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How good is your French accent?

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Re: How good is your French accent?

#111

Post by TulliusCicero »

grondilu wrote: post #22
cpa wrote: post #15

I'm french so I had to try it out! Although I got 90-100% on all words, I was able to get 50+% on most words doing what I think is a strong (but totally understandable) american accent in french. That was fun!

I'm French as well. When I saw the title of this post, I thought it was about how French you sound when you speak English, not how well you can speak French. The thing is, there are a lot of very educated French people who, when they speak English, have an extremely accentuated French accent. Typically scientists and politicians. It's like they don't make any effort whatsoever or think that the French accent is some…

> It's like they don't make any effort whatsoever or think that the French accent is some kind of honorific mark they should cultivate.

To native English-speaking ears it does sound kind of fancy. Kind of snobby too, though.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#112

Post by TulliusCicero »

stuxnet79 wrote: post #44
rconti wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very strange how some people can add or drop accents at will, and others can move away from their home country at a young age and simply NEVER lose their accent. I work for a company that moved from Paris to California, so we have a large number of native French speakers who still work with us; it's an interesting dynamic.

Accent is fluid and can change when you are young but by the time you are 15/16 it becomes difficult to "lose" your native accent regardless of the amount of exposure you have to a different language. This has been scientifically validated (can't find any relevant papers at the moment to link you to though).

He's not talking about losing it completely though. Some people are able to mostly lose their accent and sound relatively close to a native, others retain a very strong accent despite having lived in a new country for many years.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#113

Post by davidivadavid »

seszett wrote: post #97
gerbilly wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>standard Uh huh, whatever that is. Even Paris has more than one accent. (St Denis for example) It's interesting how pronunciation in France shifted after the revolution.[1] Before that, everyone from the terroir to the king spoke mostly the same way. It was called the "Bel usage." When the king said: "La loi c'est moi" it probably came out more like: "La loi c'est moé." There was a more formal, accent reserved for p…

> I find it funny how Parisians almost twist themselves in knots to over-pronounce every written letter of every word. It's almost as if it references the _written_ word more than the spoken one. While in my opinion it's generally true that in France (and not especially in Paris) the written language constitutes the reference more than it does Québec, I think you might be slightly biased here: Nobody in France would…

Or in 'plat', or in the conjugation of 'haïr', or... yup, he pretty much got that one the wrong way around.

Indeed, much like English, which is possibly worse, French is known precisely for the fact that it sounds so different from the way it's written.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#114

Post by rpgmaker »

notalaser wrote: post #36
teekert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I'm looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french "Croissants!" hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or wh…

Ordinateur was not invented when computers came to the market. It was coined in its modern sense of computing machine , not by Proud French People Who Liked Their Language but by IBM France, because they felt that "calculateur" (French for -- whaddya know! -- "something that computes", a literal equivalent for "computer") was too restrictive. In the 1950s, when that happened, "ordinateur" had been in use for a very l…

Ordenador is used in Spanish. From what you say it seems they just translated it from French.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#115

Post by weberc2 »

ankimal wrote: post #42
teekert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I'm looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french "Croissants!" hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or wh…

Credit where credit's due. In my time travelling in France (Paris, Nice and surrounding areas), I made every attempt to say the little things in French. "Bonjour" , "Le menu pour Anglais" or "L'Addition s'il vous plait", "Parlez vous anglais?" etc. The idea was to start any question or conversation in french and then switch to English. Never did I have a problem over my 2 weeks with anyone. Everyone appreciated the e…

I speak French reasonably well, but I was often treated rudely, particularly by people in customer service roles (my wife and I studied abroad). Clerks seemed agitated to have to deal with foreigners, taxis would blow off appointments, and even simple questions (e.g., asking for directions to a nearby building/office/etc) was met with "c'est impossible". In one case, my wife and I booked a hotel online, but upon checking in the clerk told us we had to pay for two rooms because my wife and I couldn't share a room. When I asked for an explanation, he said, "It's like putting 3 people on a 2-person motorcycle, it's just impossible!" (clearly he'd not been to India).

My French friends speculated that it could have been xenophobia or specifically that I was mistaken for an Englishman (I'm American, but apparently the French particularly dislike the English?).

