We’ve got two Turkish women in my main course. Last week one of them was up to present her current topics exposé. So Batoul, outspoken, argumentative Batoul, decides to ask the class two questions: first, is homosexuality an illness or a choice, and second, should gay people be allowed to adopt like normal people?
Just a refresh: five Americans, two Turks, one Syrian, two Chinese, one Japanese, one Taiwanese, one Russian, and one old Indian lady.
Let’s get into it.
Japanese guy: Gay people are like left-handed people.
Batoul: Gay people are left-handed?
Japanese guy: No, they are statistically comparable in populations.
Batoul: Okay. What do you think of them?
Japanese guy: They are statistically in the minority.
Batoul: Okay but what–
American girl: Can we refer to straight people as heterosexual instead of normal?
Syrian woman, Marie: Why?
American girl: Because it’s offensive to assume that gay people aren’t normal.
Russian woman: I think gay men are a lot more disgusting than lesbians. Lesbians do not bother me very much.
Indian woman: I am fine with homosexuals. I just do not want my son to be a homosexual.
American guy: Why do you want your son to be straight?
Indian woman: Because I do not want him to be homosexual. And he is straight.
different American girl: You don’t know that he is heterosexual.
Indian woman: Yes, I do.
different Syrian woman: Yulia, why do you like lesbians more?
Russian woman: I don’t like lesbians, I should like them more than homosexual men.
American girl: That’s so homophobic. Gay people are people. Don’t be mean.
American guy: How do French people think of gay people?
Professor: About the same as Americans.
American guy: That tells me nothing.
Batoul: Xin, what do you think?
Xin, a Chinese girl: Um, I don’t think there are gay people where I am from.
Batoul: Where you are from? China?
Xin: Shanghai.
Batoul: There are no gay people in China?
other Chinese girl: I worry about gay people because of AIDs.
American girl: Excuse me?
Chinese girl: They have AIDs and get sick.
And so it continued much like this, devolving further and further in confused anger and frustration, for about twenty more minutes before the prof called it and made us stop. It was perhaps the most ridiculous half hour of my time here in France. I half expected tables to be flipped over and turned into barricades.
If nothing else, I hope this shows you guys how much our French has improved over the semester, because all of this was done in French. Because that is truly the only thing to be gleaned from this waste of time and effort.
Cordialement,
Allison
P.S.: The plants are starting to bloom!
Flan in France 