English from time to time

French school in Paris provides an opportunity to put yourself into a global community. In my french class on M/TU/TH there are currently three other Americans, a Brazilian, a German, a Cambodian, a New Zealander and a Bulgarian. It was observed by an American and the Brazilian that a lot of the people that they hang out with speak english making it harder to learn French.

Two weeks ago I was walking down the street with a friend and we were speaking english. A woman pushing a stroller with a baby in it stopped next to us and asked in a semi frantic voice with metropolitan American english, “excuse me, have you seen a pink shoe?” The child in the stroller was missing a small pink shoe. My friend apologised and said that we hadn’t then stopped as it was sitting on a pile of leaves in the gutter in front of us.

A couple of days ago I walked by an older American couple in the metro discussing directions to Boulevard Montparnasse with an American english speaking student. They were looking at a map thirty seconds later. I was next to the map and assured them that they were waiting for the right train in my best American english.

I like to employ the persona of a forign Parisien. An important element of the foreign aspect though is not having any obvious signs of my orign.