Object of Terror

Object of torture and terror

I am making my way in a foreign language.  I am not in the least hinting that it/s been easy.  I had a marvelous teacher, but that was 50 years ago and I have forgotten 95% of what he taught me.  But, I am living in France, speaking French and most of the time, it's not a huge obstacke.

But the phone???? I nearly go into cardiac arrest when it rings and I don't recognize the number.  That usually means it's "business," and I had best pay attention.  I have known for some time that I read lips when conversing with French speakers.  That luxury is unavailable on the phone.  Additionally, I never get very good cell phone reception, so the language barrier is further complicated by conversations fading in and out.  I hate conducting anything, even in English, on the cell phone.

And if someone leaves a voice message?  Oh dear heaven....I have managed to navigate my French voice mail retrieval system, but native French speakers, already fast talkers, deliver their voice messages in even more rapid fire fashion.  To get an entire recent message from the Prefecture, I had to go to my bank and ask my customer service representative (who speaks English) if she could translate the last half of the recording--even after hearing it nearly 20 times, I could not understand, so fast was the speech.  In my defense, the lady at the bank had to listen to it twice in order to get it.  Yes, it was that fast.

I have better reception in my new place

This morning was a case in point.  I got a call about my "order," and from then on I was lost.   I was able to get out my standard line, "I can understand if you speak slowly."  I finally understood  that she was giving me delivery instructions for my futon, my "clic clac".  I thought she was calling from the kitchen shop where I had placed an order for a wooden citrus reamer.  Big difference.  The clic clac is coming tomorrow; the citrus reamer, who knows?