Post #21: The Exit

Coming to France has definitely helped me better appreciate the difficulties that my students face as learners of English as a second language. There's nothing like moving to a country where you don't speak the language to make you humble. While we often glorify the enlightening process of learning another language, we forget that this perception of "brilliance" generally comes in retrospect. At the time, learning a second language can be downright humiliating.

And thus, six weeks after the incident, I'm finally summoning the courage to write about my first trip to the Carrefour grocery store.

I survived shopping. I even survived the process of checking out, which as you might guess, involves talking to another human being. And then I went out the door. I understood the writing on the door, "Sortie," which means "Exit." Unfortunately, I didn't understand "de Secours." It wasn't until the security guard came chasing me down, scolding all the while, that I figured out that I had just gone out the "Emergency Exit." I don't blame the guard for scolding. What stung was the fact that the door was so clearly labeled--easy enough for a child to understand. In an unfamiliar language environment, it doesn't matter how educated you are or how many other languages you may speak: if you don't speak the host language, you look downright dumb.

At such moments, it's tempting to head for the nearest "Emergency Exit" into a familiar language and cultural context. Fortunately, the thought of repacking all those suitcases is a pretty good deterrent...