Parlez-vous Engineering?


 
 
Phil Deakin (Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge) was sponsored by the Trust as an Arkwright Scholar and had to learn French in a hurry to work for a leading French engineering company.  Having achieved a first class in all of his years so far at Cambridge, he is currently undertaking his final year of the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos.  His 10 week stay in France was supported by an Ogden Trust Travel Grant.
 
4am at Bristol Airport and after only 5 hours sleep I find myself being charged £20 at the check-in desk because my suitcase is 300g over the weight limit; not a good start to my summer but at least things can only get better! Destination – France; to be more precise, Montpellier for 4 weeks to learn to speak French before moving to Paris to put my language skills to work with one of the world’s leading engineering firms. As the French would say – Bonne Chance!

For several years I had felt terribly embarrassed by my inability to speak a foreign language and it wasn’t getting any better whilst sitting in England. I therefore decided to ‘jump in at the deep end’ and arranged an intensive 4 week immersion course to learn French; what’s more, by arranging a 6 week internship for immediately afterwards, I had to get better quickly, very quickly…

And so I arrived in Montpellier airport at 9:30am armed with 15.3kg of luggage, a French dictionary and some vague memories of GCSE French from 7 years earlier. Thanks to the efficiency of the low-cost airline, we had arrived half-an-hour ahead of schedule therefore my first taste of France was spent walking around the arrivals gate trying to remember whether I should greet my host-family with 2 kisses or 4. Just so that you know for future reference, in the south of France it’s 3 – another good start!

After the usual kisses and polite conversation comprising “bonjour”, “je m’appelle” and “il fait chaud aujourd’hui” I was feeling rather smug and thinking that my stay in France was going to be rather easier than anticipated. It was then, however, that I learnt a very important lesson; it doesn’t matter how good your French is, if there’s a pause in the conversation, the next question will almost certainly be one you don’t understand!

And so the long-learning curve began; 4 weeks of asking for more cheese and being given yoghurt, 4 weeks of playing charades to describe a word (e.g. helicopter!) only to discover it’s the same as in English, and 4 weeks of not knowing if we’re going to the cinema tonight, tomorrow night or a week next Wednesday... I learnt French but, more importantly, I also very quickly learnt how to pick-up a foreign language from virtually nothing; my personal technique comprised ‘cramming’ hard grammar and vocabulary for 6 hours per day at school followed by trying to put it all together whilst talking with my host-family every evening.

At this point I really should mention the seven most patient people in France who kindly hosted me whilst I was in Montpellier. I soon discovered that confidence is everything when trying to learn a foreign language and my host-family had certainly perfected the art of correcting mistakes without discouraging me from trying again in the future. I was also keen to appreciate French culture during my visit and my family were wonderful at introducing me to the game of ‘petanque’, the art of eating every meal with at least half a baguette and I was even fortunate enough to be invited to a cousin’s wedding in the Massif Central.

It was therefore with great sadness that, after 28 days of living on a sun-baked vineyard in the countryside just outside Montpellier, I headed north to the bustle of Paris, where I had been told that everyone was rude, unhelpful and spoke too quickly to be understood. Unfortunately the ticket attendant in Gare de Lyon lived up to this reputation, however he was very much the minority and nearly everyone else during my 6 weeks was patient, polite and eager to help my French (in exchange for the odd English lesson).

Whilst in Paris I was working for one of France’s leading engineering companies at La Defense, the purpose-built business complex to the west of the city centre. The project itself was a split of nationality with approximately 50% native French speakers and the rest using English. I was therefore able to work in my mother tongue (I didn’t trust my French at the start!) whilst conducting all admin, coffee breaks, lunch breaks etc in the native language. I did not appreciate at the time the extent to which making an effort to speak in French won the support of the locals in the office; something which few Brits before me had achieved.

Being alone in Paris could appear a lonely prospect (especially given its reputation for romantic weekend breaks) but once again having the confidence to talk to everyone soon filled up my evenings after work. There were the usual embarrassing encounters (e.g. trying to chat to someone in French, then English only to discover they were Ukrainian and could only say Kiev!) but on the whole most young professionals in Paris were eager to converse in a bizarre mixture of English and French (for the benefit of both parties).

Do I have any advice for someone wanting to complete a similar summer? Yes, don’t be afraid to try – the locals have always heard worse and will love your efforts. The ability to laugh at yourself is also useful – one memory that will always haunt me involved wishing a bride ‘good luck’ because I’d forgotten how to say congratulations! Starting conversations with everyone (policemen, shop-assistants, waitresses etc) is therefore a superb way to improve your language skills and the extra portions of steak are a fantastic additional bonus…

Yes, there were lows (e.g. being stuck in a Parisian suburb when the metro had shutdown) but learning a language when alone in a foreign country is definitely the most productive and rewarding way. As I sat on the Eurostar I felt I was leaving with great industrial experience, enough French to hide my nationality and with too many fond memories to recount. Where next? Definitely Paris… or Montpellier… but Germany could be interesting… or how about Italy??? Who knows – sufficient to say, I’m not staying in England for long; there are too many languages to learn!