Originally Posted By Domina M
My French is clumsy and inelegant but effective. I often get a scrunched-up look from Parisians I have dubbed "Parisian Rat Face." I lean in on being American—Americans are seen as friendly and lovable but stupid. I speak excellent French for a Golden Retriever. Hah!


Ha!

I tend to agree that your average American is stupid. Not sure about lovable...unless you find stupidity charming, I suppose.

Quote:
Pronunciation in France is so important and my biggest stumbling block. I can visualize the word, then have to think what letters are pronounced and at what intensity.


And I'm kind of the complement to you: I can't remember most of what I learned but I can pronounce it pretty well. Except some of the words that have vowel and consonant combinations which are tough for native English speakers, things like oeil, ouille, euil, euille, where your lips and tongue are doing things they aren't used to. They seem easy until you know that a slight variation means something else entirely, as you implied with "pronunciation is important". To be fair, English is similar. I've had help over the phone I can't understand because their accent is so thick words sound like other words.

Quote:
The best way to explain it is that the French get bored of the word before it's finished.


HAHAHAHA


Edited by Mistress Tissa (Yesterday at 03:51 PM)