Language Barrier

Language barrier is not a myth. In a bilingual environment, it makes it darn near impossible to get away with not knowing both languages. In this case, English and French. As much as I DO NOT want to go back to school, I am fearing that I might have to suck it up and enroll in a French refresher course. Since working with this system, my French Immersion skills have come back to me. Granted, they are simply immersion skills. Given that I am the only one in my family that can speak French and haven't had more than a handful of opportunities to practice it over the past 6 years (since leaving high school), I consider I am doing alright. Here, at work, it gets me by for finding books on particular topics or titles, giving people computers, and other mundane tasks. Better than what it was last April, even last June. Still feel like I'm missing out. In a bilingual environment, it also means that all marketing materials must be in both languages. This can be rather challenging. Translation is incredibly tricky. You must know both languages really well to make sure you sound French with the French version and English with English. So many times I tried to take a French course in university before embarking into the world of work but didn't quite work out due to schedule conflicts. So what is a librarian to do? Well, picked up some French books to read leisurely to start. I am better at French than I allow my confidence level to show, I am sure. Keep telling myself to "get over it" lol. Helps having a co-worker with whom we exchange language help and share stories of her English second language barriers and my French second language frustrations. In such a cut-throat world, particularly regarding employment, it makes life a little difficult.

Ah language... how colourful it can be.