12 messages over 2 pages: 1 2
scottieboi88
Newbie
CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5223 days ago
6 posts - 13 votes
| Message 9 of 12 02 January 2011 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
Wilco wrote:
Scottieboi88, if your spoken French is bad, don't blame the French. Get a good teacher
and get over it.
Whining on the internet is not going to improve your pronunciation.
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So....the next time i have someone speaking to me in less than perfect English, i should just ignore them and harp on them for not studying hard enough?
good advice...
1 person has voted this message useful
| hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 5131 days ago
1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe
| Message 10 of 12 02 January 2011 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
scottieboi88 wrote:
Wilco wrote:
Scottieboi88, if your spoken French is bad, don't blame the French. Get a good teacher
and get over it.
Whining on the internet is not going to improve your pronunciation.
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So....the next time i have someone speaking to me in less than perfect English, i should just ignore them and harp on them for not studying hard enough?
good advice... |
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Gosh, you didn't mention them harping on you for not studying hard enough. That's *totally* different. Just out of curiosity, how can someone both ignore you and harp on you at the same time?
R.
==
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5382 days ago
3971 posts - 7747 votes
Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 11 of 12 02 January 2011 at 6:35am | IP Logged |
scottieboi88 wrote:
Hello, everyone. There is something that has been bothering me about French that i
would like to have some explanations and answers.Now, first off, i am not against bilingualism at all,
(obviously), and since the law dictates, i had to take french up to grade 7. However, my experiences with
francophones have (unfortunatley) been very negative. My friends and I were taking a plane from Regina
(where i live) to Charlettetown, PEI. We had about a 2 hour layover in Montreal. My friends and I decided to
do some exploring. However, much to our dismay it was quite hard to find someone that would speak
English. I tried to use my poor grade school french (the only thing i could remember was a very heavily
accented Bonjour, merci, and pouvez-vous parler anglais?) and the people we encountered were quite cold
and seemed to despise us. I didn't understand it at the time. However, after reading the French language
profile on this site and several others, it has been consistently mentioned that the French do not take kindly
(much less tolerate) poorly spoken french. I can understand some of their frustration, but the way that most
of the francophones (that i have encountered anyway) react, as if in disgust, simply because someone
doesn't speak french absolutely perfectly i think is more than a bit arrogant. It is not only from my own
peronal experience from which i am speaking There have been a number of people i've met who have been
treated this way,in some cases, even when they spoke in french. I would argue that French does present
some significant pronunciation problems for an English speaker, and some sounds are quite difficult for us
to reproduce. My point is, why are French people so particular about their language? Wouldn't a better thing
to do, be to try and HELP the person who is trying to communicate rather than cringe at the fact that
someone doesn't say "bonjour correctly? No offense intended here, but i'm just asking why... |
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Is it even possible to get from the airport to Montreal and back with enough time to catch your flight in 2
hours?
My wife learned French in Montreal and the only time her French was met with disgust was when she spoke
to anglophones. I also met lots of anglophones who didn't speak French and still chose to live in Montreal.
Surely, not everyone looked at them in disgust.
If this really bugs you, why don't you give it another go and visit Quebec again, maybe even stay with
francophones using services like Couchsurfing? There are nice people everywhere in the world, no matter
where you go; sometimes, finding them is a matter of understanding what kind of vibe we are letting off.
Edited by Arekkusu on 02 January 2011 at 6:46am
3 persons have voted this message useful
| microsnout
TAC 2010 Winner
Senior Member
Canada
microsnout.wordpress
Joined 5472 days ago
277 posts - 553 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
| Message 12 of 12 02 January 2011 at 4:31pm | IP Logged |
Arekkusu wrote:
There are nice people everywhere in the world, no matter
where you go; sometimes, finding them is a matter of understanding what kind of vibe we are letting off. |
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On that point I recommend this blog entry by Benny Lewis (Irishpolyglot):
"Are you closed minded? How I finally learned to get along with Parisians"
Edited by microsnout on 02 January 2011 at 4:33pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
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