Agent Meilstrup and the Blue Eggs--the Continuing Saga of Linguistic Adventures

Sometimes in the afternoons, after class is over, we sit down and watch an episode or two of “Alias,” to clear our minds after four hours of French study. (For those of you who don’t know, “Alias” is a TV show about a CIA agent who travels the world on all sorts of dangerous missions. We never watched it in the U.S., but my friend Elizabeth lent us the first three seasons on DVD to bring with us to Africa.)

Recently, two nights in row I dreamed I was a CIA agent whose mission was to name the parts of her body in French or a bomb would explode. Picture this: bright red digital numbers, slowly counting down the seconds. A sinister man in a black outfit snarls: “If you don’t tell me the French word for ‘knee,’ all is lost.” Me, hyperventilating, as I dangle from some sort of rope contraption: “Uh…uh…‘genou’! It’s ‘genou’!”

We’ve been told that when we start dreaming in French, it’s a sign that we’re really starting to grasp the language. Do you think this dream counts??

Actually, despite the occasional moments of panic or embarrassment (such as Deron describing his brother has having “brown hair and blue eggs” instead of “blue eyes”), we feel we’re doing pretty well in our French studies. We’re retaining most of what we learn in class and we’re even able to laugh and make jokes with our teachers.

This week has been encouraging because phrases are naturally starting to come out in French, without us having to first translate the words from English to French in our heads (or Spanish to French, as is sometimes the case for Deron).

Of course, right now our conversation is limited to the basics: greetings, shopping, describing our family, describing our daily routine, etc. I thought I was doing pretty well with verbs until I remembered we’ve only learned how to conjugate those in the “premier groupe,” (verbs ending in –er) and only in present tense! We’ve still got two more verb groups to learn, plus there are about a million more tenses, although I think we’ll only be learning two or three more.

We know it is God Who is giving us the ability to learn so quickly. I had a lot of fear that I wouldn’t pick up French because typically I am so afraid I’ll make mistakes that I won’t even try. However, God has taken away that fear and I have been speaking with confidence and boldness, even though I know I mess up frequently. We know it is because of His goodness and the prayers of the fantastic family and friends who are supporting us. Thank you so much – and please keep praying because we’ve still got a lot to learn.