Americana?
Yesterday after class I was waiting to ask our professor a question and listening to the conversation he was having with another student. The question he'd asked had to do with the difference between a linguistic sign and a symbol, and as the professor started talking about symbolism, he suddenly says: "Like America. Everyone in the whole world knows the value of America. When you seen an American flag, you don't just think that it symbolizes the U.S. -- it symbolizes a lot more than that." At which point the student says "ok, I understand now" and they both turn and look at me.
I'd sort of worked out my whole question in advance so I could minimize stuttering, but I was so surprised that it didn't work out quite like I'd planned.
Last night, Alex had heard about a rock show near our place, and we went. It turned out to be a juice bar called Soup&Juice. A juice bar that also sold beer? Or, kind of. They explained to us that they would only sell beer as part of a meal (which meant buying soup) or if we gave them our e-mail addresses. It was an almost entirely incomprehensible demand.
The bands were pretty good. The first one sang entirely in French, and the second one entirely in English. Alex postulates that English is to rock music as Latin was to science, and that it should not bother me that it's difficult to find awesome French-language music, even among French-native artists.
The second awkward reference to the US was a painting hanging in the juice bar. It was a background of an American flag, and in the foreground the faces of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama. Between their two faces were the words "Yes we can have a dream." I thought it was exceedingly strange.
Then again, last week we were on the street below our apartment and Maria asked someone if they had a lighter. He responded "yes" and the conversation switched to English abruptly. When he asked us if spoke French we said yes, but that we'd switched languages 'cause he answered "yes". His response was "Yeah, well, everyone says 'yes' now -- you know, like 'yes we can'?"
Weird. I left the US but it seems to have followed me.
I'd sort of worked out my whole question in advance so I could minimize stuttering, but I was so surprised that it didn't work out quite like I'd planned.
Last night, Alex had heard about a rock show near our place, and we went. It turned out to be a juice bar called Soup&Juice. A juice bar that also sold beer? Or, kind of. They explained to us that they would only sell beer as part of a meal (which meant buying soup) or if we gave them our e-mail addresses. It was an almost entirely incomprehensible demand.
The bands were pretty good. The first one sang entirely in French, and the second one entirely in English. Alex postulates that English is to rock music as Latin was to science, and that it should not bother me that it's difficult to find awesome French-language music, even among French-native artists.
The second awkward reference to the US was a painting hanging in the juice bar. It was a background of an American flag, and in the foreground the faces of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama. Between their two faces were the words "Yes we can have a dream." I thought it was exceedingly strange.
Then again, last week we were on the street below our apartment and Maria asked someone if they had a lighter. He responded "yes" and the conversation switched to English abruptly. When he asked us if spoke French we said yes, but that we'd switched languages 'cause he answered "yes". His response was "Yeah, well, everyone says 'yes' now -- you know, like 'yes we can'?"
Weird. I left the US but it seems to have followed me.
Weird. I guess I don't know how exactly to interpret the first thing, with your prof. What exactly did he mean by that? But the other things, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI desperately want to know what your professor means by that. Befriend the student he was chatting with and find out! Report back.
ReplyDeleteI had a really weird dream last night, that involved you and kittens for science. Apparently someone was using my spare bedroom as a place to raise kittens as part of some science experiment? Only they allowed the kittens to use the entire room as a litter box. So while we were waiting for them to clean it we went to a movie with Frederick, only his name was something like Wolrent.
I didn't say it was an exciting dream, just a weird one.
The scots don't seem to give a damn about America. I think it's actually really telling of our special relationship with France that American symbols holds such meaning for them. Maybe the reason France got so upset with us in the Bush Era is that they were just very disappointed because they'd held us in such high regard.
i found a french-french dictionary with obama's face on it! obama is everywhere here!
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