Precerpt from My 20th Language: L4 French - Pen-Pal from France

 

 

My Pen-Pal

In addition to the rich milieu I grew up, frequent correspondence with a pen-pal, Yves, from France enhanced my French-learning endeavors. I gained an understanding of another French-speaking culture, other idioms, and a country with a deep history. Yves, with whom the Youth of All Nations pen-pal organization connected me, shared his lived experience as he lived it, sending papers and pictures that allowed me to vicariously share in that experience. Of course, it gave me a lot of opportunity to use expressive language where it mattered whether I got it right. Often—and I still smile about it—Yves would send my letters back with errors corrected!

After college, I lost contact with Yves, but he somehow managed to contact me when I was living in Montana in my early 20s. Just married and with one kid. He was visiting New York City and wanted to come see me. However, he did not realize the vastness of the territory of the United States; he did not have enough money to make it all the way to Montana. Opportunity lost.

Decades passed. Out of the blue, now in my late 70s, I received a note on Face Book from Yves, wondering if I was his pen-pal of yore. Yes! Sucha a small world, especially for us linguists.


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