Posts Tagged ‘cameroon’

One of the things that come within the territory of being a globetrotter is taking care of paperwork – visa is one of them. To apply for a student visa for the UK, one needs to apply 3 months prior to the start of the course. Unfortunately, for me, those 3 months is split between time in Cameroon and the United States.

To play it safe, I decided to apply for my visa here in Cameroon at the British High Commission in Yaounde. I followed the online instruction to file an application online and then made an appointment. During this process, I found it bizarre that all the appointments were either 8am or 8:30am.

Even though this is the Britich High Commission, many of the practices are adapted to the Cameroonian culture, which I find extremely amusing. Cameroonians are notorious for their tardiness in meetings. I completely understand why all the appointments are at either 8 or 8h30. This way, even if people show up late, it wouldn’t affect the process. Yet for an American who is used to efficiency, I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head when I showed up at 8h15 for my 8h30 appointment and waited in a room until 11h30 before I was called to turn in my paperwork and get finger printed – all of which took literally less than 5 minutes of time. I yet again made the mistake of not bringing a book. One should ALWAYS have a book on them while in Cameroon. I for some reason never learn my lesson. But hey, at least the room was air conditioned.

The British High Commission in Yaounde doesn’t actually process visas. My paperwork is being sent to Ghana for processing. It could be worse, if I lived in Chad, CAR or Gabon, I would have to travel to Cameroon to even apply for the visa! That would have been a pain and then some. Crossing my fingers that all will work out and I’ll have my student visa in hand within the next 3 weeks!

Like

Unlike

Recently, I read this blog post on FluentIn3Months.com. I really related to this post with my experience here in Cameroon, learning my 4th language. The author made a very good point about how people can be living in a place for months or even years, and still do not speak the local language:

Stop speaking English!! This may seem like a pointless statement to make when you live in the country already, but I have seen the same pattern hundreds of times and I am seeing it once again here in Prague. Expats hang out with other English speaking expats and complain about how hard the local language is, or talk about life in general in English. They chat to their boyfriend/girlfriend/friends in English. All of the local friends they have also talk to them in English. They only actually use the local language when they have to; English is actually the language they socialise and relax in most of the time.

I’ve been in Cameroon for a year now, and my French, while good, is nowhere I would like it to be. I compare it with after my first year in the US and the difference is enormous. Granted I was only 12, and going to school makes a big difference. No one wants to be the outcast that can’t speak the language, especially if you went to a suburbia school where the population is 95% white. Besides the fact I had a more solid base in English, I was also truly immersed. The only person I knew that spoke Chinese was my aunt, and she would often speak to me in English. The rest of the family members were anglophone only. TV was in English. Computer was English. My English became really good really fast not by choice, but by forced immersion. Here in Cameroon, I was fortunate to have some French friends in my village during the first few months. That opened the network to a whole bunch of other French volunteers/interns in the country. I spent very little of the first year hanging out with Americans. Mostly because I found socializing with the French gave me the western outlet I needed, but still a very interesting culture exchange and I was somewhat immersed withh the French accent.

I was, and still am terrified to leave Cameroon with a Cameroonian French accent. With the effort I’ve put forth to learning the language, I intend to use it in the future. I am in no way demeaning Cameroonian accents; if you are Cameroonian, naturally, it’s perfectly okay. But imagine, a French person meets an Asian-American speaking Cameroonian French? They will look at me as though I came from Mars. My vacation in May, however, proved that my accent isn’t quite so bad, yet.

Other than hanging out with the French, I attempt to immerse myself with lots of French movies, French music, French books and listening to RFI. Other American volunteers don’t understand why I do this and/or find this very exhausting. Yet even with all my efforts, I still speak a lot of English, and come in contact with more English that I would like. Imagine if I wasn’t putting forth effort at all, how would my French ever improve?

Some French volunteers I met have known other Peace Corps volunteers and apparently we have a reputation for speaking really terrible French. I am trying to change that. And really, I am just trying to leave Cameroon with fluent French. That is all.

1 person likes this post.

Unlike