In the US we live in an almost exclusively English speaking world, especially the non-urban areas where i have lived my entire life. For most of us, school is taught in our first and only language. TV is always in the language we understand (you would actually have to pay more to get a channel that wasn't English only), we can flip on the radio and understand everything that is being said or sung.
Here, it is quite the opposite. I am constantly listening to, speaking and even sometimes thinking in 4 languages here. I hope i can say that French is currently first on that list, but there are definitely days where my long standing relationship with English beats out my newly founded, often fledgling, relationship with French. The next two on the list are the local African languages of Bwamu and Jula (sometimes spelled Dioula). Those two languages are barely acquaintances of mine at this point in time, but i'm surrounded by them. While i can clearly identify each of them while being spoken, i can't always tell WHO speaks each. Meaning, that as i'm greeting someone, i'll often start with a greeting in one language, and they with respond in another. And those are the days when i try local language at all...
But it isn't just talking that's a challenge. As i said before, it's all aspects of life that are now in another language. When i turn on the radio, it's French or Jula or even another local language, Moore. When i turn on the TV (one of the profs here has a TV that runs on a car battery charged by solar panels), it's French (in both French and African accents), Moore, or African-accented English. It's not really the lack of comprehension that becomes so frustrating, it's the variety i have to sift through! We live in a monotone (or rather mono-phone) society, and now this sudden explosion of variety of stimulation is coming at me all the time! I rather feel it is something like the overwhelming feeling Peace Corps volunteers often describe their first time at an American grocery store after two years in developing countries, too much variety! And it's not that Americans aren't used stimulation, it's that this is a new kind of stimulation.
And i have to admit, at this point in time, instead of taking all of this stimulation in and becoming some sort of super-lingual awesome person, i do what most Americans do to, i tune it out. When listening to French news broadcasts, i am able to take in information for about 10, maybe 15 minutes before i lose track of what they are talking about. The same happens in conversations as well, unfortunately. After a certain amount of time, or certain number of languages switches, i just can't keep track anymore, and i'm done. Then randomly, they'll ask me my opinion on something, and i'll have no idea what's going on. At the same time though, if i'm zoned out, but a random English word happens to come out, i catch it immediately. It's like when you're half listening to a conversation, but then someone says a dirty word and now you're all ears (don't deny it, we all do it). So for now, English has become those dirty words that suddenly make you much more interested in what's going on. Or sometimes the random French word thrown into the Jula mix will have the same affect. I'm just trying to grab onto something, anything, i can understand!
And what i really want to know is how well do others understand each other? I mean, i know that i feel lost all the time, but does anyone who lives here ever feel that way? I know that within my village alone there is the possibility of four local languages (the three above plus Dafing) and that there are people who know a little of each, while there are also people who only know their language. Are they just better at faking it? Or does it really get easier after a lifetime?
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