Mattie

Well I posted a while back that I was going to take French. Well so far so fabulous!!!<BR>So far we are only speaking in French in class and using small phrases. We have been working on pronunciation. You all would have a good laugh as we are in South Carolina trying to do French accents...I think we would make a good skit for Saturday Night Live. Anyway I have to say that so far learning a foreign language is fun. It will be nice someday to converse with French speaking people.

sid

Hello there, comment-allez vous ?<BR>Le Francais est une tres belle langue mais malhereusement il faut beaucoup de pratique. <BR>Le mieux pour vous serai de venir at de vivre une annee en France pour vraiment bien apprendre cette langue.<BR>En tout cas, je vous souhaite bonne chance....<BR>I hope you manage to understand all that.<BR>Anyway, i'm very happy to see the interest and keep up the good work.<BR>Bonne journee...<BR>

fit

Vas-y, Mattie!

jenecomprends

But it sounds so different when French-speaking people speak it! I've been practicing saying, "Pouvez-vous parler avec un accent americain, s'il vous plait?"

sid

Don't worry about the accent, that is the charm to it at the end of the day. 99% of the French have a very strong accent when speaking French !!<BR>I was fortunate enough to only live 3 years in France so i don't have the accent Lucky me i guess....

sid

Big mistake...<BR>99% of the French have a very strong accent when speaking ENGLISH <BR>Sorry about that...its been a long day at work over here in Europe...

Mattie

Bonjour, monsieur ca va bien merci. Mais je suis tres fatigue. J'ai un examen aujourd'hui.<BR>I am learning to run things together like pronouncing Je m'appelle Mattie like (Zhma pelle) two syllables instead of three syllables....things like that are helping a great deal.<BR>Et je comprend un petit peu a vous. Je voudrais travailler a France etudier et vivir pour un ans...J'espere ma francais est bonne. I am still trying to figure out the accents on my computer. Au revoir et bonjour.

Mattie

Correct me if I am wrong but one thing I am learning about the French is that they seem to be a very "correct" society. Everything has its place and they seem very formal in some regards. Our teacher said that you would NEVER just walk into a store in Paris and say Bonjour without adding Monsieur, Mademoiselle etc...<BR>So I am having to not only learn a new language but the culture as well.

g

Mattie,<BR><BR>It looks like you are doing pretty well if you have only been taking French for a little while. Hope your test today went well. are learning cultural info as well -

SharonG

A great book to help learn about French culture is "French or Foe". Unfortunately the name of the author escapes me. It's by an American woman who lived in France and was very helpful to me when trying to navigate shopping in Paris.

FIT

Never say NEVER. But from a teacher's point of view, I can understand why your teacher said that. Also, if you say "Good morning, sir"it seems very formal or very polite (correct me if I'm wrong) but "Bonjour, monsieur" is really nothing special, good but not particularly polite.

Ronda

I know what French people speaking English sound like to me (sounds a bit sexy), but what do Americans trying to speak French sound like to the French? In other words, what does an American accent sound like? (Hope that makes sense.)

Martine

Bonjour Mattie<BR><BR>F&eacute;licitations! Vous avez fait des progr&egrave;s! J'esp&egrave;re vraiment que votre examen a &eacute;t&eacute; un succ&egrave;s.<BR>Compliments &agrave; votre professeur canadien!<BR><BR>Martine

francesca

Bonjour Mattie,<BR>Le livre "French or Foe" est de Polly Platt. Tres amusant et instructif a la fois. Bon courage; avec ton attitude positif et ton esprit ouvert tu iras surement bien loin!

amy

For those of us who read Polly Pratt's books, I had the opportunity of discussing them with some French friends while in France over the past summer. They thought that in many ways, her description of French culture was quite accurate--gave her about a 60% accuracy rating. However, they had two major areas of disagreement. They felt her description of the French educational system was off the mark quite a bit. They said what she described was probably true for upper class Paris only. They said her analysis of the top schools and the hurdles to get there would be like describing a Princeton/Harvard/Yale degree as the only "acceptable" degrees in the eyes someone from Nebraska or California--there is a tendency for an upper middle class kid from New York/Boston to follow that thinking, and it's easy for those from the East to believe the rest of the country thinks that way, but it's not quite true. They also felt that France has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years and that Polly isn't quite up to date. Part of the problem is how much France is changing now--her books were written just long enough ago not to recognize the speed of that change. They consider French business practices, for example, to be 100% more "American" in style today than even 5 years ago. <BR><BR>As to Polly's recommendations to "personalize" every problem to soften the "hard" French heart, an American who has lived in Paris and New York says he finds no cultural translation at all! He said he has always found New Yorkers wonderfully willing to go out of their way once a personal angle is attached to a problem (no, I'm not from New York).<BR><BR>Thought it was an interesting discussion. Anyone else agree/disagree with them?

janeygirl

There's a discussion going on now at delphiforums about Polly Platt's book and some speculation that she describes situations, etc., geared more toward wealthy, upper-class functions and not for everyday folks. <BR><BR>For example, one piece of advice that she gives is to never say "bon appetit" and that it's simply not done. I was wished bon appetit at every meal during a recent trip.