-In Listening-

The more you understand when people are speaking another language...the more you understand. C'est simple, non? But by this, I mean many things.

The event which brought this to my mind was the homeless man begging for food and money on my metro car this afternoon. Most other tourists ignored him, because he's just another crazy French man ranting in a language they can't understand. And even though I too avoided eye contact, I understood that he stuttered because he had a disability. And that he was asking for food so he could take his medicine. And that the card he was waving around was in fact his medical disability card. And that the only reason he came to Paris was in hopes of finding a job.

It's harder to ignore, and harder not to reach into your pockets, when you understand. But, I am a tourist, and as much as I wish I could, I cannot claim this city as my own. And so the Parisians must take care of their own, and I will buy copies of Street Sense in D.C.
*For those of you who don't know, Street Sense, D.C., is a small newspaper which has articles about homelessness, and which are often written by the homeless. The paper is $1 by donation, and profits the homeless who work for the organization by vending the paper on streets all over the city.

There are positive things too, like understanding the toddler crying to her mom that her pigtails hurt because they are too tight. Yes...she was crying, but it was cute because it was in French! Should I say it was just automatically more Fancy because it was in French?
And then there are the things that are still too French for me to comprehend. What is the deal with photoshopping cats onto scenic photos of Paris for postcards? Monsieur Garfield and the Eiffel Tower? Perhaps I am missing some element of French humour, or maybe...maybe I am just a bit more normal than I thought.