Language: A Reason, season or treason?

Language is like friction, a necessary evil. It can bring out important dimensions of a culture that may be otherwise hidden and it can also take humans to the flash point quickly. Here are my two experiences with French language…diametrically opposite in the same week.

So, what did the English do to French and what did French do to the English? Or should I be asking what did the English and French do to the hot and sweaty Indian? That night under the cool breeze of the English fan, I asked myself : are they languages born out of reason, season or treason?

 

The language of reason: I am not French literate, and I have no idea about the language, usage and how words moved into English or was adapted (may be stolen, hijacked or even pawned by the French?) by English Language. Btw, statistics says 28% of English words are from French, but nobody will give you the percentage of words whose English adaption is very appalling, discriminatory and not inclusive. A week after I arrived, I sat down to fill the necessary paperwork to get my resident card and when I had to choose my status, which made me ask  what did the English do to French?

 

Celibataire – in French simply refers to a single and doesn’t say anything about vow or abstinence

Celebate – in English refers to an individual who has taken a vow (often religious) to practice abstinence and stay single

Concubinage – simply refers to co-habitation without legally married in French and is a legally accepted status in a French Government application

Concubine – refers to an illegal wife or mistress in English – puts women in dark light or treats her like a social outcast and an object or toy of pleasure and ridicule

But, why do adaption of French words into English language target status, physically intimacy and portray them in a bad light? Is English language really judgmental, narrow-minded and less tolerant to various engagements an individual prefers to hold? Aren’t simple words given complex societal interpretation across the English Channel? Is this the sea of change between French and English? To me, the French language seemed more accommodative and inclusive, less discriminative, and socially more liberal and accepting.

The language of season: Fans are a standard fitting in our homes in India now rapidly replaced with

air-conditioners and when I found neither of them in Paris, I was pleasantly (not really) surprised. May be the architects, residents and even the weathermen swear that the city never gets that hot and hence finds no place in a house? And my arrival was just in time to test the Parisian weather and reality of no fans and air-conditioners. After experiencing a long, humid and harrowing summer in India, I arrived in Paris just in time for the summer. Call it a double whammy or an extra dose of Vitamin D, I don’t care.

 

Especially this year, people have been complaining about long winters and a direct jump into summer with no spring. And when it hit 35 deg C yesterday, the locals started to complain and went one step ahead to create a supply demand situation at the home stores.

And I made a trip to the store and asked the salesman for a fan and received no response from him.  I felt it was my strong accent and gave it another try, and this time I was slow and gentle. He still had a puzzled look on his face. I didn’t know what to understand from his silence and I decided to help myself. Unable to find one, I exited the store and proceeded to another one. I was met with similar silence and a cold response when I asked for a fan. 

Even a small child will know what a fan is, but Parisians had no clue. What would be a breeze in any English literate nation, really turned out to be Greek in France. More than the heat, the inability to explain frustrated me more.

And this time I was persistent to get an answer. I made gestures with my hand, I showed him the ceiling, and finally asked the sales guy for piece of paper. And when I drew a picture of a fan, he yelled “ventilateur ”. But I was looking for a fan not a ventilateur, a breathing device used in hospitals. And I felt like I was on a ventilateur trying to describe the simplest flywheel that uses electricity to make breeze. But then I had no clue if he was referring to a fan or a de-humidifier or an air-conditioner. With more confusion swirling my hot temper, I left the store.

To add to my frustration, that store was also out of it. Now that I knew the terminology “ventilateur” I hunted the neighborhood stores for one. To add to the heat of weather and complex words in French, most stores had an announcement at the entrance publicizing the non-availability of ventilatuers and asking customers to check back in a few days.

 

That evening after my grueling experience with a French word, I found an "English Fan" in the store below my flat. I rejoiced! And what rejoicing that was when I found the manual of instructions in English and, I mean, in English only!