The Art of Conversation

The French Way is a useful little paperback published in 1995 that I have been looking over. It is a dated on some things - naming the franc and centime as the units of currency - but France is an old culture, and most of this book will hold true, I believe. One chapter tells that the French place special importance on conversation and "consider it a skill that can be learned and developed to an art." Mais certainment. Mama, my grandmother of French heritage, rather have engaged in conversation than anything. I remember her saying to me, "Let's just talk." We didn't play board games or shop; we didn't dig, plant seeds, or tend the yard.(Papa did that.) After her morning duties were finished, we sat and talked, often while sipping on little green bottles of Coca-Cola. Those tete-a-tetes became the bedrock of why I work in psychiatry. I feel perfectly comfortable sitting and talking with any patient anywhere about anything. Though I do love chatting away about my opinions and experiences, I really do enjoy hearing other people talking about theirs. On a professional level I have learned to listen, but on a personal level, I too often must remind myself to hush and do more listening. But I can thank Mama for being my first teacher on conversation, possibly the French way.