Run || g.d

q&a

I've been in the airport for hours... we were suppose to leave for France on Friday (yesterday) but it was delayed because of the weather and I'm really bored so I thought I'd answer questions I've been asked about being bilingual.

For those who don't know why I'm in the airport it's because I'm moving to France

1. What is it like to be bilingual and is it cool?
Is not as great as people think it is, maybe at first but after a while you get use to it. The thing about being bilingual is switching between languages, I don't really like having to switch between french and English since the languages are so different

2. Do you switch between languages even when you don't realize it?
All the time. Sometimes I'll be talking to my friends and randomly switch to french. It can be very embarrassing sometimes.

3. What language do you speak at home?
French. My dad doesn't know a lot of English so we usually speak French unless we have friends over then my mom speaks English and translates it to french  for my dad. Sometimes when we aren't with my dad and only my mom we switch between french, English, and sometimes a little bit of spanish (since my mom is Latina and speaks spanish, french and English). I'm not fluent in spanish but I can understand it better than speaking it.

4. Are you excited to move to France?
Kind of. I'm nervous because I probably won't fit in at first since I'm not used to their "slang" but I'm ready to get out of the US and be closer to my family. 

5. What's your first language?
French. I didn't learn English until I was about 4

6. Do you have a french accent?
Sometimes, it depends how long I've been talking in french. When I'm in school I don't have an accent but when I go to France every year none of my family speaks English so when we get back into America I usually have an accent since I went so long without speaking English. It just really all depends on where I am and who I'm with.

7.On Christmas how do you celebrate it?
Well since we go to France every year we celebrate it the way the French do which is very different than Americans.
On Christmas Eve we always have a meal called Le Réveillon we eat this after midnight mass and it consists of apéritif (the alcoholic drink before the meal), salmon, roast turkey with chestnuts, oysters, four gras (food made from the liver of a duck), there's a bunch of other food but the list is too long. And to end it we have bûche de noël which is a chocolate sponge cake.
the children leave shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts from père noël (santa). We do other things too but it would take too long to explain
8. Is it true that the French hate Americans and why are they considered rude?
Okay so I feel like this is very stereotypical, kind of like calling Americans fat. Not everyone in France hates Americans. Yes there are some who don't like Americans but all the French people I know don't hate Americans. And also the French seem rude to everyone else because of cultural differences. First of all the French keep their distance with strangers, the French don't usually smile when out in public to strangers because it's so expressive. 2nd of all good service in France means leaving you alone when dining out. But the French have low tolerance for terrible French (they don't like it when words pronounced wrong) 3rd the French slang makes things seem negative for example if you asked how a meal is some would reply with "not bad".  So really the French just seem rude but really it's just because their way of living/speaking/ and expression are very different than Americans