The first days of learning French, all the way back in middle school, were spent learning about cognates in English and the language’s influence on English.  More than a third of all English words are derived directly or indirectly from French, and it’s estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words.  My first day, we learned words like ballet and parade and gala. It was so surprising to see all these words that I had known so well used in another language as well.  But since my arrival in Strasbourg, I have been continuously shocked by the heavy influence that English and Anglophone cultures seem to have over the rest of the world.

Before I came abroad, I met with a student who had studied in Strasbourg the previous year (from 2007 to 2008).  I had asked her about how living in France was, how she managed with the French language etc.  Her response was that she had lived almost 100% of her life here in French, all of her close friends communicated in French and all of her classes were taught in French.  So, of course I arrived with the same expectations, only to be disappointed.  All of my neighbors in university housing are native English speakers, and a recent all-English program has opened up at the University, and with it has come a large population of students that speak little to no French.  I love the kids at the school, but at the same time it is frustrating to have traveled halfway across the world only to speak my own language.  To top it all off, I am constantly surprised at the vast knowledge that my pupils have on American culture and people’s excitement to try to communicate with me in English.

This omnipresence of all things English is the one aspect that really bugs me about life here.  Not only does it irk me, but also it makes me feel really conflicted.  From the start, this has always been a subject of constant conflict in my mind.

For example:  I spent the entire summer researching in Germany, knowing no German and relying heavily on the fact that most Germans I have met speak amazing English.  I traveled through four countries, to over eight cities, on just English alone!  For that, I am grateful that it is my native language.  But because it is slowly becoming such an international language, this fact also makes me feel so lazy.  People have always asked me about various TV shows, actors and bands that I know very well, like How I Met Your Mother or Radiohead, all of these things are so well known internationally, but ask me to name ONE German actor, or one French TV show (before I came abroad) and it would be something I would really have to think about.  In this way, I feel like there is such an uneven exchange of culture in the world.  Turn on the radio in Germany, and you will hear about 60% Anglophone music, 30% German, and the rest international, do the same thing in the US, and unless you stumble across a college radio station or Feliz Navidad around Christmastime, you will be hard pressed to hear something other than English.  I have yet to really figure out the answer.

Even in the academic world, English is powerful.  As a scientist, I have noticed that many developments of the past century have been in my language, and as a result, knowing it is a very powerful tool.  Papers and textbooks are published, computers are run, and many lab procedures written out only in English.  My friend Taru, from Finland pointed out a very astute observation.  She realized that as English is growing larger in the world; it puts her language at a disadvantage.  Native Finnish writers will always feel a conflict, between publishing works in their native language, with an audience of 5 million people, or working in English and receiving a much larger audience worldwide, reaching 79 million.

Yet, the most frustrating part of all this for me is probably English in my everyday life.  I have not wavered in my will or my passion to speak French, but I also have grown to be good friends with some of my American neighbors, but if we go out, I prefer speaking in French if I can help it.   For after a few months in this country, I am tired of being accosted by people who have overheard my conversation in English in bars, or on the street.  I feel like if two people were speaking together in Korean or Finnish, people wouldn’t think twice, maybe try to figure out what language they were speaking, but then move on.  But in my case, I sense the people around me on the tram perking up and listening in when I start a conversation with my friend Kendall, a fellow American, and my neighbor is Strasbourg.  And that sense of scrutiny, that shopkeeper that tries to address me in broken English at the first time of confusion, the friends who insist on speaking to me in English, is what really irritates me.

Even with all of my complaining, I go to sleep happy.  This week, I am in lab from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m, and after a full day of breakneck-speed French, I am exhausted and elated to rush home to talk to my neighbors about my day. I may be a bit resentful and conflicted about the global status of English, but sometimes there is nothing more comforting than knowing it is right next door.