Learning a new language is satisfying but challenging. It opens you up to a whole new world of possibilities that you may not even know existed. It keeps your mind open to other cultures and helps you understand others.
It can also be very difficult sometimes when I am learning a new grammatical structure or trying to remember all of the vocabulary and special rules for verbs. To make things even harder, when people ask me what my major is and I say, "French," they start gawking at me like a zoo exhibit and begin asking questions and making assumptions. Here are just a few.
1. "What are you going to do with that?"
When people ask me this I my first thought is usually, "Why do you care?" It's my time, money, and life and I enjoy doing it. When I do tell you what I am going to do with it, you still look at me like I have a third arm and two heads.
2. "Why didn't you learn Spanish? It's more useful."
If I wanted to learn Spanish, then I will learn Spanish. Put simply, I just don't want to. Not that I have anything against the language itself. That's just not the particular language that I find appealing at the moment. As far as utility is concerned, I don't think you understand how much of the world actually speaks french.
3. "Are you fluent?"
Cool. I'm glad your interested in my life. But when the first question you ask me when I tell you that I am a French major is if I am fluent, I feel like the candle (see GIF). I'm a French major, meaning I am going to school to learn French. I don't want to be that guy, but I will. If I were fluent why would I need to learn it in college?!
4. "What is (insert bad word) in french?
Here's a suggestion. Learn the language. Chances are, you aren't going to remember what I tell you anyways and I had to work to know grammar, structure, and a good bit of other useful vocab before I got to the juicy bits. Why should you get rewarded where I didn't? And what will you do with those words if you do remember? I see no way that ends well for you.
5. "Talk to me in French!"
You don't speak French!! You will just ask me what it means anyways so why not just say it in English? I get that it sounds cool but for me, it comes back to the whole being a zoo exhibit. I. Don't. Want. To. Also, what would I even say? Have you ever been put in a situation where someone asks you to say anything and all of the sudden every phrase leaves your mind? I got nothing.
Now I understand the general reasons you ask these questions and I am glad that you are curious. But remember that the last 534 people that I have met have asked these same exact questions. Dig a little deeper and ask interesting questions. Or I will just start making printouts with answers on them and just hand you the paper and walk away. Let's save some time and breath shall we?
(All GIFS are courtesy of http://giphy.com/)
