When you use the verb connector with the name of a place, it means that you've been there.
For example, if I say you connect, Perry, you connect.
It means literally, I know Paris, but what it's saying is that you know it because I've been there.
You connect Paris.
I've been to Paris.
Now, this might seem obvious to you, but it wasn't to me back in 2009 when I was living in Aix en
Provence.
I was living in France.
And somebody asked me in the midst of a conversation, going to Paris to by.
Which I now know means Do you know Paris in the sense of, have you been to Paris?
At the time I just thought it meant, Do you know Paris in the sense of, have you heard of that little
place called Paris?
So I said, We Mianzhu, which means, yes, of course.
Because well, I had heard of Paris.
Luckily, I had also been to Paris, so I wasn't lying yet.
However, she then went on and on and on, and as it turns out, she was from Algeria in North Africa,
which is a French speaking country.
She asked me Canadian lingerie company to lingerie, and I thought, well, yes, I've heard of Algeria.
So I answered, Oui.
And she said, Oh, vraiment, meaning?
Oh, really?
In an excited manner.
I thought it was a little bit of an odd reaction to somebody saying that they'd heard of Algeria, but
I just assumed she'd probably drunk too much wine or something.
Then she started asking me if I had heard of Morocco, Australia, Peru, New Zealand, Mongolia.
And I just answered, oui, oui, oui, because I had heard of all of those places.
Then her friend, who was also from Algeria, joined in and asked me whether I'd heard of Switzerland,
China, Japan, Indonesia.
They had looks of awe on their faces when I kept answering Oui in a way that implied yes, of course,
hasn't everybody.
I was starting to think that they were just odd and I started talking to somebody else.
But then a few weeks later I was talking to somebody else about my weird conversation and it was then
that I learnt that I had actually been saying we to the fact that I had been to all of those countries
she'd listed.
So if somebody says to you, Connect to La Mongolia, connect to La Mongolia, that means, have you
been to Mongolia?
Rather than Have you heard of Mongolia?
So if you have been, you can answer the answer.
Meaning?
Yes, of course.
Next time I saw that girl, she started telling somebody else what a real global traveler I was.
I thought about explaining, but I just nodded and walked away.
I've never seen her since.
Phew.
So if somebody says to you, go on to lingerie, connect to lingerie, it means, do you know Algeria?
Literally.
But what they're really asking is, have you been there not?
Have you heard of it?
Perhaps you thought this was obvious like a lot of my other students did when I told them the story.
But for those of you who are like me, at least now you know, and you won't make the same mistake I
did.
So you're very welcome.