num_pages: 256
description: A language barrier is no match for love. Lauren Collins discovered this firsthand when in her early thirties she moved to London and fell for a Frenchman named Oliviera surprising turn of events for someone who didnt have a passport until she was in college. But what does it mean to love someone in a second language? Collins wonders as her relationship with Olivier continues to grow entirely in English. Are there things she doesnt understand about Olivier having never spoken to him in his native tongue? Does I love you even mean the same thing as Je taime? When the couple newly married relocates to Francophone Geneva Collinsfearful of one day becoming a Borat of a mother who doesnt understand her own kidsdecides to answer her questions for herself by learning French. When in French is a laugh-out-loud funny and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love as well as an exploration across culture and history into how we learn languagesand what they say about who we are. Collins grapples with the complexities of the French language enduring excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidentally telling her mother-in-law that shes given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French Collins must wrestle with the very nature of French identity and societywhich it turns out is a far cry from life back home in North Carolina. Plumbing the mysterious depths of humanitys many forms of language Collins describes with great style and wicked humor the frustrations embarrassments surprises and finally joys of learningand living inFrench.
language: English
title: When in French: Love in a Second Language
publisher: Penguin Press