Second course of university. We had exchange students from France. For reference, I didn’t understand a word of French before.
We stand with a friend in the university dining room, in front of two French women. They communicate, they laugh. He barely moves. I want to make a compliment to a French woman, but I don’t know a single word in French. I ask a friend to help me translate the phrase, “You have very beautiful blue eyes.” Well, a friend and helped, translated approximately as follows: "he smoke the rest of the enzimle set newies." Well, I was in bad French and said it to a girl I liked. The girl laughed and said in broken Russian that my friend was a bad joke, and she wrote my phone number on my hand.
Who would know that the girl understands Russian... Well, okay... In the evening after a couple we met in a cafe, I led her to the dormitory. The next day we met again... Then the meetings became regular. They lived together by the end of the year.
After graduating from college, I visited her for almost a month in a small village southwest of Lyon. A typical village, very similar to the Russian... the sidewalk was only on the main street, two-story houses were built almost close to each other. But the overall impression was rather positive, although I expected something different from France. Okay okay...
He lived and worked in Canada for a while. Then returned to Russia. and married. So we live together.
And the phrase I spoke somehow was translated as, “We could spend the night together.”