The Tile of Language

The experience of knowing a language in another country is novel and fun. In Paris, I am sometimes reticent to speak, but after going around with my friend who does not speak French, I gain my courage and speak. It is fun to know a few complex constructions that seem to communicate more sophistication than perhaps I have. But the French are friendly to me if I offer up a tense like the conditional or the subjunctive. I see knowing the language as something that lets one into the little corners, the little crevasses of French life. The details. It illuminates the details. And that is everything.