The Conversational Triumvirate

 I have been trying to make conversation with French people here in France. Namely with my roommates who are pictured above. Actually only the two girls on each end of the line are French the other three of us are American. But they have their friends over and we get to hang out a lot together. And I have so far found three topics that can be revisited as often as needed when the conversation reaches a lull: food, movies, and idioms.  Now, maybe this is subject to change with age bracket, I don't know. But discussing these three things has provided me with lots of quality time with new French friends.

Food is kind of a given, while we are sitting around in the kitchen we exchange favorite foods. We wrinkle our noses at each others' discriptions of different dishes, or nod appriciatively- depending on the ingredients. They list foods we have to try while we are here, foods special to the region.

My roommate and I have had several conversations about movies; she tells me most French people think American movies are too happy and naive. I have watched some French movies now, and I told her I find them depressing and without conclusive endings. She said the French like to have to think about the film, and it should be realistic. So, that has been fun, we compare opinions at different movies, and usually our opinions line up with the above generalizations.

Idioms are so much fun. At Thanksgiving we shared some with each other. I never realized how much I use until I speak with someone whose first language is not English.

So, now you know my "backup plan" when having a cross-cultural conversation. Though I think most of the time  only two of these three will apply in Africa:)