French is not Sexy

Music in my head: Porcupine Tree- Normal
Today's weather: Well...

I can't get used to French. I hate listening to people shoot out sentences at the rate of knots and be halfway through their monologue before they realise from my dumb expression that I have no clue about what's being said. My internship guide took me to meet with another professor so I could explain to him what I had done so far. What ensued was an hour of me shifting my frame of vision from one rapid outburst of Francaise to another, trying desperately not to look at my watch.

But after the meeting, my lack of knowledge of French combined with another intern's lack of knowledge of English resulted in quite an awkward situation.

So after said meeting, I was on my way back to my room when I noticed a girl I had never seen before in the room next to mine. With my newly acquired greeting skills, I walked over to her.

Me: "Bonjour! I'm Krishna."
Girl: "Bonjour! Anglais?"
Me: "Oui, oui, parle pas Francaise." (Yes, I don't speak French)
Girl: "D'accord, ok. Moi Christine."
Me: "Hi Christine. I work in the next room." (Aided by flailing arm signals).
Girl: "Ah D'accord, good, good."
Me: "Ok. See you later. Bye."
Girl: "Ok. Bye."

Now as it turned out, we both walked out of our respective rooms at about the same time. And as all students in the area lived in the same complex, we started walking back together. And on the way,

Me: "So, what are you working on?" (repeat x 3, plus sign language)
Christine: "High Accuracy current sensors for VSIs."(Translated from a set of signs and disjointed words)
Me: "Ok. I'm working on control of a high speed synchronous machine."
Christine: "Zat is ze... ze... difficult?"
Me: "No, no. It's really quite simple."

She suddenly stops short and looks at me with a strange expression.

Christine: "Pardon, what deed you say?"
Me: "It's not difficult, its quite simple, easy."
Christine: "Ze... ze... sempa?"
Me: "Yes, yes, oui."

She shrugged her shoulders in a curious sort of way. I was sort of surprised. All right, maybe it wasn't that simple, but no matter how difficult it was, it didn't warrant a reaction like that. Great, I thought. Now she thinks I'm a pretentious know-it-all who thinks he's better than her.

We remained incommunicado for the rest of the walk back, and exchanged a courteous, maybe a little too formal and uptight goodbye before we retreated to our different buildings (there are two residential buildings in the complex).

I switched on my computer as usual and was in the middle of checking my email when I suddenly had a brainwave. Maybe simple had a slightly different meaning in French. Maybe it was used as a superlative, that explained the reaction. So I open google translate and start punching in words one by one.

'Simple' translated to easy. Nothing wrong with that. Then I remember her repeating 'Sempa'. 'Simple' is pronounced something like 'Seempluh'. But 'sempa'- no translation. Simpa. Nothing. Simpah. Nope. Sempah. Still nothing. Then, bingo.

Sympa. Translates to nice, sexy or friendly. Pronounced 'se(n)mpa', that is, sempa with a nasal twang. Well, the perverted French girl. That the first thing that came to her mind when I said 'simple' in my simple Indian accent was 'sympa' and not 'simple' is simply disgraceful.

But come to think of it, its also kind of sympa that her mind works that way. That's something we have in common for sure. I have to clear it up with her on Monday.

Then maybe we'll go out for lunch afterwards.