I made a note to read this book by Lauren Collins as I continue to learn how to navigate my intercultural marriage with a French man.
The book is somewhat interesting, anecdotal and also a discourse in linguistics in some chapters (which I found rather dry and difficult to get through). Kind of wanting to cover too many topics at the same time, which distracted from an autobiography which I thought it was.
I wanted more spice of life and hilarious episodes… it also felt a little unfocused, neither an autobiography nor a treatise in linguistics. I’m in the camp of 3/5 stars reviews on Amazon.
While I didn’t have similar linguistic challenges – I already spoke French when I met my husband since I majored it in at University and I grew up speaking 4 languages, so picking up the nuances of another was less of a challenge.
I do identify with the hilarity of cultural immersion that I still struggle with, given that the husband and I met in Beijing and have lived in Asia the past 8 years of being together. There are insider jokes, socio-economical, political jokes that is impossible to grasp unless one lived in France.
When I picked up my livret de famille, the lady at the consular offered to help me apply for a French passport, which I politely declined as I would never give up my Singapore one. But that was encouraging because for anyone to be offered a French passport, you must have at least high school level French – which includes being able to discuss literature and some cultural topics.
Fortunately for me I did European history at A levels and remember the odd details of the 1789 revolution and all about Bonaparte. Then I read Flaubert and Baudelaire at university… so, I suppose I found French before my husband found me.
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