In Réunion they have this wicked way of greeting each other. It’s typically done by the “yuffs” but it’s still generally done by friends. Two people touch fists and then hit their palms together…It’s the French prince of Belair with a tropical island backdrop!
But the thing I really like about this is what it means… two people can do this hand gesture and not even have to speak…for example on a crowded bus I see so many people do this gesture and literally stand side by side without saying anything in a seemingly comfortable silence. I like to think that what it means is,
“hello, yes we know each other, you know you’re cool… I know I’m cool …there’s no need to make a big deal out of it… lets just chill out”
Brilliant!
It makes me think about all the time I waste huffing and puffing over small talk. And all the time and energy I use saying everything and nothing in a language that doesn’t really belong to me. I think I’ve pretty much got it down in english… it goes
“Hey you alright?, oh look at the weather”…*blah blah blah…some amusing tale that entertains and equally gets me out of the conversation* Coolio. DONE
But here? And in French? It’s a totally different kettle of fish.
I’m in a gospel choir…yes that’s right, a black girl in a gospel choir…excuse me while I attempt to shirk from the glow of the obvious cliché. Anyway the point is that I am in the alto secton…within the altos are these really cool girls, you know, who are just funny and generally a good laugh. I see them as the kind of rebels of the choir…always laughing and joking when they shouldn’t be. They are funny…really funny and I just find myself just kind of nodding mutely…as this weird foreigner who can only understand and not participate
Don’t get me wrong…I’m comfortable in French. I’m reluctant to say fluent although I guess I am (eek!) hm… maybe. I’m probably fluent in a way that means if I don’t know a word I can get around it…but obviously not fluent like an actual French person. To put it another way I’d say on a good day it takes a good whole minute before a frenchie would realise I’m foreign…SCORE! (It is the little victories after all)
But the point is that they don’t teach wit, sass or confidence in French at uni… and if they did I missed the module. So when these girls are bouncing off each other, doing imitations of people i’ve never heard of and messing around with word play all I can do is silently smile while inwardly cursing how irrelevant my 12 years of French education feels
What did all those nights revising verb endings and dreaded relative pronouns mean if all I am reduced to is a silent foreigner rid of any personality?! It’s almost like a second adolescence. Silent and brooding on the outside while screaming on the inside (How very emo of me) I feel so foreign as they do all the things I would be doing with my friends at home. The annoying thing is that in English I think we’d really get on…instead of the tepid acquaintance we have now…I think they’d actually like me…but as it stands I don’t know how to show them…is that really sad?
GAr! (new word)
