Once upon a time, I went to Wal-Mart with my mom during a thunder storm. It rained and hailed the entire time we were in the store, but we entered and left completely dry. Upon checkout, an older man wearing a trench coat and a sweater vest, who looked rather dapper, waited graciously as we unloaded what seemed like hundreds of groceries from our cart to the register belt. He was very humorous, commenting here and there on something he thought was funny.
Our load was quite a lot, and during the time of unloading, a woman managed to someone slip between the old man and us. She hadn't realized her mistake for a moment, and the man said nothing of it. "Oh, did I cut?" She asked, all of the sudden aware of her position.
"No, of course not. Where I come from, we always say 'ladies first'." The old man replied. I thought about how polite he had been. The women continued her conversation with the man.
"Where are you from?" She asked, noting his slight accent.
"France." The man answered. My mother and I both turned to the man as if to question what we had just heard. Surely not, of all places, was a dapper old French man in a trench coat at Wal-Mart. My mother asked the man,
"Did you say you were from France?"
"Yes."
"My daughter," she pointed to me, "wants to travel to France one day." The French man's eyes lit up.
"You do?" He asked enthusiastically. He then proceeded to speak to me in French. I had no idea what he was saying so I simply responded,
"Oh, I don't speak French yet. But I am going to learn it." He lowered his eyes a bit and simply went ah. As we were about to leave the man came up to me and said,
"Listen. Go to your local library. You listen to every tape, audio book, and read every book and learn to speak French." I gratefully agreed, inspired now to do so. With that, we literally bid each other "au revoir" and departed.
The point of my little story is to inspire you all. This man gave me the inspiration I have needed to bring my plans of learning another language to reality. It appears French may be one of the first I learn. I would love to be fluent in English (check), Spanish, French, and Italian. Oh, the plans I have are so merry to think about. Another language can be so beneficial. Whether you live next to Mexico and your state's second language is Spanish (as my father has pointed out to me), you want to read operatic music, simply understand some of Josh Groban's songs, or travel abroad--language is something can enhance your entire experience. How wonderful it will be to break through the language barriers and be that tourist who can speak not only English, but also a peoples native language. So pick up a book, an audio tape, Rosetta Stone, whatever you have to do and learn that language that's been placed on your heart.
Blessings,
Miss Ryleigh
No comments:
Post a Comment