I've known my co-worker Rachel for 15 years now - we both went to high school together in NH before moving down to DC post-college. Two years ago, she helped me land an interview, and subsequently a job, at our current company. Rachel and I met in French class my sophomore year. I don't know if any of you ever took language classes during high school, but if you did, surely in the recesses of your mind you can recall the dialogues the language books would use at the beginning of each chapter to introduce upcoming concepts. There was one dialogue that both Rachel and I recall being particularly memorable. Memorable enough that we still remember it to today.
"Ou est le guerisseur?" (where is the local healer)
"Il est dans la brousse." (he is in the bushlands)
Etc, etc, etc. It was introducing a chapter on French-speaking West Africa, a completely foreign concept to us New Englanders (especially to me who didn't even own a passport at the time). HAHA, when would we ever need this vocabulary?!?
Well, as Rachel informed me this morning - I might actually get to use some of the vocab from that dialogue on my trip to Burkina. Hopefully I won't need to ask where the local healer is, but if I'm in a pickle, at least I'll know how! That high school French lesson was good for something!
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