When I was in France, especially last several years of COVID-19, it was not so easy. I was just an immigrant and my speaking french was terrible to say the least. Even though, I had to communicate with some people under strong ristriction. For instance, some of law term in French was new to me. As a worker, usually I was familiar with a sentence like “You shall not go out.” but some paper such as a testimony was saying “Movement restriction” in French. Such expression was reasonable and not so hard to understand for me but I was always asking my friends for its meaning just to make sure. One day after COVID-19, I was taking my bike and heard some strange noise from my rear wheel. It was a small trouble of a fender but I couldn’t find proper screw to repair it. I was disappointed. I had to make a phone call to a bike shop because an appointment was required to avoid infection. A question was how to explain it. French is not my mother tangue and I had few vocaburary about screw. Some of my friends always supported me.
Lens-Artists Challenge #325: Gratitude
l'atelier tanu | tagnoue 
A fun choice for the week Tanu! I know just what you mean about being fairly conversant in a second language but not having the vocabulary for infrequently used things. Thanks so much for joining us this week!
You’re welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. Cross-cultural things are always interesting for me and it should be always with gratitude. That’s what I learnt.
Wonderful, wonderful, Tanu. The bike images are dear to my heart.
Biking is a part of fitness, transportation and sometimes communication, isn’t it.
Biking is wonderful indeed.
I’ve only spent time as a tourist in countries where my native language isn’t common. I can’t imagine how that might be for someone who intends to stay there long-term. I admire you for taking on that challenge, Tanu!
Curiosity is my source of power, and that is why I need humility and gratitude.
I always thought I’d have a problem communicating when I was in Japan but it was surprisingly easy, grateful of people trying to help. I had more issues in France when I do have a bit of knowledge of French 🙂
In fact, Japanese is very different from European languages. Therefore, oral communication is not so easy and in some cases other ways may be easier and more practical. Perhaps that is one of the reasons. On the other hand, in my case, both English and French are foreign languages. Even if I know English better than French, I don’t think I can understand English better just by vocabulary. What an interesting world.