Lauren Collins’s “Love in Translation”

From The New Yorker's archive: a Personal History about how Collins fell for her husband and learned to speak French.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   View in browser | Update your preferences     Personal History Love in Translation Learning about culture, communication, and intimacy in my husband's native French. By Lauren Collins The journalist Lauren Collins is known for taking readers on invigorating narrative excursions. Since 2004, Collins has contributed more than four hundred pieces to The New Yorker, on topics as varied as the acting career of Damian Lewis; a controversial British undercover surveillance operation; and a best-selling French novel about a scandalous murder. In 2016, she published "Love in Translation," a Personal History about falling for her husband and learning a new language. Collins is from America and Olivier hails from France; they met in London and, at the time, were living in Geneva. (They now reside in Paris.) Collins writes thoughtfully about the surprising pleasures that can derive from linguistic barriers in relationships, and of connecting with her husband in his native language. (The essay was later expanded into a book, "When in French: Love in a Second Language.") Collins initially foundered, but soon grew to prize her explorations in a different tongue. "I treasure each [linguistic] acquisition, remembering the exact circumstances—time, place, company—under which it was made. English is a trust fund, an unearned inheritance, but I've worked for every bit of French I've banked. In French, words have tastes and textures. They come in colors and smells," she writes. Collins ruminates on the visceral power of language and its ability to offer a vision of a parallel life, a separate world of thought and perception. How profoundly do our relationships change when coupled with the unfamiliar timbre of another dialect? Collins skillfully inspects the corridors of meaning we attach to our mother tongue and to second languages. There's an appeal to leaving the familiar behind, she notes. It's in the exhilaration of unlocking a new mode of expression that we're able to expand our world and, ultimately, discover a new voice.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive     A Reporter at Large The Spy Who Loved Me From 2014: In the eighties, an animal-rights activist fell in love with Bob Robinson and had his child. Years later, she learned that Bob Robinson was Bob Lambert, and Bob Lambert was a spy. By Lauren Collins     Personal History In Translation From 2015: For a writer, a foreign language is a new kind of adventure. By Jhumpa Lahiri You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers.    Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.