La chaudière

From time to time I get the opportunity to suddenly learn a whole new vocabulary. Sometimes it the result of an emergency. The latest started when at 11pm one night water started pouring out of the bottom of my boiler.

After a moment of being frozen in sheer horror at was happening, I managed to fly into action and do constructive things like turn of the mains tap and find buckets. I was actually quite calm about the whole thing, as apart from a wet floor in the mezzanine, the water hadn't caused any damage and, as I live in rented accommodation relief, that it would be my landlord's responsibility to sort things out.
The next morning though, I discovered that he was out of the country and he cheerfully gave me full permission to sort it out and send the bill to him. When I got to work the learning curve began. The French staff talked to me abut it and I started learning words like 'plombier', 'fuite' and of course 'chaudière'. I have a couple of friends who are builders and hoped one of them would be able to fix it, unfortunately they both had too much work on. Fortunately another friend lives next to a plumber.

It took a while, a quick home visit to restore cold water supplies, some interesting phone calls (to what felt like his entire family) and the discovery that 'le début de la semaine' actually means Friday and my flat was taken over by 3 guys in matching T-shirts fully equipped with tools and a very large box containing a new boiler.
They were I have to say, brilliant and besides the odd 'putain', polite and charming. They cleaned up after themselves and asked permission to use things.

A situation by situation basis probably a good way to learn a language. For a short while you intensively use the words and formations and it goes into your head and stays there. A German client of mine, with 2 children born in France, cheerfully admitted that she had no idea what some of the words and phrases that she learnt during her pregnancy actually are in German.

Pleased as I am with my new boiler (it's much quieter for a start) and all the new words I have learnt, I'm hoping it will be a while yet before another emergency vocab learning session happens.