My One Certainty Posted on January 16th, 2012 by Eric Halvorson

Anyone who has heard of Bailey’s Irish Cream knows that the name Bailey comes from Ireland.  However, this beverage has been misleading people for generations.  The problem is that after hearing the name Bailey, people who encounter the name Bailly assume that it is also from Ireland.  In fact, the variation Bailly is from France, a place that has also helped name several beverages.  Bailly happens to be my mother’s maiden name, and is key to understanding my deep interest in French language and culture.

My grandfather, Robert Bailly, is 100 percent French.  His ancestors came through Canada to North Dakota, where he grew up speaking only French.  Sadly, he has forgotten most of it, but as soon as I learned my grandfather’s history, it was decided that I would pursue French.  I don’t mean I considered it, and then decided.  I mean I learned my history, and France became part of my life.  As early as elementary school, I would sit down with a withered French/English dictionary and flip through it looking for useful words.  I was on my own for pronunciation then, which was therefore a disaster.  French pronunciation is not something you can learn from a dictionary.  In high school, after I had taken French for two years, I went on a two-week trip to France with my French class.

Now, I find myself in Nantes, France, living with my host parents, Anne-Françoise and Philippe.  The first night, I was conversing with my host mother and accidently started to respond in English.  Oddly, it wasn’t because I was uncomfortable trying to speak French.  In fact, it was because I was so comfortable being there that the line blurred between my first and second languages.  This is not to say that I’m now fluent, or even that close.  I still struggle with basics.  I just mean that at some level—in the midst of another country—I felt at home.

I agonize about every decision in my life.  It once took me half an hour to decide which of two types of scissors to buy.  Yet, none of my decisions about studying French, or traveling here have required deliberation.  Of course I discussed semesters, considered various locations, and worried about finances.  I’ve also wondered what I’ll do with French, how it will fit into my life, or if I’ll be able to fit it into my career.  But despite my habitual inability to make decisions—and these uncertainties about details—I have always been, and ever will be, sure of French.  It is one of the few havens from indecision in my life.

I don’t yet know where it will take me, but I’m so glad you are following this adventure, which was set in motion years before I was born, the day my grandpa began to learn his first words.