Bilingual people are lucky. Not just in all of the usual brain-expanding ways, but because they have options.
Sometimes, English just doesn’t cut it, and I wish I could effortlessly sort through my mental rolodex for a more helpful way to express myself. Code-switching, or flipping back and forth between languages in a single sentence or conversation, is something common to bilingual people, big and small.
My bilingual four-year-old just did it about five times in the last two minutes:
These are my favorite chausseurs.
I can danse très bien avec these.
Mon ami à l’école doesn’t like them.
Je veux…ummm…I want le marqueur to make le dessin!
You don’t even have to be truly bilingual to reap the benefits. Jacomine, from Multilingual Living, gives this example: “When I talk with an [Arabic speaker] in the Netherlands, we might both use Dutch and I might sometimes use some Arabic words in order to identify myself as a person who knows some Arabic, even though my Arabic is very poor. Code-switching is a powerful tool for identification.”
That’s more my style, because while I wish I was a “balanced bilingual,” it will never be so. I can function in French and Spanish, but I think and dream in English. Unfortunately, I’m stereotypically American in my relative monolingualism. However, after three years in Congo, there are several French phrases I appreciate for their descriptive power. I will share three of them, but with the disclaimer that I may have invented my own understandings in the midst of my adult-language-learner’s fog. I also acquired all of my French in Africa, not France. Apologies, and please feel free to laugh.
#1: On est là.
This phrase sort-of-literally means “we are here.” I hear it a lot around Kinshasa, usually from people who want you to be extra aware of their presence and help. I like it because it feels more subtle than “at your service,” but still demands a certain degree of recognition. It seems like a way to point out that you are offering time, skills or attention that deserves appreciation. I’ve been thinking about this a lot after reading The Confidence Gap last week. Women of the world: on est la!
#2: Ça va un peu.
Sometimes you just aren’t okay, and it’s fine to say so. I say, “Ça va?”, about fifty times a day. The conversation often goes like this:
Jill: Ça va?
Other person: Ça va un peu… (“I’m a little okay…”)
Jill: Ohh? Pourquoi?
Other person: (long story about worries, illness or other trouble)
When I ask someone if they are okay in English, the response 99% of the time is, “I’m fine”. In French, although I sometimes I dread the explanation, I believe in the opportunity to truly express yourself. I find that I’ve been embracing emotional honesty more often au français.
#3: Bon courage!
This is an important one. I can’t think of a way to tell someone in English with equal sincerity and brevity to “take heart,” “be brave,” and “have godspeed” all at the same time. This simple phrase gets the job done neatly and concisely. People have said bon courage to me at some of my most tender moments; when my child was hospitalized, when I was facing a tough decision or when I felt tired and sad. Somehow, the phrase bon courage never seems trite.
I always think it would be the perfect thing to say to a woman in labor – somehow expressing, “You can do this, but you have to do it yourself. No one can help you, but you will be okay. Have courage.” All that in just two perfect words.
Some things just sound better in French.
What do you think? Can you think of any phrases in languages other than English that use less words to express so much more?
This is an original post written for World Moms Blog by Jill Humphrey. You can find Jill blogging with Sarah Sensamaust at Mama Congo.
Photo credits to the author.
Jill,
I want to use “Bon Courage!” all the time now!!
Jen 🙂
This post made me smile. My father used to work in Congo and this reminded me how eager he is to try and learn French 😀 I still think French is one of the world’s sexiest language.
Lovely post Jill 🙂
You turned my attention to something I had never done although I speak 3 languages (Arabic, native speaker, English and French). I always admired Lebanese people as they do it frequently.
I look at it from a practice point of view if I used to do it I would be able to keep my level of fluency in French. But you know in some communities speaking this way is unacceptable as it is thought as a kind of transcendence so it has negative meaning for me since I was young. I think I need to reconsider this idea.
Thanks to grab our attention to this important point.
Wish you good luck 🙂
“Women of the world, on est la!”
I love it!!!
In Belgium, we have three national languages (Flemish (=dutch), French and German) and although I’m Flemish speaking, I use “ça va” a lot. Either as a question, because it speaks of more empathy: you don’t ask “how are you doing?”, but you ask “are you ok?”. My kids even ask “ça va” to express their concern when a friend falls of his bike or something.
Either as a not really positive answer: when someones asks how I’m doing and I really can’t honestly say “fine”, I say “ça va”, meaning something like “not perfect, not fine, but I’m still ok”. We say it in Flemish too, as a literal translation of “ça va”: “het gaat”, but it really sounds better in French!
My family moved to South Africa from Italy when I was 8 years old, so my first language is Italian, although I consider English my “mother tongue” (as it’s the language I dream in, count in and find easiest to express myself in).
There are 11 official languages in S.A. now, but there were only 2 prior to 1994 – English and Afrikaans, and they were both compulsory subjects at school (still are!). I also studied French at school, but to say it was “rusty” is an understatement! 🙂
When I was younger I wanted to learn how to speak all the languages of the world AND the languages of animals too (like Dr Doolittle)! 🙂
The one phrase that pops to mind in response to your question (which I don’t think has a good English translation) is “Totsiens” (Afrikaans); “Arrivederci” (Italian) and “a bientot” (French – sorry I couldn’t add the accents). All three being something you say when somebody is leaving and you hope to see them again. They imply that you wish them well until then. 🙂
It’s so funny, I am French and live in the US and feel like you, only with the opposite language use!! For example, I much, much prefer the expression, ‘hang in there” instead of “bon courage”. Not sure why! I prefer, “so,so” to “bof”, I love English proverbs better than French ones. I think it’s a force of habit more than anything. I never analyzed why I felt like this but your article is prompting me to do so. Great piece of writing!
Even though my first language was French, I consider my native language to be English (and I speak Hebrew too). My kids are bilingual in English and French, like yours and my daughter does the same thing all the time – mix languages in her sentences. Sometimes she doesn’t even realize it and speaks to an English speaker and throws in a couple of French words. It’s pretty funny when I need to translate for her :).
I’d say I am a third cultureerson, very comfortable with code switching. Some of my favorites are:
N’importe quoi. It’s untranslatable and so useful. Also, in German gemütlichkeit. If that exists in French or English it’s not exactly the same. In Irish any craìc? What’s the craìc?