Babel

The orientation on Friday was like the Tower of Babel. For the first time in the history of the Academy of Lyon, they made the English and Spanish assistants meet on the same day and at the same place. For the first half, we were all together in the same auditorium.


3 languages I understood – English, Spanish, and French, surrounded me. The people in charge of us, spoke French, the English assistants spoke English to each other, of course, and the Spanish assistants did the same amongst themselves too, speak Spanish.

During the 15-minute break they gave us, I caught up with the other English assistants, but many of the Spanish assistants came up to me to ask me why they had never seen me before. I explained to them that I was the English assistant and that I knew how to speak Spanish because my parents are from Mexico.

As I explained this to some of the Spanish assistants (who come from Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and of course Spain), some of the English assistants who didn’t know I spoke Spanish, looked and stared at me in confusion. It was funny to look over at them and see how surprised they were.

As I mentioned before, all of the assistants in the debriefing group spoke French when it was their turn to talk about their experiences. I did the same and did a pretty good job. I admit that I did get a little nervous but I didn’t stop myself.

I guess this day just became another source of inspiration for myself. I was just as surprised as everyone else that I could easily communicate in all 3 languages. I was surprised that my brain didn’t explode. But, I will say that I felt pretty tired, more than usual, by the end of the day and took a nap on the train back to Villefranche.

Now, all I need to do is find someone who can speak Italian so that I can practice it.