Apparently, according to my French culture prof, the inability to be able to write an entire sentence in French without committing an error in orthography is considered a true handicap.
If that is indeed true, then I am certainly handicapped.
What's more than that, I still have problems with the orthography of my own language - words like "banana," "receive," and "apartment" still make me pause. But I've never really considered that a handicap so much as my tendency to type faster than I can think and my penchant for adding extra letters.
Come to think of it, I feel that how I am perceived in classes here is completely different than how I am seen at VCU. There I am always seen as a "smart" student, a "good" student. Secretly I have always hated these titles, feeling as if I somehow never quite measured up to them. But here I am not smart, I am not good - I am not even average.
No, I am just seen as a foreign student and given no labels beyond that. Truth be told, it's perhaps the most enjoyable thing about coming here. Even if at the end of this I leave Nantes knowing little more than what I came knowing, I will have lived for a brief time without the constant presence of these American labels hanging over my head. And maybe, with just a little luck, I won't find myself with those labels after my return to Richmond.
If that is indeed true, then I am certainly handicapped.
What's more than that, I still have problems with the orthography of my own language - words like "banana," "receive," and "apartment" still make me pause. But I've never really considered that a handicap so much as my tendency to type faster than I can think and my penchant for adding extra letters.
Come to think of it, I feel that how I am perceived in classes here is completely different than how I am seen at VCU. There I am always seen as a "smart" student, a "good" student. Secretly I have always hated these titles, feeling as if I somehow never quite measured up to them. But here I am not smart, I am not good - I am not even average.
No, I am just seen as a foreign student and given no labels beyond that. Truth be told, it's perhaps the most enjoyable thing about coming here. Even if at the end of this I leave Nantes knowing little more than what I came knowing, I will have lived for a brief time without the constant presence of these American labels hanging over my head. And maybe, with just a little luck, I won't find myself with those labels after my return to Richmond.
No, you'll be that guy who was in France last semester.
ReplyDeleteKidding. Enjoy the chance to shake off the old image -- you don't get that very often in life!