The power of the third language

This country has made me paranoid.

I was walking around the market yesterday when I passed some kids looking at me and whispering to themselves. When I sit by myself at a cafeteria, I swear that every other word that the people around me say is the local term for a foreigner. Whenever my students switch to the local language in class, I assume that they are speaking in some code about what I just said.

When you spend most of your time with people who would prefer to speak the local language than French and when there are several words in that language that sound like your name and when you already know that where ever you go, you will attract the most attention, it’s hard to fight the overwhelming feeling that every one is talking about you all the time.

Although, to be fair, you should hear the things that me and my postmade know we can get away with saying in English.