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| Touring Rennes and learning about "pans de bois" architecture |
Generally, when you consider
studying abroad in France your mind automatically jumps to Paris. PSA: there
are more cities in France besides Paris. Take Rennes for example, there are close
to 210,000 people who live within the Rennes city limits. It also happens to
be the capital of Brittany (a region in the Northwestern part of France). So what is life in France like
if you’re not in Paris?
I think I can best explain my
experiences by running through a typical week during my studies. First thing’s
first, you’re picked up by strangers that you automatically call your family,
and from that moment, on they are your primary resource when it comes to
everything Rennes. But don’t let this scare you, in my case my host family is
amazing. I have never met people so friendly and so welcoming. My family
consists of a mother, a father, and a daughter (clearly nothing too crazy). At
my house I have my own bedroom, fully equipped with a study area and armoire
for my clothes and obviously a bed, as well as my own bathroom (that was a big
bonus). Now comes the first meal, and I’ll be completely honest it was super
awkward, not to mention I was ¾ of the way asleep after having been awake 32
hours straight. After the first dinner, I called my mom and freaked out that
the entire month would be this awkward and that I would be forced to hide in my
room when I wasn’t with my friends. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The next morning,
I realized that I understood what they were saying and I could communicate
back. I also realized that the night before I was too tired to comprehend
English let alone French, so it is very safe to say that breakfast the next
morning was a major improvement. After breaking the ice, I guess you could say,
we talked to each other for hours about countless things: traveling, education
in the US, food, basically everything and anything.
After spending an entire day in
France, I can say that I went to bed with a sore tongue. I had never considered
this before but the French use different muscles in the mouth compared to
English when speaking. After having spoken French for a day, my mouth truly was
tired and I could feel it. It was a new experience for me, I can honestly say I
don’t think I’ve ever had a sore mouth from talking until now.
Living in another language can be
both scary and exciting. Scary because at first you’re self-conscious of making
mistakes, but exciting because once you realize you came to France to practice
French then realize it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make as long as you
improve.
Our
classes at Rennes University were solely in French; that meant that from 9-5 we
were speaking 100% in French. It was mentally exhausting and by the end of the
day I couldn’t imagine speaking anymore French. There were days when I would
call my mom so that I could speak English once again to someone and just give
myself a rest from French. But, while it was exhausting, it was one of the most
rewarding things I have done. Each day I improved my French and each day I
became more and more confident in my abilities to speak the language; and for
this reason alone, I believe everyone should try to take the opportunity to
immerse themselves in a country that speaks their non-native tongue.
--Taylor Treas
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| La Place du Champ-Jacquet, Rennes |
As
our trip to Rennes is wrapping up, I feel like I am finally used to French
culture, but that isn’t to say that it hasn’t come with many, many surprises.
The biggest surprise that probably shouldn’t have been a surprise at all was
how much we have to speak in French. We’ve all taken French for many years, and
are perfectly capable of communicating, but we have all encountered a few gaps
in our knowledge. One of the first nights with my host mother I was trying to
explain to her that my mom and me often make breaded chicken together. Not
knowing the word for “breaded” or “breadcrumbs” I explained it to her as
“chicken with little pieces of bread,” not so surprisingly, she had no idea
what I was saying. We all quickly learned the importance of a French-English
dictionary and the idea of circumlocution.
Speaking
with my host mom in French has been just as helpful as the French classes we
have been taking here. That’s not to say I still don’t get a little embarrassed
when I use the wrong verb tense at the dinner table, but my host mom always
very politely corrects me. I’ve learned the best way to improve my French is
just to try my best. We have all even gotten to a point where we are mixing up
our languages; even when its only Rhodes students together, I often hear
someone proclaim “Oh look at that chat! Its so mignon!” I think we can
successfully say we have been immersed into the French language. Even though we
all have those days where we do not want to get up and speak a foreign language
before 8 am, we do it, and our language skills are definitely better off.
--Emily Harrison
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