The Bunny Hunters.

The French Language. Some days I feel like, yeah, this whole French thing, I've got it. I understand what everyone says to me, I contribute to dinner discussions, I say vaguely intelligent things in class, and I can even give directions to a stranger on the street. Days go by where I think in French, speak only French, and actually feel like I'm becoming a real Française.

It is a beautiful and nuanced language, rising and falling poetically from one phrase to the next. The joke in any French class is that like every single grammatical rule, French is an exception. I learn lovely expressions that seem to speak to the heart of an emotion and words that cannot fully be translated into our language. But the greatest part, is how quickly, with the slip of one vowel or the miss pronunciation of two seemingly identical words, French can turn absolutely vulgar and endlessly entertaining (at a cost- my dignity, that is).

There are days where I feel I've reached a real comprehension of the language, but there is an overwhelming amount of days where I utterly and completely embarrass myself. The latest, for which I'm the most ashamed, happened in my translation course. We were talking about some vague military subject and I tried to make some joke about the force specific to the Alps and their floppy hats. I called them "les chasseurs lapins" (rabbit hunters). My professor reacted immediately, dying of laughter, and my face was growing a deeper red with every second that passed. Through her laughs she said, "Oh Marina. That's just adorable. Oh, no no. I need to write that down." I was so confused, "But isn't that what they're called?" Of course not. Apparently, they're called "les chasseurs ALPINS" (alpine hunters)- a very, very clear written difference. But when heard, quite similar. Probably just to me.

The worst part about all of this is that I've been calling then rabbit hunters for three months. Three months and not a single person has corrected me! I've joked with multiple people about how hilarious and ridiculous I think it is that the French call them the rabbit hunters...just to find out that I'm the ridiculous one.