Everyone wants to know if my french is improving.... I guess the answer is slightly. Here is a list of words that I have learned since being here:
Canette = female duck (or "wife of the duck")
Pietons = pedestrians
Poubelle = trash can
Bouchon = cork, or traffic jam
Boucheron = lumberjack
Dinde = turkey
Din (sp?) = deer
Infuser = to steep, as in tea.
I have also learned that there are many different races of plums in France.
Despite my increasing vocabulary, which is obviously growing leaps and bounds, I am still having trouble being understood. My conversation with the person serving coffee the other day went something like this:
Me: Avez vous le cafe decaffine? (do you have decaffeinated coffee?)
Server: Cafe au lait? (Cafe au lait?)
Me: Okay, cafe au lait. (Okay, cafe au lait.)
I then received a cafe au lait. Query whether it was decaffinated.
Similarly, the very same day at McDonalds, I asked the serving girl to have it to go, or "a emporter." Instead of transferring my food from the tray to a bag to go, she proceded to switch my fries to some other type of french fry- a thicker, seasoned kind of fry. Now everyone knows that the best part of McDonalds is the french fries (the usual french fries, that is). So now I was faced with having to ask this clerk to please switch back the fries, and also to re-attempt to get her to understand that I wanted it all "a emporter"- to go. (Fortunately, my father in law was with me, and handled the rest of this tricky negotiation.) Clinging to the hope that perhaps the word for these other fries is something similar to the words "a emporter," and therefore that perhaps my accent was just a little off, or I put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, rather than the more likely scenario that I completely failed to make myself understood, I have since checked the French McDonald's website to find out the name of these rogue fries. Sadly, these other fries are called "Les Deluxe Potatoes."
Now, I know that foreign language has never been my strong suit, but how this clerk got "les deluxe potatoes, s'il vous plait" instead of "a emporter, s'il vous plait" is what is really beyond comprehension here.
