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How good is your French accent?

frenchmeter.com

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Re: How good is your French accent?

#41

Post by enedil »

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…

Not saying anything, but Spanish features 'ordenador' for computer alike. French is not that different and alienated.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#42

Post by ankimal »

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…

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 effort to speak the language and was super polite and warm.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#43

Post by kaffeinecoma »

rconti wrote: post #23
haberman wrote: post #20

It's too easy. I got 100% on "Bonjour," but I definitely do not sound native to French people. I know this because last year I took a hike in a french gorge and greeted people with "Bonjour" but they often answered me back in English. But I'll take the flattery. :)

I almost spit out my beer at "answered me back in English". My favorite language story is from when I was studying in eastern France (Strasbourg). I went across the border to the train station in Kehl, Germany, as I reasoned that train tickets inside Germany (I was on my way to Berlin) would be vastly cheaper than trying to buy the same ticket with an origin in Strasbourg. Anyway, I know a little bit of German, and s…

You know I think there is this phenomenon of "listening in the wrong language". As an American in France, sometimes I'd meet people and they'd want to try out their English with me. Every once in a while I'd meet someone and be totally confused by their French, and I'd have to ask for help. "Dude, he's speaking English to you". Then we'd both feel bad.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#44

Post by stuxnet79 »

rconti wrote: post #24
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…

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).

Re: How good is your French accent?

#45

Post by ArmandGrillet »

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…

These words have not been created by regular French people people proud of the language, it is mainly due to the fact that there is a pretty powerful council creating new words and regulating the French language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#46

Post by brian_cloutier »

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…

Turkish also did, the word was originally brought into Turkish as "Kompüter". But that didn't sound nearly turkish enough, so it was replaced with Bilgisayar, or "knowledge counter".

Turkey has an official government body which regulates the Turkish language and naturalizes foreign loan words. It used to be much more active but people generally still listen to it, why copy the sounds of a foreign word when you can copy the meaning and end up with a word that's much easier to say and remember?

They recently tried to rebrand selfie as özçekim, "self-picture", but I think it's a little too late for that one.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#47

Post by geori »

AdamSC1 wrote: post #32

Really great concept - I feel the UI needs some work, there were a lot of times where it showed an "x" and didnt give me a score - I assume this means its having trouble hearing me. Some sort of distance or volume indicator would be great. As a Canadian I'm a bit surprised though as all the words it was able to detect I got 100% scores - I know a lot of the Quebecois french pronunciations we learn in Canada are very…

Grading is definitely on a curve. My accent is terrible and I'm getting 100% on the native speech.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#48

Post by Sakiina_ »

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…

That's interesting... I've had positive experiences when I've visited. I've heard from a lot of Americans that they are treated rudely, even when they attempt to communicate in limited French. I had several years of it, though I was rusty when I went to France, but despite my mistakes I felt I was treated very warmly and they seemed to enjoy indulging my attempts to use the language.

Re: How good is your French accent?

#49

Post by hackuser »

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…

> or think that the French accent is some kind of honorific mark they should cultivate

It impresses Americans, who unconciously assume anything European is more sophisticated. Go to a high-end restaurant in the U.S. and I'll bet your maitre d' has a European accent. Or just look at the top luxury brands; why is a Mercedes somehow more sophisticated than a Lexus? French wine more sophisticated than Californian?

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