To love one another in English
Happy Sunday, my dear readers.
I am in love. Well it didn’t just happen overnight, it’s been going on for months now. Love at first sight, something unexpected and delicious. It’s been a while now that I’ve wanted to write this entry for you, not because you absolutely need a press release on what’s going on in my love life, but because I am having a rather life-changing experience…
We love each other in English.
He’s Danish, I’m French, he doesn’t speak French, I don’t speak Danish. Yet somehow we just knew, within seconds, without saying one treacherous word, that we were going to share something incredible. I still think it’s crazy looking back, because 9 months ago, I didn’t speak what you would call Good English. I wasn’t a total mess, but it was basically basic. As it was, I was embarrassed to speak English in public, because I thought I had an awful accent and I would always compare my accent to that of the people I was speaking to. So on paper, this story seemed to be off to a bad start. And then all of a sudden I said « screw it », if you really want this to work, you’ll just have to force yourself. Kind of like flirting with a guy when you’re wearing bowling shoes, because in heels it’s just too easy. Just take a step outside of my comfort zone, and bam, happiness, freefall, and a gust of hot air…
Well, today I can’t say I’m bilingual, even though I speak English every day, he doesn’t speak French that well even though he lives with a French girl. My accent is still horrible, but I think he gets a kick out of it, and in any case, I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way. We have found our own language, I am totally capable of saying things like "your moufles are in the tiroir "(your mittens are in the drawer)... And I can even be sarcastic in English, that’s really saying something… Our love can be found somewhere between the two languages, it’s our own frequency.
Even if it doesn’t always flow, if some days I can’t be bothered, if I curse in French, it’s so much easier. Let me explain, I’m done with that typically girly thing we do when we try convoluted and twisted ways of communicating, "Straight to the point", just get to it. I feel like I’ve wasted too much time and energy waiting for people to read between the lines, and in the end I’m left disappointed and frustrated…
Well now, I no longer have these sort of complications in my life. It was certainly revolutionary in the beginning, I wouldn’t beat around the bush, and neither would he. Staight to the point, no embellishments. We’ve obviously exchanged wonderful words, but when a message must be conveyed, it’s crystal clear, as if communication were the most important thing, for at first glance, not an easy task, but precious. I no longer send cryptic messages that I’m not sure he’ll get, because on the one hand, he’s a guy, and on the other, we don’t speak the same language… It’s become a kind of universal rule in my life now, talk, communicate, take no detours, could it be the key to happiness ?
And you there, how about you tell me when the last time was that you stepped outside of your comfort zone ?
Translated by Ida Driscoll