How to Keep Snakes Out of Your Yard (And Other Useful Information...)

"Are you afraid of spiders?" My language instructor asked me. (Imagine this following conversation in French) 

"Not really," I replied, "but I am a little afraid of the snakes here. Are they all poisonous?" 

"Not all of them. Only some. Do you know how to keep the snakes out of your yard?"

I answered with a doubtful "no..." 

"You put a duck in your yard, and it keeps the snakes away." 

 

The confused expression on my face must have convinced him that I did not understand, so he repeated the word "duck" and asked me if I understood what that was. 

"No, I know what a duck is." With a smile I added, "I just think that is very interesting. I have never heard of that before." 

"Well, it's not exactly scientifically proven," he added, which made me smile even wider. 

"Anyway," I said, "I am happy that I haven't seen a snake or a spider in my house. But I have seen..." I paused as I searched for a word or way to describe a cockroach. I ended up drawing a life size image on the chalkboard, complete with legs and antennas. "They are black and have little wings, but they don't fly." 

"Oh, and they crawl out of holes and are very fast," my instructor added. With that, I knew we had arrived at the same conclusion. 

"That's called a cafard," and he wrote the word on the chalkboard.

"When you say, 'j'ai le cafard' (literally, 'I have the cockroach'), then that's a way of saying that you are in a bad mood." 

These are the things I learn in french class! And that's just one example of a normal, everyday conversation with my instructor. He has got to be one of the most interesting people I have ever met, and I absolutely love him. We spend a little time each day working on grammar, vocabulary, and normal conversational topics like what we are having for dinner and what our plans are for the weekend. But after that, we talk about what he wants to talk about....which could literally be anything in the whole wide world. 

He is fascinated with the fact that I am a labor and delivery nurse, so we talk about health-related issues quite frequently, most of which are quite bizarre. For example, he spent a good twenty minutes telling me about a baby who was born in Burkina as neither a boy nor a girl, so "his" parents chose "his" gender until "he" turned 18 and then chose what gender "he" wanted to be. "What do you think about that?" he asked me after that lovely story, to which I honestly replied, "I really don't know what I think about that." 

He also told me that babies who are born breech, or feet first, are that way because they aren't going to be as smart as the other kids. 

He also loves to talk about American pop culture, which means that we never go a week without talking about either Obama, Lady Gaga, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Ty Pennington. Yes, in his eyes, these are the faces of America. 

Other topics? The death penalty, electric chair, Obama care and health insurance in America, cohabitation, contraception, parenting advice, genetic testing, extraterrestrials, cloning, and who to give a heart transplant to if you have a room full of dying patients. 

I've been keeping a list. Because everyday I walk out of language school thinking, I can't believe what we talked about today! Every day is a new and interesting day, and that's why I love language school and my instructor. 

So I get to learn a whole lot of french this way, and a whole lot of culture at the same time. Plus, I am being forced to think and talk about issues that I sometimes don't know how to express in English, and here I am being forced to talk about it in French. 

This week, we started something new. Each Thursday, we bring our French Bibles, read a passage together, and discuss it. My instructor loves to talk about health, ethical dilemmas, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but most of all he loves to talk about religion, faith, and God. I don't know exactly where he stands on all that, but I know he loves to talk about it, and now I get the opportunity to study the Bible with him. 

This brings me to my revelation of the week. All this time I have been thinking of language school in terms of a program that will end in four months when I reach a certain level of proficiency. But what if I don't get there? What if it takes me longer? I was feeling pressure, and I was losing joy. 

The Lord has been showing me that language school is not about reaching a certain level at the end of four months. In reality, I will be learning language for years and years. It's not about being proficient at he end of May. It's about adding each day to my ability to communicate God's love. It's not about an end goal, but about daily addition. In four months, my goal is not to be fluent. My goal is to be more equipped each day to share God's love through language. 

Now that makes language learning fun! 

So whatever you talk about today - even if it's Arnold Schwarzenegger or the death penalty or how to keep snakes out of your yard - realize that God has given us language for a reason: to communicate his love. Don't miss a single opportunity to use your words to share the love of Jesus today!