Très Dynamique
There are many wonderful things about speaking French, and among them are the terms we either have in English but don’t use, or simply don’t have. These words express cultural values that don’t exist in English speaking societies.
Take, for example, the word dynamique. Yes, we have it in English, along with cadre, austerity, and other sophisticated Latinate words that have atrophied to the point of death, living on only in “New Yorker” articles and in Kenya, where they still speak the Queens English. (In Nairobi today, 19-year old minibus conductors ask passengers where they want to “alight,” inbetween the thumping beats of Lil Wayne songs piped through the soundsystems.)
Principal Dancille is one of the only women principals in the whole province of North Kivu, DR Congo. I was practically in love with her after five minutes, because she was so smooth, beautiful, shrewd, and funny in spite of her suffering. (“You see the broken window there? Bandits did that. [smiling sigh] But other than the damage that [bandits, rebels, soldiers, Rwandans and Ugandans] have done to our school, we are fortunate to have God’s blessings.”)
“She’s amazing!” I whispered to my Congolese colleague when we walked out of the meeting.
“Oui,” he said. “Très dynamique.”
Yes. It says everything.
