Day 14: Essaouira
Hello, hello! I am happy to report that after the low of the last post, things are looking up! We have arrived in the lovely coastal port town of Essaouira. The cool Atlantic sea air blowing across our faces as we descended from the tour bus was the most welcome change from the arid climate of central Morocco we could have asked for. It provided much-needed relief for all of us: stomachs are feeling better, bodies are feeling rested, and many of my travel mates are glowing after an optional hammam visit (I didn't partake, because I was embarrassed about having to undress in front of another person from my group). As for me, my French is on the mend! I had some cause for celebration the other day, which I will narrate in a moment. But first, photos:
On the way to Essaouira from central Morocco, we stopped at a major grocery store chain called Marjan to buy some lunch. I had never heard of it, though others on my travel group had. It's like Carrefour's. I ordered some food from a salad bar in French, and when I tried to utter the last sentence of my order, I began it with "Finalement" (as in, "finally, I would like this"). Sounds like a perfectly decent French word, right?
Except that it's not. The woman serving me my food politely corrected the word to "enfin" with a smile as she scooped some fromage blanc into my bowl. Of course! The second she said it, the memory of the real French word for "finally" came back to me from high school French class. Making up French words that are actually just thinly-veiled English is a risk that comes with the territory, one that I'm still not that used to from my Chinese-learning experience (not a whole lot of English cognates in Chinese, lol).
This correction, my friends, was the cause for celebration. I felt my heart donning its party hat, jumping for joy, and throwing confetti as soon as I realized what had happened. I was additionally pleased that this was what my heart did instead of slumping its shoulders and bowing its head in shame and embarrassment, which is what used to happen when I got corrected in a foreign language. This reaction showed me that I had internalized a growth mindset with regards to language-learning.
Recognized and corrected mistakes are a success if your goal is to get better in a foreign language. It's the best way to learn. Memory experts say that the best way to remember something is to make a vivid association with it, and now I will always remember this story of being corrected on the French word for "finally" as I ordered my salad at a Marjan on the way to Essaouira, Morocco. You can bet I'll never forget the word "enfin" again. I know it seems small, but many tiny corrections and associations like this build up proficiency in a language. Everybody says immersion is necessary for language acquisition, but this is for no reason other than that it gives the learner a playground for making lots of mistakes in a shorter amount of time, learning and growing in the language all the while. This is why just being placed in an immersive environment won't help you. You have to speak.
By the way, even with my limited French, I have become known among my tour group as "the French speaker" and the "language person." Most people in my group are monolingual Americans, and they're impressed that I teach Chinese and "speak French," in their minds. They don't hear that my French is broken and incomplete. What they see is that I communicate with people for them and I get results. I mention this because for those of you out there who want to speak a foreign language mostly to impress your next date or travel buddy, it doesn't take that much linguistic ability to be able to basically communicate. You just need to start speaking, and the rest will follow. I promise.
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