microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5469 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 41 of 46 11 April 2013 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
Met an interesting fellow at the Montreal French-English exchange meetup last night. Born and raised in Florida,
lived there until age 54, moved to Montreal 3 months ago, speaks French with a native québécois accent! I don't
exaggerate, two québécois at the meetup were briefly fooled until he made small errors. He is essentially bilingual
but can't write in French above a low beginner level. How is this possible ? His parents were québécois, moved to
Florida where he was born. They spoke French to him often but he always replied in English. At some point he
decided he wanted to learn to speak and started emulating and repeating things his parents said to each other plus
self talk exercises. Summer vacations with family in the Gaspésie region provided some practice. He had lots of
exposure at an early age to spoken québécois French but notably no european French, no "classroom French" or
educational resources like ASSIMIL and ZERO written French. The absence of any written material effectively
eliminated any tendency to speak the way things are written like for example fully enunciating "il y a" or "ne". He
has now re-aquired dual citizenship and wants to learn to write in French for career reasons plus expand his
vocabulary.
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embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4608 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek
| Message 42 of 46 11 April 2013 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for sharing that story of the Floridian-Quebecois! Very interesting. There are lots of people in my family who are like him (exposed to lots of French as a child, developed excellent pronunciation, but have limited vocabulary and poor grammar), so I'm not really that surprised. But I give him a lot of credit for trying to improve his French now.
Edited by embici on 11 April 2013 at 4:52pm
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Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4822 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin
| Message 43 of 46 12 April 2013 at 6:24am | IP Logged |
emk wrote:
Je parle souvent avec une Québécoise de Trois-Rivières sur Skype, et chaque fois, je
pense que je perds un niveau entier, de (grosso modo) B2(*) à B1. Avec un Français, je peux discuter
de la politique, des actualités — et je peux défendre mon opinion.
Mais avec quelqu'un du Québec ? C'est toujours : « Est-ce que tu as des passe-temps ?
Oui, j'aime aussi lire des livres. » Ou peut-être : « Ah, tu as dit les manchots, et pas
les mains chaudes. Pardon. » Il [qui?] nous embête un peu. Mais après trois heures, c'est déjà
beaucoup plus facile, grâce à elle.
Quant à l'immersion, je parle en français avec ma femme depuis presque quatre mois. Au
début, l'immersion était frustrante comme tout. J'étais toujours épuisé, et il
m'arrivait souvent d'avoir besoin de dormir sans attendre.
Pas dans 10 minutes. Mon cerveau était plein. (En fait, j'ai eu une longueur d'avance :
ma femme parle en français avec nos enfants depuis trois ans, et j'ai compris
presque tout ce qu'elle disait quand j'ai commencé l'immersion.(**))
(*) Selon ma tutrice. Il me reste 6 jours avant le DELF B2.
(**) Corrigez-moi, s'il vous plaît. J'ai eu des ennuis avec les temps de verbe.
Mon pauvre cerveau. |
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microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5469 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 44 of 46 07 February 2014 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
Well its been 10 months since my last log update and I am still working at learning this #@*&% language so I should update this...
TAC 2014 - Team Deuxième
I have joined the 2nd French TAC team. I don't have specific goals to work towards for the year so I will need to think about that.
Une nouvelle vie commence
I have no lack of immersion opportunities anymore.
I have purchased a condo in Montréal and thus moved to Québec and I have a new girlfriend who is une Québécoise de souche. I would like to say that we speak French all the time but this is sadly not the case. At the beginning of a relationship it seems that communication takes priority over language practice and given that her English is near native (but with nice accent and a few errors) we speak English a lot. It is with her friends and family, some of whom speak no English that I am getting a lot of French immersion time. My level allows me to speak effectively one one one with almost anyone but I still have great difficulty in groups. Around a crowded dinner table over the holidays I was completely lost - there was always at least three people speaking at once and they seldom finished a sentence before being interrupted by someone else. Needless to say, in such groups, they make no accommodation to my level unless speaking directly to me. Happily she is keen to help me improve further. My enduring interest in the language and culture of the province pleases her - in fact she would never have been attracted to one of those many anglophones who have lived in Québec for many years and make no effort whatsoever to learn the language.
Another immersion opportunity, I have become a volunteer for an organization called Les Petits Frères. I saw a TV report about this and learned that it exists in many places in the U.S. in English but in Canada it exists only in Québec in French. So far it just involves being a chauffeur, picking up one or two elderly people and driving them to a large house in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood for a lunch with conversation and good food and then returning them home.
I still attend several meetup groups and have a couple language partners/friends from previous winters spent here. If any forum members studying French plan trips to Montréal, feel free to msg me. I have lots of time for meeting and talking about language learning.
Edited by microsnout on 07 February 2014 at 10:45pm
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Cristianoo Triglot Senior Member Brazil https://projetopoligRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4119 days ago 175 posts - 289 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, FrenchB2, English Studies: Russian
| Message 45 of 46 08 February 2014 at 2:40am | IP Logged |
Je pense que c'est possible de parler français sans savoir comme écrire parce que j'ai
déjà vu quelques exemples de personnes qui apprennent l'anglais, mais ils ne peuvent pas
écrire... rien!
je pense qu'écrire et parler sont compétences différentes
Vous avez beaucoup d'occasions pour apprendre le français maintenant, puisque vous êtes à
Montreal! C'est une possibilité très intéressante pour vous, je pense.
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Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog
| Message 46 of 46 08 February 2014 at 12:34pm | IP Logged |
Sounds like you're in the best possible situation for a language-learner! I absolutely love Montreal, and I have no
doubt that you'll build a wonderful life there. As I'm sure you've noticed, you do have to make an effort to immerse
yourself in French in Montreal. It's very easy to live in an English bubble there - it's a shame, but it's true.
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