3.0
When in French
ByPublisher Description
A language barrier is no match for love. Lauren Collins discovered this firsthand when, in her early thirties, she moved to London and fell for a Frenchman named Olivier—a surprising turn of events for someone who didn’t have a passport until she was in college. But what does it mean to love someone in a second language? Collins wonders, as her relationship with Olivier continues to grow entirely in English. Are there things she doesn’t understand about Olivier, having never spoken to him in his native tongue? Does “I love you” even mean the same thing as “je t’aime”? When the couple, newly married, relocates to Francophone Geneva, Collins—fearful of one day becoming "a Borat of a mother" who doesn’t understand her own kids—decides to answer her questions for herself by learning French.
When in French is a laugh-out-loud funny and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love, as well as an exploration across culture and history into how we learn languages—and what they say about who we are. Collins grapples with the complexities of the French language, enduring excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidently telling her mother-in-law that she’s given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French, Collins must wrestle with the very nature of French identity and society—which, it turns out, is a far cry from life back home in North Carolina. Plumbing the mysterious depths of humanity’s many forms of language, Collins describes with great style and wicked humor the frustrations, embarrassments, surprises, and, finally, joys of learning—and living in—French.
When in French is a laugh-out-loud funny and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love, as well as an exploration across culture and history into how we learn languages—and what they say about who we are. Collins grapples with the complexities of the French language, enduring excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidently telling her mother-in-law that she’s given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French, Collins must wrestle with the very nature of French identity and society—which, it turns out, is a far cry from life back home in North Carolina. Plumbing the mysterious depths of humanity’s many forms of language, Collins describes with great style and wicked humor the frustrations, embarrassments, surprises, and, finally, joys of learning—and living in—French.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesWhen in French Reviews
3.0
“A friend recommended this. I feel like it was wayyyy too heavy on the linguistics and didn’t flow well. Wouldn’t recommend unless you’re French obsessed.”
“This was an enjoyable and interesting read with a unique stance. Lauren, an American journalist, recounts her relationship with her French husband, as they move to Switzerland. Language evidently plays a major role in this book, and it’s an insightful exploration into language barriers not only moving to a country whose official language is not your native tongue, but also within a marriage.
Lauren Collins also weaves academic explorations of language learning, and mono-, bi- and multilingualism into the narrative. I found these interesting and I learnt a lot, so I appreciated this synthesis of the academic work on language out there. However, I would have preferred more of a memoir-focus to the book as I was really looking for the human experience of learning and living another language, particularly given that is my current situation.
I liked the structure of the book, with each chapter being based on a French tense or language mood. It meant we followed Lauren’s life from childhood to present day, and to see how language shaped her life.
That being said, I was unfortunately let down by the writing style. I didn’t think that the narrative was particularly well-written, and I had to reread sentences to try to understand what the author was referring to. The personal accounts mix with the academic literature studies and it sometimes was not clear when a change had been made.
Overall, I found this a really interesting read, particularly as an Anglophone speaker studying the French language and living in France. It made me consider how we relate to one another in different languages, and particularly the differences in language between Francophone countries (I found it fascinating the differences not only in language but lifestyle and culture between France and Switzerland). Of course, this is only one woman’s experience of the language and is not exhaustive, but it was certainly insightful and enjoyable to read.”
About Lauren Collins
Lauren Collins began working at The New Yorker in 2003 and became a staff writer in 2008. Her subjects have included Michelle Obama, Donatella Versace, the graffiti artist Banksy, and the chef April Bloomfield. Since 2010, she has been based in Europe, covering stories from London, Paris, Copenhagen, and beyond.
Other books by Lauren Collins
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