The first week we were here, Issy was still at home and we ran around getting things for the house. This past week, however, she was at work and so it was both my first on my own with the kids and my first talking to French, people without the benefit of the Issy safety net.
For various reasons, a number of companies had to come to the house during the week to either fix or check things.
Up first was the bloke to fix the Satellite dish (aka Mr Parabol). I opened the door and started my well prepared opening sentence which basically involves apologising for being English, saying that I can speak and understand a little French and asking if he can speak slowly! He didn’t leave so I assumed that was a good start. I explained the problem with the dish and he jumped on the roof and moved the dish. However the signal still wasn’t getting through so more investigation and more detailed communication was needed. He showed me that the cables were not connected but there was something else he was saying that I didn’t understand. So reluctantly I asked him to explain it to Issy on the phone,. Genius idea except that she didn’t understand him either due to the technical nature of what he was saying!...poo!
I was about to give up when he came up with an even better idea, something cavemen used to good effect! Drawing pictures! He explained that he was looking for a box in the house somewhere that merges the two signals from the dish and the aerial into one. He eventually found it in the corner of the kids bedroom and set about sorting it all out.
I was pleased that, even with my basic French, we managed to understand each other and ultimately sort out the problem so that it was all fixed and that I could watch Have I got news for you yesterday.
I then had two further visitors on Thursday. A chap from EDF (electricity and Gas) came in the morning. When Issy had previously spoken to them, their records said that we didn’t have a gas supply so they needed to send an expert around to check it out. Even though we told then it was working. Their expert arrived at the door, asked me my name, asked if our gas supply was ok, I said “oui” and he said “ok’ and left….This language thing is a doddle!
Later that day France Telecom came to set up our broadband phone line. He asked where a connection box was, fiddle with it, said he would be back in 10 mins and then it was sorted.
Although these three events are not earth shatteringly amazing in the bilingual stakes, it did give me confidence to both speak and understand more. So I used this confidence to visit the town hall (Marie).
They are currently helping us to register Elliot at the school so he can start in September. To do this they needed his social security number, which I gave them. They were expecting me so it didn’t involve much talking. I could have just walked away, but I wanted to find out if a play area (swings, slides etc) the other side of the village was open to all or just open to visitors of the community centre next door, as it isn’t very obvious. She said it was and I took Elliot there later that day. A big deal in the world of ‘what can I do with two kids to avoid them getting bored’!
So although my first week with the kids was ‘challenging’ due to Elliot being difficult and Luca teething, I am at least pleased that I can try and communicate and that maybe my French isn’t as bad as first thought. I even had a short chat with Issy’s mum!!
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