French

[Globalti]

*cough* boasting moment....

I've spent over 3 years living in France, my degree is in languages and I speak French well enough that French people don't believe I'm English. It helps that I'm a "grand Francophile" and love everything about the country and the people, as well as the sound of the language.

My advice to anyone wishing to learn a language is that fear of mistakes is your worst enemy; it really helps with fluency to drink alcohol and go to bars and parties where you can lose your inhibitions. Of course you also need the basics of the grammar and a good ability to mimic the sounds; for example you need to be able to say the different "eu" and "ou" sounds in "recu" and "vous" and "pour".

Listen to the cut glass Parisian accent in this song; this is why I love French:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_UttUlskWM

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Shorthandlebars on a hibouryd bike, then.

Chouette!

 

[Aperitif]

Chouette!

Don't I know it!
'My' junior rugby team in Paris have the chouette as logo...for the odd 30 or so years, but chouettebryd doesn't quite work - well, maybe in Estonian?
I designate my posts 'hors sujet'

 

[rich p]

Coeur, Martin, Huan Coeur.

Pas vainqueur?

 

[slowmotion]

Vin coeur?

 

[rich p]

or Van Kerr?

 

[slowmotion]

^^^^^^^^^
A propos de rien....

 

[marknotgeorge]

Practice. Go to France and talk to French people.

But not Boulogne. I have memories of a school trip one year: Looking in the window, working out what to say, opening the door and being poleaxed by a cheery "Good Morning!"

 

[Salad Dodger]

I did O level French about a million years ago, and it gave me enough French to manage day-to-day things like buying bread and beer. Of course, a lot of younger people over there speak quite good English, but we have found ourselves quite a few times in shops, away from the main tourist towns, where no-one spoke English, so we HAD to rely on pidgin French and plenty of arm waving. Without exception, we have managed to get what we needed, although the quantities have sometimes been a bit more or less than we planned.....

Incidentally, the first time we went to France on holiday, our daughter was only about 3 years old. So we taught her to say "Bonjour Madame" and when the waitress came up to us in a restaurant, Nicola would unleash her only 2 words of French, with a cute smile. After that, we could do no wrong. If you are taking kids with you, I commend this approach!

I feel we have had better service in France by trying to speak even a few words, than if we adopted the traditional "speak English but just much more loudly than usual" approach that some of our countrymen embarrasingly adopt.....

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

That adding of the ''madame'' is very French. Even after spending a fair bit of time in France, I still have that British reluctance to refer to the gender of the person addressed. The Americans are happier about calling people ''sir'' than we are - it's simply something we shy away from. But they're an as everyday part of French culture as ''bon appétit'' is. (A guy walking into an eatery will wish ''bon appétit'' to complete strangers. Just like that ''bonjour, monsieur'' ''bonjour madame'' ''bonne après-midi messieurs-dames'' ''bonne nuit mademoiselle.'')

 

[Aperitif]

^^^^^^^^^
A propos de rien....

View attachment 35551

Nice canapé over the driver's cab. Stick to that nice young person reading the news, Martin - rather than van ordinaire, we like her 'joi de vivre' better than the pneus sur les roues...

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Nice canapé over the driver's cab. Stick to that nice young person reading the news, Martin - rather than van ordinaire, we like her 'joi de vivre' better than the pneus sur les roues...

And the company "baise leur prix''....

 

[slowmotion]

Ah yes...."that nice young person reading the news"... I almost forgot....

 

[vernon]

I speak French with an American accent.

 

[sazzaa]

French intermediate DONE. So, the next course includes a residential week in Caen next July. Anyone been? I'm thinking I might take an extra week and go exploring, maybe even on a bike...