Thinking About A Move To France?
A move to France, or any other country that you do not originate from presents a host of challenges in addition to the regular ones faced by any move.
First you need to plan the logistics of the move, packing, movers, changing your mailing address so that your friends, family, creditors and debtors can find you.
Plus there’s plenty more to think about when moving out of the country. What about the school system? Do you speak the language? How about transportation? Even if you are transferred and your company is taking care of many of the aspects of the move you will still have challenges to face.
In the article below, the author write a humorous first hand account about the challenges his family faced when they moved to France.
Title: Moving to France - Bring your sense of humour!
Author: B A Boyle
Copyright 2005 Oliver Phillips. May be freely reproduced "as-is"
for private and commercial use.
In this article from PFS France (http://www.propert
yforsalefrance.co.uk/), B A Boyle a British expat, writes a
"tongue in cheek" account about the communication challenges
they faced when they moved to France.
For many newcomers to France, one of the greatest challenges is
actually to make sense of the French language which we studied
years ago in school.
If you’re lucky you may still remember a little vocabulary or
how to conjugate verbs, the exceptions and the rules.
Nevertheless, beware. french learned at school has its
limitations. It’s most unlikely that you will be able to impress
anyone by asking “Where is the station?” “I’d like to book a
room with a shower” or even “How do I get to the Eiffel Tower”
So, soon after we moved here, we came to rely on two very good
pieces of advice:
If you can’t make yourself understood, try saying it in a
different way. Learn how to ask politely for the French person
to speak a little slower/clearer for example “doucement, S’il
vous plait” (literally, softly please) Let me give you an
example. Our first summer here and we’re living in a quiet
little French village. We’re ready to receive our first
visitors, daughter, son-in law, & two young children; a family
more used to seaside than countryside holidays. How do we keep
the little ones entertained. The supermarket is full of little
plastic paddling pools. We buy two. One for water and one for
sand. Water, we have plenty of but we need to visit the DIY
store in search of sand.
If I ever knew the French word for sand I’d surely forgotten it
long ago. We find a helpful assistant but make no headway. Even
after playing the usual charade-like game, we still cannot make
ourselves understood. I sense increasing frustration all round.
Then I remember the first piece of useful advice. “Find another
way to say the same thing”. Sure enough, somewhere safely stored
in my head was the French word for beach, so we ask for a sack
of beach. Although this brings howls of laughter from everyone
within earshot – triumph for us – we get the sand.
We are now prepared for our visitors but the tap in the bathroom
has started to drip, drip and drip. Happily our DIY skills
extend as far as replacing a tap washer. Back to the DIY store.
Sadly, not only do I not know the French word for washer I
cannot think of any sensible word as an alternative.
The assistant, helpful as ever, is determined not to be beaten
this time by a simple thing like language but after a barrage of
totally incomprehensible conversation I try the second piece of
advice. “Doucement, s’il vous plait” Ah, ah, the relief on his
face shows us that at last we have made ourselves understood.
“Un moment” he says and disappears. True to his word, a moment
later he is back, “Voila, deux ciment” and from his laden
trolley he produces two sacks of cement!
On our next visit to the DIY store we ignore the useful advice
and take a dictionary instead.
About the author:
BA Boyle writes on PFS France (http://www.propertyforsalefrance.co.uk/) a website that helps French property
owners advertise and sell, and potential buyers find, some of
the finest and best cared for traditional French properties
available.
| 
