Julie is French, but you’ll see through this episode that her background is a rich mix of cultures.  Julie was born in Colombia and was adopted as a baby by a couple who lived in France. As you know, I’m very interested in the notion of identity linked to nationalities, origins, the land where we’ve lived and languages. In this podcast, you’ll get to listen to a conversation where Julie shares her experience of being adopted in France and she’ll talk about her connection with the country Colombia and its language, Spanish.

The search for identity is at the heart of the question of adoption and I was always interested in the question, however Julie and I had never spoken about, so you’ll get to hear our spontaneous conversation. The transcription can be helpful, so go to my website to access it. 

A final note about Julie that we didn’t mention, on top of being to talk about her personal experience, she is a psychologist and therefore she brings a lot of value to the conversation from a psychological standpoint. 

L’adoption et l’identité: « ma connexion à la langue et à la terre »

Extraits:
"Alors, oui, Julie, j’ai 38 ans. J'ai été adoptée à l'âge de 3 - 4 mois, donc j'étais tout bébé. J'étais adopté à Bogota, en Colombie, par des parents français et encore pas tout à fait français, qui sont eux aussi des étrangers parce que ma mère est Suisse, bon, c'est pas très loin, mais ce n'est pas la France et mon père est d'origine arménienne.  Il est né en France, mais ses parents, eux, viennent de Turquie. "
"So, yes, Julie, I'm 38 years old. I was adopted at the age of 3 - 4 months, so I was a  baby. I was adopted in Bogota, Colombia, by French parents but not quite French, they were  foreigners because my mother is Swiss, well, it's not very far, but it's not France and my father is of Armenian origin. He was born in France, but his parents came from Turkey.

"J'ai une relation conflictuelle avec l'espagnol depuis toujours. Gros blocage qui existe toujours et en fait, maintenant, ça m'énerve. Pendant longtemps et encore maintenant, il y a, il y a. Il faut que je parle comme si c'était ma langue. Mais non. Intellectuellement, je sais que   c'est normal que je ne puisse pas être fluent."
I have always had a conflicted relationship with Spanish. A blockage that still exists and in fact, now, it annoys me. For a long time and still now, it's here. I feel I have to speak like it's my language. But no. Intellectually, I know it's normal that I 'm not fluent.

"Mais en tout cas, ça génère de la colère qui fait que... Et comme la colère, le siège de la colère, c'est la gorge. Ça bloque tout et ça sort pas."
But in any case, it generates anger which ... And, as anger... the anger is located in the throat. It blocks everything and it does not come out."

"Je me mets pas la pression par rapport à la langue, parce que c'est ce qui te permet de communiquer avec le monde. Et donc, je me dis quelque part si je me bloque, c'est parce que... Enfin, comment dire ... j'ai peur de décevoir mes parents et de choisir un camp, finalement, et de dire finalement, je ne veux plus vous j'abandonne le français comme si c'était en noir ou blanc! Tu vois, il faut que ce soit, soit le français, soit l'espagnol. Je peux pas avoir les deux."
I 'm the one who puts pressure on myself with the language, because that's what allows you to communicate with the world. And so, I say to myself in a way if I get blocked, it's because ... Anyway , how can I put it ... I'm afraid to disappoint my (adoptive) parents and to choose a side, in the end, and to say in the end, I do not want you any more, I give up  French . It's as if it was in black or white! You see, it has to be either French or Spanish. I can't have both.

Today’s episode is about a day spent in an airport.

If you travel a lot, or if you live abroad and often go back home, then airports are familiar places to you. I, personally, have no idea how many hours I spent in airports over the course of my life, but definitely hundreds. 

I prepared this episode a while ago, I actually wrote some notes during a flight connection in August. I spent about 12 hours in Barcelona, well at the airport of Barcelona when I was traveling from Nantes to Rome. 

I feel flight connections are like brackets in time and in space I guess, you’re not officially anywhere, you’re in an enclosed space and if you’re traveling on your own, then you’re surrounded by strangers that are completely foreign to you.

This episode is in Spanish and it’s really about what it feels like to be in that bubble of space and time on your own.

"Una escala larga, yo la veo como un regalo de tiempo. Solía pensar eso de los vuelos también. Cuando estaba cansada del trabajo en Buenos Aires, pensaba en el vuelo que tomaría para Francia durante el cual mi celular permanecería apagado, nada que hacer, me entusiasmaba viajar por esa ventana de tiempo en el que no se siente presión para hacer cosas. Podés simplemente no hacer nada."
A long connection, I see it as a gift of time. I used to think that about flights too. When I was tired from work in Buenos Aires, I thought about the flight I would take to France during which my cell phone would remain off, nothing to do ,I was excited to travel through that window of time where you don't feel pressure to do anything. You can just do nothing. 

