🐲 French and English, French Part

 "Write about languages, part 1."

I will divide this into a two-part story to share my thoughts about my "hybrid" background. As you saw in the title, I will focus on my second and third languages. Yes, in that order.

    I always say my second language is French. Why? Because I learned it before English, and I have felt more connected with its culture and music since I was growing up with it. My first international diplomat was a TCF Tout Public B2, and my best friends are from French-speaking countries throughout Africa and central Europe—sometimes Asia. Also, from my perspective, the grammatical structure of French is much better than that of English. 

    Talking about this topic seems extraordinary. I have never done anything like this before; it makes me feel goosebumps. I even consider myself a francophone—with a Quebecois accent because this language has given me so much emotionally and psychologically. 

    However, before starting, let us describe one unpleasant thing about it first. If you have tried to learn the language, we agree there's something pretty annoying about it—The words' terrible spelling. Look at the verb To travel, already conjugated in the past, and try to pronounce these following monsters. Voyageaient and voyageassions. Do we agree this is awful? In Voyageaient, we do not pronounce "eaient." Instead, we say, "e."

    Nevertheless, the musicality those vowels produce creates a unique accent anyone knows worldwide and that, thanks to Hollywood, we relate with Paris.

    It is worth mentioning one cliché song everyone knows, Le Festin. The feast. Better known as the main melody from Pixar's film Ratatouille or the famous "Anyone Can Cook" song. As I said, That is the perfect way to think about French as a cliché. 

    In the period I lived in Montreal, I read over sixty-five books. All of them in French, yes, a couple of dozens. Most of them about engineering, religion, and architecture. I was in a city where every street had a name of an old priest or a pope. So, the research helped me to understand why.

    Did you know that the Republic Democratic of Congo has more French native speakers than France and Belgium combined? I read one day in a book entitled Africa, the Real Mother of the World. "And that there are fewer people with internet connections in Africa than in New York City." Well, no, I did not know it. 

    To my surprise, when I took the book from the shelf, it was full of dust and cobwebs, and minutes after, I had noticed that the other books were pretty clean—even being next to it. Immediately, I found the reason. The title said, Africa. Not Great Britain or the United States, and the cover also depicted that Africa was more important than America and Europe. It seems that not many people love reading stuff from developing countries. The staggering information I had was uncharted terrain. I felt thrilled.

    Before finishing, I will share my top five songs with you that will change your life—It does not matter if you do not understand them. Besides, I recommend you to drink a cup of coffee while hearing their melodies. 

    Les larmes de leurs pères, Idir.

    Suzanna, Sauti Sol.

    La fatigue du nombre, Les Soeurs Boulay.

    Hier encore, Charles Aznavour.

    Je regrette rien, Bronko.

    Quand c'est, Stromae.

And this is it; perhaps in the future, I will complement this text. English, you are next.

Onward...