Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discusison for When In French...then take off on your own:
1. Start with your own attempts to learn a foreign language. How difficult—or easy—was it for you? What level of facility have you ever achieved in a foreign language? Have any of your experiences match those of Lauren Colllins?
2. Talk about the reasons the author decided to take the plunge and learn French.
3. How is the word "love" used differently in America and French? What else did you find surprising about the differences between English, particularly American English, and French?
4. Aside from language, what other differences existed between Lauren and Oliver—particularly in terms of belief systems, professions, or even the way in which their minds worked?
5. Oliver told Lauren that speaking to her in English was like touching her with gloves. What did her mean, specifically?
6. (Follow-up to Question 5): Collins writes of her relationship with Oliver:
We didn’t possess that easy shorthand, encoding all manner of attitudes and assumptions, by which some people seem able, nearly telepathically, to make themselves mutually known.
Is it perhaps impossible to ever achieve lasting intimacy while spanning two languages? Is language difference an insurmountable barrier in a long-lasting relationship?
7. Collins provides historical insights into the problems caused by language barriers. Locate specific examples to talk about—in international realtions or simply everyday life. What problems have you faced in your personal life. During your travels, perhaps? On the job?
8. What do you think of Collins's assertion that...
It is unhealthy for the global community to rely too heavily on one language as it is to mass-cultivate a single crop.
Do you agree? Are you old enough recall Esperanto—the vision of a single world language? If you're not familiar with the movement, Google the term and talk about what you find.
9. What does the author have to say about Americans' seeming aversion to foreign languages? Do you agree with her?
10. What did you find funny in Collins's struggle to learn French? The birth of Lauren's coffee machine—there is that! What else made you laugh?
11. What knowledge have you gained about language you didn't have before you read When in French? Prior to reading Collins's memoir, did you have any background in linguistics, grammar, or language history?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)