"En una semana, estaré acá, en el mismo lugar, pero esta vez llena de recuerdos de las vacaciones. "
In a week, I will be here, in the same place, but this time full of memories of the holidays.

"Después de varias horas, me di cuenta de que no era tan grande, pero conocía los lugares a donde podía ir. Me hizo pensar en Tom Hanks en la película en la que es un hombre refugiado que le toca vivir en un aeropuerto porque no tiene derecho a salir. Como tengo tiempo hoy, averigüé online, y descubrí que el hombre en el que se basó la peli se llama Mehran Karimi Nasseri, era iraní, y escuchen esto, vivió en la sala de partida de la Terminal 1 del aeropuerto Charles de Gaulle del año 1988 hasta el año 2006. 18 años se tuvo que quedar a vivir ahí.
Yo me tengo que quedar muy pocas horas así que no me quejo e intento disfrutar. "
After several hours, I realized that it was not that big, but I knew the places where I could go. It made me think of Tom Hanks in the movie in which he is a refugee  who has to live in an airport because he is not allowed to leave. Since I have time today, I looked it up online, and I discovered that the man on whom the movie was based on is called Mehran Karimi Nasseri, he was Iranian, and listen to this, he lived in the departure hall of Terminal 1 of the Charles de Gaulle airport from 1988 until 2006. He had to stay there for 18 years. 
I have to stay here for a few hours so I don't complain and I try to enjoy myself. 

Two weeks ago I went to have dinner at a friend's and someone asked me: How do you get rid of your foreign accent? He’s Peruvian and he wanted to know what he needed to do to speak French like a French native.

How do you get a clear and native-like pronunciation?

Can it be done? Can everybody do it? How can you achieve it? 
I first replied, are you sure you want me to answer. Nerd alert ! My answer is not gonna be short. I was surrounded by foreigners and we were mainly speaking French, they were all interested in the question, so I said ok, I’m gonna answer. 

And now, I think that’s a good podcast topic.

So, let’s do that today!

How do you get a clear and native-like pronunciation?

Your foreign accent: keep it or lose it? What’s your take?

Now, I’m going to tell you how to lose your foreign accent. I’m not telling you to lose it. I am not telling you, you should get rid of your foreign accent, that is absolutely not the point. The point is I’m telling you what to do if you want to lose it.

Actually, let’s rephrase, I’m gonna tell you what I think is crucial to consider when you want to have an accent that sounds more like a native.

Today’s episode is so very special because our guest is one of my favourite people on earth. He is by far one of the most incredible people I know, and I don’t say this just because he’s my nephew. He’s 12, he is clever, funny, kind and he’s bilingual. 

He listens to my podcast which keeps me on my toes, and it’s during a conversation we had about one my episodes that I suggested he should be a guest. 

We are going to talk about languages and cultural identity in French.

You can find the full transcription on my website: https://www.nolwenn-languages.com/post/ep22-fr-la-double-nationalit%C3%A9 

Extracts:

* Francesco: [00:04:23] Ils m'ont jamais demandé, mais il y a toujours des gens qui disent: "oh, il a le, comme on dit en italien "la erre moscia". Donc le R qui n'est pas roulé n'est pas italien. Donc j'ai un R français quand je parle un italien et l'inverse en français. Quand j'étais petit, j'avais été excellent accent italien et français et ensuite que j’ai inverti les rôles.
  They never asked me, but there are always people who say: "oh, he has the, as we say in Italian" la erre moscia ". So the R which  is not rolled , which is not Italian. So I have a French R when I speak Italian and the reverse in French. When I was little, I had excellent Italian and French accent and then I inverted the roles.


*Nolwenn: [00:06:00] Aau niveau de ton identité, est-ce qu'il y a une nationalité qui prime, qui est plus importante?

Francesco: Alors oui, c'est l'italien. 1) Parce que, comme j'ai dit avant, je le parle mieux, donc c'est plus simple.  Et ensuite, parce que je dois dire que comme j'ai dit au début début début, j'aime bien la pizza et en France ils ne la font pas, je sais qu’en France ils la font, mais pas comme en Italie. Et donc, moi je suis Italien parce qu'il y a la pizza.

* Nolwenn: [00:06:00] In terms of your identity, is there a nationality that takes precedence, which is more important?

Francesco: So yes, it's Italian. First, because, like I said before, I speak it better, so it's easier. And then, because I have to say that like I said at the beginning, beginning of the beginning, I like pizza and in France they don't make it, I know that in France they make it, but not like in Italy. And so, I am Italian because there is pizza.

This episode is about traveling alone. Is it something you do? Is it something you would never do or feel scared to do?

Traveling alone is definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone, but then again, I love challenges. 

