Courtney's French Frustration

Alright, I’m going to write a quick note about one of our biggest setbacks to date: the language barrier. I know I have been in situations before where there has been a language barrier of some kind, e.g. my trip to Germany (I certainly speak NO German), several situations in the hospital with foreigners who speak no English, a vacation in Brazil (Portuguese is not the same as Spanish…). However, the language barrier here seems to be affecting me more than any of those previous experiences. Perhaps this is because I attempted to learn some French before beginning this journey, which had very little benefit. Maybe because I already feel like an incredible outsider and the language barrier only potentiates this feeling. Or perhaps because I already feel “stranded” in Yaoundé without knowing where to go or what to do and I cannot talk to anyone or ask any opinions. Even for those individuals who do speak English, their accents are so heavy that it is still almost impossible to understand. In our “free time,” we’ve been attempting to brush up on some simple French: “How are you?,” “Thank you,” “You’re welcome,” “I don’t speak French,” “I don’t understand,” etc. However, when I attempt to use one of those few phrases to a local, I get a long response of questions/comments in French – all of which I don’t understand. So then I still have to revert to my confused, “I have no idea what’s going on” look, which Brent refers to as my “deer in headlights” look. Anyways, I keep hoping that this barrier will slowly improve, and perhaps within the next few weeks it will. For now, I’ll stick with “Je ne comprends pas.”


--Courtney