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How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

nytimes.com

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Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#141

Post by jimmaswell »

manmal wrote: post #105
jimmaswell wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe as a whole has always come off as unpleasant to visit as an American, from what I've read online such as this thread. In no American city I've been to do you have to be so vigilant for pickpockets as you apparently do in European cities, and virtually no one in America will complain about your accent or grammar. We have free water at restaurants, and the staff won't treat you like a mooch for asking about it;…

I live in Europe and have never been stolen from, and I‘ve been on plenty vacations abroad. And in many places you do get free tap water (eg London or Vienna) with food. IDK why you would care about the price of tap water though since that’s probably 0,1% of your traveling budget for a city trip. Taxes are country specific, you‘ll find some EU countries with lower taxation than your average US state, eg Bulgaria. Bei…

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004339/uk-twitter-user-...

Jail time was on the table in this instance I had in mind.

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#142

Post by mytailorisrich »

h1fra wrote: post #31

It's always fun to see foreigners coming to paris discovering that the french they learned at school is basically useless. Not only we use africans or arabic words, but we also speak in reverse, with noises, everything is shortened, etc.

Like everywhere it depends a lot on who you speak to in term of social class.

I'd say the main issue for everyday life with French as taught abroad is that it can be a bit dated and very proper.

But when one does not know it is always better to speak too high class than too low class, like it's better to overdress than underdress.

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#143

Post by asylteltine »

paganel wrote: post #97
prospector1065 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have something else you want to say? Because it sounds like you're just trying to allude to racism

[flagged]

People probably don’t understand this is a joke

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#144

Post by Daishiman »

arcticbull wrote: post #139
Daishiman wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political impacts of the European powers' creation of borders and their intervention in places like Haiti remain to this day, lest you think people should just "let it go".

Nobody's going to deny that the impacts of past actions continue into the present and the reasonably anticipated future. That's not the claim I'm making. I claimed that France hasn't had colonialist ambitions or policies in 60+ years. You mentioned a 'century of colonialism' - I'm pointing out that it ended more than half a century ago.

And I'm what I'm telling you is that nobody in Africa cares that it finished 50 years ago when the impacts are still felt today and the economic influence of the developed world continues on that tradition.

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#145

Post by yamrzou »

greatgib wrote: post #103

[flagged]

> I think that this article is diffusing "propaganda

It is not. And there is legitimate a reason for that: France's continuous economic influence in Africa, through economic exploitation and military presence[1], which is creating this anti-french sentiment. The same influence that it contests from other countries now that they are expanding theirs.

[1] https://www.bic-rhr.com/research/francafrique-unveiling-anti...

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#146

Post by okal »

arcticbull wrote: post #118
Daishiman wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the Russians trying to exert soft power of Europe is a thing, but over a century if French colonialism _really_ doesn't help your argument one bit.

French colonialism ended a long time ago, like in the 60s. It’s been over 60 years. [edit] The French even regularly hold referendums in COMs like New Caledonia offering to cut them loose. But the last one they had 97% voted to remain part of France. Sometimes it’s good to be a dependency of a world power. I should correct myself, New Caledonia isn’t a COM (collectivité d'outre-mer) anymore but a sui generis collecti…

This is misleading in the extreme. The Kanaky separatists boycotted the referendum.

Something I find equally interesting is how apologists for European colonialism are perfectly content to claim 60 years is a long time (with the implication that it no longer matters), when systems were designed to explicitly keep the former colonies subservient, often including co-opting, or cultivating a corrupt elite. At what point would you say it became inconsequential? After 2 years? Two decades? 4?

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#147

Post by concordDance »

arcticbull wrote: post #132
sergiotapia wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Culture is always in a state of flux. It’s not sad, it just is. I’m not sad I won’t get to see Victorian London. In the narrative arc of humanity things keep getting better, not worse.

I'm not sure how common this preference is. I'm personally always sad when unique cultures diminish or disappear and this seems to be a not unusual sentiment judging by popular media. Whether this is the Cherokee or Victorian England there are valuable and interesting things and losing them is sad.

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#148

Post by yodsanklai »

bsaul wrote: post #125
paganel wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

no sure why people downvoted you. Maybe people are unaware of how stupid the french state has become when dealing with immigration. Yes, they did write a text saying that races officially don't exist, as there's just one human race ( as if this decision would solve any issue, whether that's racism or immigrant integration)

> they did write a text saying that races officially don't exist

Not correct, they updated the constitution to remove the word race.

https://www.france24.com/en/20180628-race-out-gender-equalit...

Re: How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time

#149

Post by yawboakye »

felipelemos wrote: post #104
yawboakye wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while 1/2 of french is imported and mangled latin. so where did english borrow from really? given that it’s easier to figure out the latin roots of the anglicized?

French, as a romance language did not import from Latin as English did not import from proto germanic.

and french as a germanic language? because french is a germanic language too.
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