MISCOMMUNICATION IS MY MIDDLE NAME

So here in France pretty much every person I talk with is not a native English speaker. As my Swiss friend Till told me when we were both in Australia, I am the hardest person to understand. Therefore my chances of being understood in Paris, seemed to be fairly low. And boy, are my chances low! Speaking 1 sentence often involves repeating it twice, then changing the words and repeating the new version a couple of times. Then maybe, I will need to explain one or two words. Phew! It can be very frustrating as you can imagine. The other problem I have is that when I try and slow down, I still breathe in the same places as if I were speaking at a normal speed, so I constantly feel out of breath.

Yesterday when I was hanging out with my German friend from the lab, Christoph, I asked him if "he, like, missed Germany?". To this he looked a little confused and answered "well, not really, although the blond one was OK". Turns out he thought I asked him if he liked Miss Germany!