At any rate, I had many positive experiences, and even these "negative experiences" weren't particularly negative (this was before being easily offended was fashionable among university students in the U.S.); it was more a neutral, cultural observation.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#116

Post by anonu »

bobmoretti wrote: post #109
teekert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I'm looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french "Croissants!" hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or wh…

I think that this reputation is waaaay overblown, due to the mostly futile efforts of the Académie Française to preserve the "pure" French language. As an American who spent a semester in a high school in France, I remember being shocked hearing our French teacher use "le timing et le planning" discussing our strategy for how to write an in-class essay. This was an ordinary French class for French speakers made up of…

There is also the infamous "courriel" which overthrew the ubiquitous use of "email". http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/07/5967...

Re: How good is your French accent?

#117

Post by tankenmate »

GuiA wrote: post #59
grondilu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm French as well. When I saw the title of this post, I thought it was about how French you sound when you speak English, not how well you can speak French. The thing is, there are a lot of very educated French people who, when they speak English, have an extremely accentuated French accent. Typically scientists and politicians. It's like they don't make any effort whatsoever or think that the French accent is some…

I'm French, and speak American English natively (i.e., when people meet me they think I'm American and when I tell them I'm French it takes them a bit of time to believe me - "you mean, you have french parents but were born here?" etc.). Most people don't realize that a language's accent is a physical thing. Your throat, nose, tongue behave differently when speaking different languages. If you're French, you can't sp…

> Most people don't realize that a language's accent is a physical thing. Your throat, nose, tongue behave differently when speaking different languages.

As an example, if you read Irish writing and learn the Irish vowel and consonant sounds / rules you can't help speaking with an Irish accent. E.g. Dun Laoghaire is pronounced Dun Leary with an English accent, but if you read it properly it comes out in an Irish accent.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#118

Post by rukugu »

teekert wrote: post #31
joeblau wrote: post #27

Funny Story: I was traveling from Portugal back to the U.S. through Charles de Gaulle Airport and my Dad gave me 4 Euros. I went to this little bakery and the man behind the counter asked me what I wanted in French. I mustered up as much throat as I possibly could and said croissant which was apparently good enough for him to go off on this long answer to what I ordered. I looked at him blankly and said "Sorry man, t…

The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I'm looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french "Croissants!" hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or wh…

Swahili has words for different types of computers e.g. Taraklishi(regular computer), Taraklishikuu(super computer) and Tarakilishi kiunzikuu (mainframe).

Re: How good is your French accent?

#119

Post by switch007 »

omginternets wrote: post #56
matthiasb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frenchie here. I think it is a very common misunderstanding. My bet is that if you got a blank stare, the person just had no idea what you were saying. It has nothing to do with your proud or protection our language. I got a lot of blank stares when I moved to the US 10 years ago ;-)

Autre Frenchie ici-présent. I concur. A tip to foreigners: it's considered exceptionally rude not to say hello to someone behind the counter, or when entering a store. I often cringe when I see Americans order something at a café counter: they have the best intentions, they're trying hard to be polite, and right off the bad they commit a huge faux-pas by immediately saying "un café s'il vous plait!". tl;dr: always st…

Only the French could describe asking for a coffee with "please" on the end as "exceptionally rude".

It's almost petty. You will forgive any other faux-pas as long as you start the interaction with "bonjour"? And if you mis-pronounce "bonjour"? Do we need to seek forgiveness from the President? I like flying over France and going to Spain and Italy where none of this nonsense exists.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#120

Post by Naga »

seszett wrote: post #85
teekert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French are very proud and protective of their language. I have a similar experience, I was asking Je cherche le croissants (or something: I'm looking for croissants), I got a blank stare until my friend made a very theatrical overly french "Croissants!" hand waving and all, then the supermarket guy understood. I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur) or wh…

> I know of no other language that invented new words [...] when RNA splicing was discovered (Épissage) Well épissage is not a new word just like splicing was not a new word. Épisser is joining two ropes together by weaving their strands. That's sailor language, not some new word invented to spite the English.

Yeah, it's a strange complaint since in English word the word for joining two ropes is also splicing.
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