In a clothing store once, I heard a booming voice of an American man who asked for the store manager. Once identified, the man told the manager loudly for all to hear how bad the service in the store was. It’s true that there was a long line of costumers waiting to pay with only one flustered employee present at the cashier, while the other employees were standing around chatting among themselves. This is unlikely to happen in the US where a new line would be opened to speed up the process, especially when other employees can leave their less urgent tasks (in the case of the aforementioned store, they were in fact doing nothing very urgently!).
What happened next was a classic French reaction I thought: the manager looked at the American and calmly said Je ne parle pas Anglais, Monsieur (I don’t speak English, Sir). I found this hilarious as just a few minutes before I spotted him speaking reasonably comprehensible English to another costumer. This incident illustrates many things that I had to learn to live in Paris. In this particular blog, about learning French.
I arrived here with very basic French which was considered to be OK in Melbourne when conversing with my French native speaker professors but was woefully inadequate in Par
is. I quickly realized that not all Parisians articulate as clearly as my lovely French professors nor speak as slowly. This, to say the least, was extremely frustrating. In super markets I only bought stuff that I could find myself as the idea of asking and explaining something I need in French to a store employee (if he or she can be found) was enough to make me sweat (Once I was looking for baking soda and ended up with salt). When I went to a boulangerie (pastry shop) full of costumers and everyone was shouting their order, I slunk away defeated as first of all I was sure that they would not understand what I wanted, and furthermore I had no idea what the name is for each of the wonderful cakes and pastries they had on display (I did come back when the shop was rather empty, and now I find boulangers who put little notes indicating the name of each of the delicious products). Yes I will take a Paris-brest (round pastry cut in half and filled with cream…now this does not particularly make me think of Paris or of Brest), a Divorce (shaped of two round parts made up of éclair with café on one side and ch
ocolate on the other, separated by a line of creamy topping. Now I would probably call it marriage rather than divorce since the two eclairs of coffee and chocolate usually are united!) and a Cochon (cochon means pig…these little wonderful almond paste cake is shaped like a pig and is pink. At least for this one you can guess where the name comes from).
Some words in French are just too difficult for Anglophones and other foreigners to pronounce. The letter u for instance that is pronounced by (this is an advice from a friend) first positioning your mouth and lips as if you were going to pronounce ‘ee’ (as in the first syllable in the word event). And whilst maintaining this position, you attempt to say the letter u (as in prude) instead. You got it now. But having to make all this preparation before actually producing the word containing the letter u, I would have lost the person I am speaking to (especially waiters in Paris cafes who always seem to be in a hurry and will give you 3 seconds flat to reel off your order as he was already turning to go and will undoubtedly let at least half an hour pass before noticing you again). Up to today, for some reason I still have problem pronouncing DEUX (or two). Consequently, when I buy cigarettes, I buy either 1 or 3 packs but never 2! Another maddening thing is the nasal sound that I never knew could vary in so many ways as in French.
french courses
I did follow a French course in Paris that was somewhat intensive. The class met for a couple hours everyday. This did help a bit but was simply not fast enough for me. I needed to understand and speak French quick. Sure, the course was great for making a lot of interesting and international friends to have coffees and go out with, but not enough French to get me to the level I wished to have. I finally decided to fork out a rather (for me) a lot of money to improve my French and enrolled in an immersion program in Nice, in the south of France. I arrived there and was promptly escorted to the apartment where I was to stay for the two weeks program (Most students stay for one month, but I could not imagine spending so much money and thus only stayed for half the time and paid half price). The program starts the next morning at 8 with breakfast with students and professors. All conversation was to be in French only and each foreign word pronounced would bring a small amount of monetary penalty that would be put in a jar to contribute to our end of program party. You can imagine breakfast on the first day was a rather silent affair with lots of smiles on the part of the students. The professors fired away though, with their clear and well articulated French whilst we students nodded and smiled.
After breakfast, we divided into small groups and followed different professors. There are different exercises that are far away from the traditional teaching methods found in most language courses or schools. Games, presentation, films, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, you name it we did it. The aim of the program was to understand and be understood in French, no matter what your accent. This was rather successfully done by speaking French exclusively from breakfast until dinner time involving professors and small number of students.
