A Bit Of Financial Advice

Ah, la belle France. Delicious food, beautiful weather in the south and a culture that believes indulging in pleasures is the way life should be. Parfait, non? Yes, it was quite perfect...until I ran into some problems at the bank. Unfortunately the word for overdrawn bank account is solde débiteur. If you are like me, you probably looked at this and thought débiteur looks like debit so that must just means it's my debit account. Oh false cognates, how i loathe thee. As you can imagine this situation snowballed until I realized that my balance was very much in the red. Needless to say I was not pleased. Despite the fact that this situation was quite unpleasant, I will say that it did have an underlying lesson, as all problems in life seem to have. Lesson #1. Know some banking related vocabulary before opening an account or at the very least find a native speaker that you can ask for clarification on tricky/unknown words. Do not assume that a foreign bank does things just like your Citizen's Bank back home! Lesson #2. Don't be afraid or panic when a situation like this occurs. I took action and went to the bank and explained my situation and they were very kind and helpful. They even waived some of the overdraft fees. Lesson #3. I discovered that I was a lot more competent at dealing with a difficult situation than I had previously thought. So don't doubt yourself. Whether you are dealing with the bank, your landlord, an overbearing housemother or a difficult teacher: these situations may seem scary at first but you will feel so much more mature and adult after successfully dealing with them. Bon courage!