From "Francophonie" to "Uncle Sam"

I am a French speaker. I've been a French speaker for 21 years.

I've been to France 6 times, starting with that amazing trip, back in 1990, when I spent 3 weeks living with a french family in Le Mans. Yes, 1990!

French got me my first job, my first trip abroad and my first business trip. In fact, French opened a lot of doors for me. I was breathing French, thinking in French ... I used to look for French people to speak with. Anything French or that had something to do with France was cool. I was a genuine francophone. Back then, French was my second language, after Romanian, of course. And for a while, Russian was my third language.

But something happened along the way. First I moved to the English class when I was in my 3rd year of highschool. It wasn't easy but it was nothing like learning Russian.

Then, 4 years ago I joined a multinational/American company, where English is a must. The change did not become obvious right away, as I was working with people from Quebec. It's true, I was in touch with English speakers as well.

However, last year I moved onto another project (which is where I am now) where everybody speaks only English... mostly American English. And, man!!! this language is so catchy! I mean I got to love it so much that now I'm trying to lose my Romanian accent completely, even though my American friends (and I'm not talking about Romanian-Americans here) keep telling me I shouldn't. And ... slowly but surely, French is becoming my 3rd language, after English.

So now I'm sitting in front of my desktop thinking: when did this big change happen? When did I move from Francophonie to Uncle Sam? Did I wish for this to happen? Was I sleeping or something? S**t! Even this article is in English! Au secours! :)))

L.E. Maybe now you understand why I was looking for french ... things when I was in America. To make this conversion go smoothly.