Like children, we also learn different names of food and French cuisine during lunch and dinner as well as table manners. For instance, the person on the right of the host usually is the guest of honor. We always start with entrée (in the US we call this appetiser), followed by plat principal (in the US, entrée), followed by wonderful French cheeses and finished up with dessert. Espresso coffee was served at the end, though cigarettes had to be smoked outside (so unFrench!). The French I thought was rather rigid with this order when eating. Despite numerous attempts to ask waiters to bring my coffee together with dessert which I like to do, I was rarely successful to have them both at the same time in cafés and restaurants.
The program also arranged excursions to museums and we learned to talk and make comments about art in French. Funny, artistic comments made in French just sound more intelligent even when saying nothing. A wonderful professor was a very spunky older female (small, white haired, and dressed not at all like a French person but more like someone from New Mexico, you know, outdoorsy) who also taught us argots or slang words. This turned out to be very useful in my everyday life!
The emphasis of the program being comprehension and expression, we did not have to do homework (aside from thinking about presentations for the next day) nor take lots of notes but did listen and express ourselves a lot. And it turned out to be very successful. A woman from Australia whose French was non existent at the start of the program could a couple weeks later do a decent presentation in class. I was very very impressed.
The program, being expensive, attracts a rather special clientele. In my group, there were lawyers from large US firms handling French companies and thus having branch offices here, UN workers, and a PDG of a known multi national company. Interesting to observe how contexts influence our behaviors. These professionals, within a couple of days, were transformed to misbehaving high school students who giggled at the silliest things. We had a blast, and at the end of my two week stay, we even had a blast in French!
For a long time after my course I measured my progress in French using a method a prof there suggested to students: I listen to the station France Info which repeats the same news over and over again. I remember the first time my group listened in on the news from France Info. After one run, the professor asked us what we understood. Well, we sort of got the words like Australie, tennis, and that’s about all. We listened and listened again until we got the gist of the different news. Back at home in Paris I knew I was making progress as I was able to understand the whole news with fewer and fewer cycles with time. And now, I understand everything the first time around. Yes!
France/french today
Don’t despair if you don’t speak French, though. Today, many young French speak English and love speaking English. In restaurants in Paris you may be spoken to because you speak English (how different to stories of Americans who were treated badly because they could not speak French before…yes, times they are a changing. But remember the story at the beginning of this blog!!). It is still a good idea to say a few words in French to show that you try. The French appreciate it when non speakers attempt to speak French and will gladly continue the conversation in English. These, in my experience, happen mostly with younger French. So, say Bonjour (Good day), Bonsoir (Good evening), Merci (Thank you), Excusez moi (Excuse me) when striking a conversion (Also, Parlez vous Anglais ? do you speak English? Can I buy you a drink? Je t'invite pour un verre ?). Oh, by the way, don’t ever call the waiters Garçon despite what your French language or guide books say…better call them Monsieur and you will get a much better service.
The French language itself is evolving and incorporates foreign words at least in everyday speak. Of course there is a French academy watchdog of the French language that decides what new words can now be considered part of the French vocabulary…this probably explains why people buy dictionaries every year. An interesting observation is that the French adopt a lot of English words in their everyday speak but the meaning or use of these words could sometimes be slightly different to their original meaning in English. Take for instance the word People. For the French, People (sometimes spelled Pipol, or the French spelling for the English pronunciation) means those who are currently considered the in-crowd or trend setters, such as known artists, DJs, actors/actresses etc. Another is le weekend which means weekend of course. However, sometime the French would shorten it to just le week. So when someone say I will call you ce week, this means this weekend and not this week! Cool is used a lot too as in C’est cool (meaning hey that’s fine with me or it’s fine or that's great or I like it, depending on the intonation).
There are lots of Anglophones in Paris. There are also places where we speak English, like the American church, different social expat groups and many bars that cater mostly to Anglophone clienteles (Irish, English and Australian bars, American and Australian restaurants etc.). But why be in France when you only go to Anglophone places? Allez (Come on), let yourself go and be French (at least while you’re here). C’est cool !
