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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

#101

Post by qwytw »

jimmaswell wrote: post #92
Swizec wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had extraordinary luck with broken French in France. If you start in French and do your best, a lot of people suddenly speak fluent English. Especially in metro areas. But the experience does not compare to traveling with my partner who speaks fluent zero-accent French. Paris turns into a different much nicer city when you pair with a native speaker. That said, you’ll never get the level of service you see in US…

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;…

> why exactly would I want to visit Europe?

To see stuff? US doesen't really have that have much besides nature worth seeing/experiencing from a traditional tourist perspective. Almost all the cities besides a handful are extremely boring in comparison (and in those worth visiting like SF you're very likely to get stabbed by a drug addict or even shot)*.

To be honest besides not having free water in restaurants (if I have to ask it's already not free (emotionally)) none of those other things you've mentioned seem like a big deal for me.

> vigilant for pickpockets

In some places? Sure. But IMHO even in notorious cities like Barcelona it's not really that bad.

* well that's certainly not true.. but if you base your opinion on what some Europeans might be saying on Reddit/etc. you might end up believing stuff like this.

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

#104

Post by felipelemos »

yawboakye wrote: post #78
BurningFrog wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably doesn't help that 1/3 of English is imported and mangled French words.

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.

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

#105

Post by manmal »

jimmaswell wrote: post #92
Swizec wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had extraordinary luck with broken French in France. If you start in French and do your best, a lot of people suddenly speak fluent English. Especially in metro areas. But the experience does not compare to traveling with my partner who speaks fluent zero-accent French. Paris turns into a different much nicer city when you pair with a native speaker. That said, you’ll never get the level of service you see in US…

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.

Being rude on Twitter won’t land you in jail, please.

> why exactly would I want to visit Europe?

Business, sightseeing, and cheap dentistry.

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

#106

Post by Cyph0n »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #19
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do not use vulgar words here. We are already way too lax on the usage of these words and this only propagates blind violence (in French: https://www.legorafi.fr/2013/03/20/toulouse-il-se-fait-abatt... )

To non french readers: le gorafi is the french equivalent of the onion :)

And it seems to be a play on one of the largest French newspapers, Le Figaro (think: WaPo of France).

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

#107

Post by Swizec »

jimmaswell wrote: post #92
Swizec wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had extraordinary luck with broken French in France. If you start in French and do your best, a lot of people suddenly speak fluent English. Especially in metro areas. But the experience does not compare to traveling with my partner who speaks fluent zero-accent French. Paris turns into a different much nicer city when you pair with a native speaker. That said, you’ll never get the level of service you see in US…

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;…

> why exactly would I want to visit Europe?

That’s okay, we don’t want you. I lived the first 28 years of my life in the downtown historic area of an increasingly touristy European capital and American tourists were always the worst :)

The Chinese tourists can be frustrating because they travel in tight packs and take up a lot of room, but at least they understand they’re not visiting an amusement park and are not the center of the world.

My favorite were always fellow European high school and college kids traveling in small groups. You’d never even realize they were tourists if not for the oversized backpacks. They just blend in, aren’t loud, respect the locals, and seek authentic experiences.

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

#109

Post by dataflow »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #95
dataflow wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> French people always get criticized for not understanding foreigners' broken French The main criticism I've heard is kind of the opposite - that they dislike foreigners not trying to speak French, and just starting communication in English. If both of these are true then I guess that puts foreigners in a tough place where they're damned if they try and damned if they don't?

locals are not obligated to please illiterate tourists however the trick is simply to learn enough that you can politely ask if it's alright to use english with them

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting locals are obligated to do anything. I'm just pointing out tourists seem to have difficulty in more than one direction.

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

#110

Post by qwytw »

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…

> why you would care about the price of tap water

Because I have to ask and unless I'm explicit they'll bring a 330 mL glass bottle which is extremely annoying. That forces me to drink beer all the time just to avoid that which is not exactly ideal.

> eg Bulgaria

The VAT there is 20% which is much higher than any place in the US.

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