Why do I do it? Is it lonely? Traveling alone has got its pros and cons. You’re free to do whatever you want whenever you want. I don’t like to plan my trips too much, and I often decide on the spot and I don’t have to argue and compromise with others. But, also, traveling alone is paradoxically a way to connect to others, to strangers and also to yourself. 

I love traveling with others, with friends and family, but in this episode, I’ll tell you about some of my experiences of traveling alone, and it’s in Spanish 😉

Extracts:
It is then that I discovered that when you travel in a group, you enjoy yourself a lot, but often, you only stay with the group and do not talk to others. When you travel alone, you open up and meet people outside your life, your world, your daily life. It gives you the opportunity to meet different people.
"Es entonces que descubrí que cuando viajás en grupo, disfrutás mucho, pero a menudo, solo te quedás con el grupo y no hablás con los demás. Cuando viajás solo, te abrís y conocés gente fuera de tu vida, de tu mundo, de tu cotidianidad. Te da la oportunidad conocer gente distinta. "

When you travel alone, there are moments of loneliness. And it is those moments that allow you to reflect on life.
"Cuando viajás solo, momentos de soledad hay. Y son esos momentos los que te permiten reflexionar sobre la vida. "

Recently, my friend Lily from Peru said the following sentence: you are never alone because you always have yourself. It is a beautiful and true sentence. I don't mean to say that we don't need others, but lately I have become more and more aware of the importance of the relationship we have with ourselves.
"Recién, me dijo una frase mi amiga Lily, es peruana. Me dijo: nunca estás solo porque siempre te tienes a ti mismo. Es una frase hermosa y verdadera. No quiero decir que no necesitamos a los demás, pero últimamente me doy cada día más cuenta de la importancia de la relación que tenemos con nosotros mismos."

Sean Hopwood is one of us, by that I mean, he’s passionate about languages and could not even consider his life (or himself for that matter) without being in constant contact with other cultures. He is a translator, which is a profession that I admire, because as a polyglot, I understand how difficult and sometimes impossible it is to translate from one language to another.
In this episode, Sean talks about his passion for languages, where it comes from and how languages are part of his life. 

Who is Sean Hopwood?

He is  the CEO of Day Translations (website is www.daytranslations.com), It’s a translation and localization company operating in over 100+ languages worldwide. As a language expert and an entrepreneur, myself, I can only be very impressed because he built his company from scratch by going door to door asking people if they required translations, and today he has a fully remote team from all over the world & he is working and helping companies, but also individuals like me expand their operations abroad. He has worked with Fox News, TED, Bayer, Facebook, HBO, AT&T, and more. 
But apart from all of that, what I appreciate about him is that he’s very down to earth and the conversation we had was genuine and really interesting. He said some of the things I thought as well, basically he worded my thoughts better that I can do myself, but he also sparked some new ideas that I’ll have to explore further and especially about how important it is to consider the social rules of a culture when you learn a language, and not only when you travel. So, let’s start the interview now….

Find the full transcription here: https://www.nolwenn-languages.com/post/ep-20-when-languages-define-us-with-sean-hopewood 

Dubbing is the topic of this episode. In here I talk about dubbing in France. It is very common, but what does it feel like to see a movie that is dubbed?
I grew up with American series and movies that were dubbed. It was normal and I was completely used to it. Now, it's something I cannot stand. It seems so unnatural, yet it is still the most popular option here.
What are the advantages and the drawbacks? Let's talk about it.

In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what multicultural relationships, and in particular about a mistake that I made in my first multicultural relationship.
The mistake often made is to approach and consider the other with our own cultural filter without considering the other one's cultural perspective and take on things.

It's in Spanish ;)

I don’t want to live in French, I said that to a friend the other day and she misunderstood me when I said: “I don’t want to live in French”, she thought that I wanted to say I don’t want to live in France, and that I’d made a mistake because English is my second language. But I didn’t, I did mean: I don’t want to live in French.

So, I’m happy to live in my native country. I can live in France, I’ve been living here for the past two years after living in Argentina for a long time and other countries before that. So, I can live in France but I cannot live in French. What do I mean by that? I'm answering this question in that episode.

What it feels like to be a citizen of the world? 
Have you ever thought that you were a foreigner no matter where you were, even in your home country? 
Well I have, so let’s talk about it today in French. 
In this episode, I'll make a summary of Episode 12 that was in Spanish. With Julia, we had a conversation on what it feels like to live in what we called the Limbo. We called limbo this feeling we have of belonging nowhere and everywhere we lived.
Both of us feel anxious about settling down somewhere and we wondered why. 

Extract translated from French: 

Living in the limbo, for us, is like being a nomad. We move. We perceive the world without borders. But our thoughts as well have no frontiers. Because thinking in several languages ​​is thinking in several dimensions. So, we move. But we wondered why. Because, honestly, I love traveling, discovering new cultures, meeting people, it's fascinating, but is that the real reason?