Oh, uh, excuse-moi, I didn't mean to start in la langue francaise, but I've been speaking so much of it lately!! Très bon, n'est-ce pas?
So, on Tuesday, my French class met up at an amazing Lebanese restaurant on the near north side to speak French outside of class, so we wouldn't lose our skills by the time class gears up again at the end of June.
And really, I don't have anything wildly interesting to say about that night aside from two things that stand out:
1) We managed to speak nothing but French for over an hour - pretty exciting!
2) We chatted with our waiter for a bit (in English) and it turns out he was born in Baghdad, lived for awhile in Tehran, moved here several years ago, hasn't seen is family (still in Iraq) since 1982, and his sister was 5 when he left and he's only spoken to her one the phone since then. Oh, and he speaks Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, English, a little French, and understands Greek. I am continuously amazed by the people I meet in Chicago, from those I know well, to those I meet purely on accident. Our waiter was incredibly nice - he mentioned that he hopes things are changing now, and how he hopes to see his family eventually in the next few years. For the most part, aside from reading the news, I feel very separated from what happens in the Middle East, but everyone once in awhile, thanks to events like this, the magnitude of what is going on is brought home to me.
2 comments:
Why didn't you go to a French restaurant ? Would have been fun to see what language your server spoke there !
What, no pics of the server? :)
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