P, relationships and entertainment with K, and traveling with J (hi all!). These are not strict categories, but rather reflect how interactions with my friends satisfy different needs. Thankfully, they have all adapted to the no video messaging (no Gchat, no Skype, zip!) restrictions and have obliged with phone calls and instant messaging chats. Though I can’t see their faces, I know them each well enough that I can imagine their gestures after each phrase. My family is also great about making time to listen to my phone calls, though I did once mistakenly call at 6:45 am one Saturday! My academic research is based on strategies of communication: when do people use Language A vs. Language B, how does oral tradition reflect different values than the written record. I’m in the right place to study communication, as the French speak more than anyone I’ve ever heard in my life! I can be quite the chatterbox, but even I find myself fatigued after speaking to some of them. Stay in touch!

Across Six Octobers

2004 – A bored high school senior, I dreamed of something more in the mysterious world outside of my own town. Much of the year felt like going through the motions, but there were plenty of good times mixed in.

2005 –A new college freshman, I was adjusting to community living for the first time. I was also exploring a larger social circle since I was living and studying in close proximity to others who shared my interests.

2006 – A settled sophomore, I was starting to forge meaningful personal and professional connections. At the same time, however, I could sense that my future plans might be changing.

2007 – Studying abroad as a junior, I was navigating a new country with both close and far-flung friends. Everything was intense: the cultural experiences, the adventure of each day, the relationships forming amidst like-minded peers.

2008 – Growing restless as a senior, filling out applications and visiting my friend R in Boston got me thinking about the next stage of my life. Writing a thesis, working as a TA, going to class, and enjoying time with friends didn’t leave me a lot of time for reflection.

2009 – A launched graduate, I’m on another foreign adventure. This time, I’m more secure in my own hopes, dreams, opinions, and desires.

Welcome To The Job You Started Weeks Ago

On Monday, all of the Anglophone (English-speaking) assistants had an orientation in Nancy. I live with four others (2 other Americans, 2 Brits) so we showed up in force to a meeting of 24 assistants. We did brief introductions and then a woman from the Social Security organization for educators (MGEN) came to visit us. She didn’t speak English, so our facilitators tried to provide translations after every three sentences. This became quite annoying after awhile and they finally let her speak with clarification only on really important things. The afternoon was more productive as we did sample lesson plans for lycée and collège using political cartoons, news articles, and songs. Basically, we are supposed to do many different things in the course of an hour to make learning fun (what a concept!). Moreover, the head English inspector for our département came to speak with us for a few minutes to officially explain our mission: get the kids to speak English!

After the official the orientation, most of went to a nice café near the Place Stanislas, the Most Beautiful Place in Europe^TM. Many were having similar adjustment issues and several either lived alone at more rural schools or shared apartments with other Americans. I came away from the orientation grateful for the presence S and A, the German and Nicaraguan assistants, who keep the floor from turning into All English All The Time.

Frustrations

The stress from my job is actually decreasing as I hand in paperwork, figure out my schedule, and becoming more acquainted with the teachers. I am realizing how much English grammar I wasn’t formally taught (simple past, the exact rules for more vs. –er suffix) in contrast to the rigorous French educational system. Some of the kids (and teachers) are a bit nutty, but still nice. The living situation is fine from a social perspective, but could use some changes. We can’t access YouTube, Skype, or Gchat because we’re plugged into the lycée’s network and they don’t want students watching inappropriate material or chatting with predators. There are three stalls in the bathroom for 7 people. Normally, this would work but one has been Out of Service since May and the other is still marked as Private. Finally, I’ve been having issues with my cell phone. I misunderstood the feminine robot voice on the other end of the line during a recharge attempt and forgot to press diese (#) too many times. Thus, my phone is locked until I deal with a representative. But quand même (all the same), I know that these are small struggles and I feel thankful that I have the means to fix most of them.

Run, Run As Fast As You Can

Last Sunday, I “competed” in the Semi-Marathon du Grand Nancy (The Greater Nancy Half-Marathon). I had never run such a long distance (13 miles, 21.1 km) before so I didn’t really have high hopes. My three goals were to a) finish b) not seriously risk my health and c) not be the last person across the finish line. From this point of view, it was a big success.

The departure and arrival had lots of crowds, but otherwise the race wasn’t too dramatic. As I expected, my normal 5 mile runs hadn’t quite prepared me for this, so I just jogged as fast as I could at the time. The nice thing with large races is that if you get tired, you will eventually find a new pace group to motivate you. I thought that 17 km would be the turning point, and in a way it was. However, instead of motivating me to run to the end, I decided that I would be satisfied to walk across the finish line if only I could stop jogging. I actually only walked for about 10 minutes of the race and finished in 2 hours, 10 minutes and change.

Overall, it was a really good experience. My hallmate E and I went into town the day before to pick up our registration forms and stock up on rice and cookies. He knew a teacher whose sister was running and she picked us up at the top of our hill and took us back after the race. One interesting difference between US and French racing is that EVERYONE must get a brief physical before they compete. The doctor that we went to didn’t charge us because we don’t have Social Security yet (more on that later), but it still seemed a strange requirement. Then again, in the US, we’re just happy that people are moving!

Hallelujah!

When V first picked me up from the train station, she offered to take me to “gospel choir” the following Thursday if I was interested. It slipped my mind until last Thursday morning when she reminded me. I hesitated for a moment because I didn’t know if “gospel choir” meant a concert by a traveling group, a church service, or a rehearsal with us participating. I decided that any bad night could at least be made into a good story!

I’m very glad that I did, because I had a wonderful time. As I expected, the choir was predominately composed of younger French people looking for a way to spend some time away from the family and enjoy their love of music. One of the benefits of the organization is that three people with strong musical backgrounds lead the choir, giving it direction and depth (as opposed to “Hey, let’s all have a Sing-A-Long!”) On the other hand, the other participants were relative amateurs so I didn’t have to worry about my lack of perfect pitch. The repertoire was a mix of African and African-American spirituals sung in languages such as Xhosa, Zulu, and English. Furthermore, I discovered that the choir only performs locally 3 times a year so I would have plenty of travel time. Finally, it is actually attached to the church I’ve been attending in Nancy. It is quite rare to find a Catholic diocese with an associated gospel choir, but I’ll go for it!

I would write more about the nice people, but my ride is picking me up soon for the next rehearsal!