Cross-cultural communication （32）　

32） French in the local area
The Kido Clinic also provides home visits, and there are always 7 or 8 patients receiving home visits.
The time immediately after the morning consultations is when the home visits are carried out. One day, during a home visit, I arrived at the house of the patient and parked my bicycle (these days, parking on the street is strictly prohibited, so I use a bicycle), and was about to lock it up when I heard a voice from behind me saying “Vous parlez francais, docteur? (Doctor, you speak French, don't you? ) I heard French. When I turned around, I saw a tall, dark-skinned, stern-looking middle-aged man. When I replied, “Yes, but only a little,” he said, “I heard a rumor that there is a doctor who speak French in our town. I'll go there if I get sick.” He spoke with a slight accent, but his French was accurate. I was in a hurry to make a house call, so that was all we talked about.

After returning to the clinic from the house call, I thought about this encounter for a while. Judging from the fact that he spoke accurate French despite his appearance and slight accent, it is possible that he is from one of France's overseas departments. Tahiti, New Caledonia, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea are included in France's overseas departments. But why is he living in Japan? Perhaps he is a Japanese-descendant who holds Japanese nationality.
However, what surprised me was that they knew I spoke a little French, even though I wasn't advertising it. I guess when you live in a foreign country where the language is different, you become more sensitive to this kind of information.

A few years before this encounter, a student from a certain country in West Africa, where French is also an official language, had transferred to the local elementary school. The principal asked me to help out with various things, as the student didn't speak any Japanese at all. In the end, there were no problems that required the involvement of a doctor, and the family never visited Kido Clinic. The French spoken by people from West Africa is a simple vocabulary-only version of French. For those of us from non-French-speaking countries, communicating with them is relatively easy. So, I was a little disappointed at the time.
This time I would like to let you know that there are people living in my hometown in Osaka who need French, even if it is only occasionally.

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