Well, guess where I am as you're reading this? It's the first day of the inaugural Festival du Roman Feminin in Paris - a two day festival designed especially for readers of romance!
That means I may be a bit tardy dropping by the LoveCats blog. By the look of the marvellous program, I'm going to be very busy for the next couple of days, before moving on to Berlin for the LoveLetter Convention, again just for romance readers. Talk about a thrilling week! To share the thrill I'm including a couple of location shots you might enjoy - not from this year's Festival but from a previous visit to Paris (and yes, I do know how lucky I am to have more than one visit here).
These festivals also mean I'm going to be very, very challenged. You see, I'm not one of the world's better linguists and I didn't learn a second language at school. They say if you start learning early it stays with you longer, don't they? Well, I was a late starter, which means I'm going to be struggling. You see, I have no French. I can say hello and thank you. I can order a glass of wine or a bottle of water but apart from that? Sigh.
Now, fortunately these festivals are beautifully organised so that even linguistically challenged authors like me can speak in English and be understood, but it does make me feel guilty that I can't say far more in the local language. I had the best intentions to do a crash course in French and to brush up my very little amount of German before leaving. Sadly some family issues took up my time and I'll be lucky to arrive with a properly packed bag.
I'll be trying to learn a little on the plane but given my ability to make terrible mistakes, it's a worry that I've left it so late. I've embarrassed myself many times trying to speak another language. Like the time I walked into a shop and asked, quite confidently I might add, to buy a kiss instead of a cushion. You can imagine how that went down!
So now I'm girding my loins to utter a few words of French and then German and keeping my fingers crossed I don't say anything too appalling.
How about you? Are you great with second, third or even fourth languages? Is there one you love or one you'd love to master? Or are you like me, struggling with a smile and lots of sign language?
