London’s calling! Adieu la France. Living in two languages.
Between resignation about not being heard or being misunderstood and eagerness to find a way to change that, I navigated life for a long while.
Then I went from a small town in France to London, England, from French to English, from teaching to being taught. I took many classes and many trainings for the 10 years I was in London, and all somehow were related to communication, whether verbal, written or non-verbal: Media & Communications studies, Communication Courses, Theatre workshops… all of these were training me in listening, in communicating, in expressing myself.
As I dipped more into the English language, my French mother tongue faded away; as I was getting more bilingual I realised how dynamic a language is and how words can evolve and acquire new meanings much faster than we think. I also noticed how our experiences happen in a language and are not always transferable to another in the same vivid way. Yet if one really wants to communicate there is no stopping at words, communication can transcend the words in different tongues.
And as I dived deeper in the world of powerful and authentic communication I worked with a great number of European languages all coming together in a room and being trained in English. I realised then that, some participants, though less fluent in English, could just as well touch the hearts and minds of their fellow trainees with their words, just as much as the accomplished English speakers. The essence of communication didn’t reside uniquely in the language.
To be continued…
