Languages: English is everywhere.

Rennes is a city of students and it shows with everyone you meet. I have met a lot of people in passing in this city, whom I know I will never meet again. And even when there is a lapse in communication due to my imperfect studies of French, I find that English is easily interchangeable in the conversation. All around the university’s campus, I find students can speak English well enough for a chat. The thing I did not know was that it is usually required of the students here to be able to speak English, to obtain their undergrad or graduate degree. So when someone asked me for directions on campus of our university here, and I stuttered to answer because I didn’t know the way, she recognized I spoke English and we had a quick conversation after that about our studies here. What a surprise in comparison to the system in the United States, where language is not emphasized other than English.

My host family here has a son who is seventeen and I asked him about his English finally after two months of wondering. He told me that he speaks English very well and that he was at a B2 level of English just from studying it throughout his school life. I was beyond impressed, even more so when he told me about a part of the elaborate baccalaureate exam where he would have to speak English and write in English. He was further along in English at age 17 than I was in French being almost out of undergraduate at my university. Not only the French have surprised me with their knowledge of English, but the others in our CIREFE program here. I know others from many different countries around the world, and a vast majority of the people can speak English. Not all speak it, but even so it seems key that although coming to a country like France to learn French, a majority have already learned English first. Sometimes, my encounters with my foreign friends will turn to English even though I am the only native English speaker in the room! English is such an integral part of their lives here in France and I never knew it until I arrived and talked with the students.

Many French people love to talk to you in English as well. It gives them a chance to practice their English with one who’s maternal language it is. Often times, they will get excited and it will be a great conversation starter as to where I am from and why I am here. I find these conversations to always be fun, even though I am here to learn French; most times we’ll switch the languages up after a while. Through our conversations, I now can see the extra steps taken in French education in order to learn English. I very much admire this attribute and am glad I can be, even though later than the French people, pursuing another language as well. Americans can tend to take English for granted, not realizing the universality of the language. Speaking with friends, classmates, and strangers, I can better understand the roles languages play in our lives and how our lives are shaped around the language, like the way English is taught here in France. I never understood the power of the English language until I seemed to be the only one not wanting to speak it.

Erin Morrell

Siena College