Oh by the way, I just had to put in the example of the store situation at the top because if there is one word that I find the French have yet to learn it's indeed SERVICE (let's not even dream of Service with a smile).
What happened next was a classic French reaction I thought: the manager looked at the American and calmly said Je ne parle pas Anglais, Monsieur (I don’t speak English, Sir). I found this hilarious as just a few minutes before I spotted him speaking reasonably comprehensible English to another costumer. This incident illustrates many things that I had to learn to live in Paris. In this particular blog, about learning French.
I arrived here with very basic French which was considered to be OK in Melbourne when conversing with my French native speaker professors but was woefully inadequate in Par
is. I quickly realized that not all Parisians articulate as clearly as my lovely French professors nor speak as slowly. This, to say the least, was extremely frustrating. In super markets I only bought stuff that I could find myself as the idea of asking and explaining something I need in French to a store employee (if he or she can be found) was enough to make me sweat (Once I was looking for baking soda and ended up with salt). When I went to a boulangerie (pastry shop) full of costumers and everyone was shouting their order, I slunk away defeated as first of all I was sure that they would not understand what I wanted, and furthermore I had no idea what the name is for each of the wonderful cakes and pastries they had on display (I did come back when the shop was rather empty, and now I find boulangers who put little notes indicating the name of each of the delicious products). Yes I will take a Paris-brest (round pastry cut in half and filled with cream…now this does not particularly make me think of Paris or of Brest), a Divorce (shaped of two round parts made up of éclair with café on one side and ch
ocolate on the other, separated by a line of creamy topping. Now I would probably call it marriage rather than divorce since the two eclairs of coffee and chocolate usually are united!) and a Cochon (cochon means pig…these little wonderful almond paste cake is shaped like a pig and is pink. At least for this one you can guess where the name comes from).Some words in French are just too difficult for Anglophones and other foreigners to pronounce. The letter u for instance that is pronounced by (this is an advice from a friend) first positioning your mouth and lips as if you were going to pronounce ‘ee’ (as in the first syllable in the word event). And whilst maintaining this position, you attempt to say the letter u (as in prude) instead. You got it now. But having to make all this preparation before actually producing the word containing the letter u, I would have lost the person I am speaking to (especially waiters in Paris cafes who always seem to be in a hurry and will give you 3 seconds flat to reel off your order as he was already turning to go and will undoubtedly let at least half an hour pass before noticing you again). Up to today, for some reason I still have problem pronouncing DEUX (or two). Consequently, when I buy cigarettes, I buy either 1 or 3 packs but never 2! Another maddening thing is the nasal sound that I never knew could vary in so many ways as in French.
french courses
I did follow a French course in Paris that was somewhat intensive. The class met for a couple hours everyday. This did help a bit but was simply not fast enough for me. I needed to understand and speak French quick. Sure, the course was great for making a lot of interesting and international friends to have coffees and go out with, but not enough French to get me to the level I wished to have. I finally decided to fork out a rather (for me) a lot of money to improve my French and enrolled in an immersion program in Nice, in the south of France. I arrived there and was promptly escorted to the apartment where I was to stay for the two weeks program (Most students stay for one month, but I could not imagine spending so much money and thus only stayed for half the time and paid half price). The program starts the next morning at 8 with breakfast with students and professors. All conversation was to be in French only and each foreign word pronounced would bring a small amount of monetary penalty that would be put in a jar to contribute to our end of program party. You can imagine breakfast on the first day was a rather silent affair with lots of smiles on the part of the students. The professors fired away though, with their clear and well articulated French whilst we students nodded and smiled.
After breakfast, we divided into small groups and followed different professors. There are different exercises that are far away from the traditional teaching methods found in most language courses or schools. Games, presentation, films, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, you name it we did it. The aim of the program was to understand and be understood in French, no matter what your accent. This was rather successfully done by speaking French exclusively from breakfast until dinner time involving professors and small number of students.
