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The importance of a good accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4410 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 241 of 255 28 April 2013 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Even then, there is a good chance their English will be no better than your French. English just doesn't seem to be widespread in France at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 242 of 255 28 April 2013 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe it depends on where one is in France. During a 2 week visit to Provence last year, English was available in basically every hotel and restaurant and shop we visited. This seemed to be partly a matter of age. Generally younger people seemed to have more of a grasp of English. I only met one middle aged woman in the middle of no-where who said she spoke no English. That was okay, I of course used my French on her. This isn't to say that the French were all speaking English, but only that a traveller who only knew English wouldn't be as lost as I'd imagined before the visit. Edited by luke on 28 April 2013 at 9:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4259 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 243 of 255 29 April 2013 at 4:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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You are talking about people working in the tourist industry in a touristic region while Newlanguage and Beano were talking about "the average French person on the street". That probably explains the difference in perception.
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 244 of 255 29 April 2013 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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I did ask a man on the street for directions and after a bit of French, he did help me in English. There was a clerk in a grocery store who was pretty out of her element in English and my French was not precise enough to get exactly what we were looking for (I forget what it was, but something very specific - this wasn't it, but instead of just eggs, fertilized organic eggs with dark shells size jumbo). She did grab a coworker and we found they didn't carry what we were looking for.
I'm sure English is pretty much a requirement for someone to work the front desk at a nice hotel in Cannes. Similarly, a professional waiter knows he can serve better knowing some English. We had a cooking lesson in a 2 star Michelin rated restaurant, and all of the chefs who worked with us (about 5) spoke very passable English. By no means were they all bilingual, but one in particular was very interested in learning English terms for his craft. I remember he wanted very much to know the word "pan" and to pronounce it correctly. Oh, and when he put together the words pan-cake, pancake! he was in heaven for a little while. He enjoyed learning English as much as we enjoyed learning his culinary art. Of course for an English speaking couple in a cooking lesson, they wouldn't have put us with a chef who knew no English, but passable English seems to be not uncommon in Provence these days for people who work with the public. At least, from a managing perspective, the restaurants, hotels, shops, etc were apparently making an effort to have English covered. But back to the topic, most of the French have French accents. Edited by luke on 29 April 2013 at 10:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4995 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 245 of 255 29 April 2013 at 11:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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I was just speaking from experience. In particular, I've been to a quite big music festival in France three times now, and I was surprised at how well the majority of the French people I met there spoke English, and of course at the same time disappointed that they mostly didn't take my attempts at speaking French seriously and replied to everything in English. This was mostly younger people (18-30). Yes, for the most part they certainly weren't at the advanced standard of people you'd meet in the Netherlands or Scandinavia, and they did have strong French accents, but they were very good at getting their point across and had a very reasonable vocabulary. And even if my French was technically better (in terms of vocabulary and grammar) than their English, they still insisted on English, and I think my accent was the main reason for that. I did speak a lot of French with one girl, but it seemed to take a few minutes to "convince" her, after which she finally admitted that my French was quite good. I get the feeling that if I had had a better accent, that "convincing" wouldn't have been necessary... but I'm just hypothesising here. There were a few people who knew no English but they seemed to be the minority.
That said though, almost all the shop attendants, barmen, waiters, and railway station staff I spoke to replied to me in French. So my experience is that socially, people are more likely to switch to English, but professionally, they tend to stick to French, and it's the social experiences I was referring to in my reply. Which is the opposite of what one might expect... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4410 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 246 of 255 29 April 2013 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe you should politely bat aside the replies in English, explaining (in French) that while in France, you prefer to speak French, and that if they come to visit you in your homeland you will gladly speak English all day with them. It's surpising how often this approach works. Edited by beano on 29 April 2013 at 1:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4374 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 247 of 255 29 April 2013 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm told my Thai pronunciation is very good. But I'm still at a relative beginner level
(A2). I've found that having too good an accent can be a bit of a curse. People expect my Thai to be much better than it actually is. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5169 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 248 of 255 29 April 2013 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's a lot more motivating than the consequences of the reverse. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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