Like children, we also learn different names of food and French cuisine during lunch and dinner as well as table manners. For instance, the person on the right of the host usually is the guest of honor. We always start with entrée (in the US we call this appetiser), followed by plat principal (in the US, entrée), followed by wonderful French cheeses and finished up with dessert. Espresso coffee was served at the end, though cigarettes had to be smoked outside (so unFrench!). The French I thought was rather rigid with this order when eating. Despite numerous attempts to ask waiters to bring my coffee together with dessert which I like to do, I was rarely successful to have them both at the same time in cafés and restaurants.
The program also arranged excursions to museums and we learned to talk and make comments about art in French. Funny, artistic comments made in French just sound more intelligent even when saying nothing. A wonderful professor was a very spunky older female (small, white haired, and dressed not at all like a French person but more like someone from New Mexico, you know, outdoorsy) who also taught us argots or slang words. This turned out to be very useful in my everyday life!
The emphasis of the program being comprehension and expression, we did not have to do homework (aside from thinking about presentations for the next day) nor take lots of notes but did listen and express ourselves a lot. And it turned out to be very successful. A woman from Australia whose French was non existent at the start of the program could a couple weeks later do a decent presentation in class. I was very very impressed.
The program, being expensive, attracts a rather special clientele. In my group, there were lawyers from large US firms handling French companies and thus having branch offices here, UN workers, and a PDG of a known multi national company. Interesting to observe how contexts influence our behaviors. These professionals, within a couple of days, were transformed to misbehaving high school students who giggled at the silliest things. We had a blast, and at the end of my two week stay, we even had a blast in French!
For a long time after my course I measured my progress in French using a method a prof there suggested to students: I listen to the station France Info which repeats the same news over and over again. I remember the first time my group listened in on the news from France Info. After one run, the professor asked us what we understood. Well, we sort of got the words like Australie, tennis, and that’s about all. We listened and listened again until we got the gist of the different news. Back at home in Paris I knew I was making progress as I was able to understand the whole news with fewer and fewer cycles with time. And now, I understand everything the first time around. Yes!
France/french today
Don’t despair if you don’t speak French, though. Today, many young French speak English and love speaking English. In restaurants in Paris you may be spoken to because you speak English (how different to stories of Americans who were treated badly because they could not speak French before…yes, times they are a changing. But remember the story at the beginning of this blog!!). It is still a good idea to say a few words in French to show that you try. The French appreciate it when non speakers attempt to speak French and will gladly continue the conversation in English. These, in my experience, happen mostly with younger French. So, say Bonjour (Good day), Bonsoir (Good evening), Merci (Thank you), Excusez moi (Excuse me) when striking a conversion (Also, Parlez vous Anglais ? do you speak English? Can I buy you a drink? Je t'invite pour un verre ?). Oh, by the way, don’t ever call the waiters Garçon despite what your French language or guide books say…better call them Monsieur and you will get a much better service.
The French language itself is evolving and incorporates foreign words at least in everyday speak. Of course there is a French academy watchdog of the French language that decides what new words can now be considered part of the French vocabulary…this probably explains why people buy dictionaries every year. An interesting observation is that the French adopt a lot of English words in their everyday speak but the meaning or use of these words could sometimes be slightly different to their original meaning in English. Take for instance the word People. For the French, People (sometimes spelled Pipol, or the French spelling for the English pronunciation) means those who are currently considered the in-crowd or trend setters, such as known artists, DJs, actors/actresses etc. Another is le weekend which means weekend of course. However, sometime the French would shorten it to just le week. So when someone say I will call you ce week, this means this weekend and not this week! Cool is used a lot too as in C’est cool (meaning hey that’s fine with me or it’s fine or that's great or I like it, depending on the intonation).
There are lots of Anglophones in Paris. There are also places where we speak English, like the American church, different social expat groups and many bars that cater mostly to Anglophone clienteles (Irish, English and Australian bars, American and Australian restaurants etc.). But why be in France when you only go to Anglophone places? Allez (Come on), let yourself go and be French (at least while you’re here). C’est cool !
Oh by the way, I just had to put in the example of the store situation at the top because if there is one word that I find the French have yet to learn it's indeed SERVICE (let's not even dream of Service with a smile).
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