The French interested/disinterested in the English language

Yann le Grenoblois   Friday, May 27, 2005, 13:02 GMT
The topic about Sophie Marceau's accent is turning into a discussion about the French and their interest in the English language.
In an attempt to keep the original thread focused on it's original topic, I'm creating this separate thread.




Hans-Ulrich
----------------

I know that the French generally don't like learning foreign languages.

____________________________________________________________

bernard
----------

" I know that the French generally don't like learning foreign languages. "

I'm sorry but this is a false stereotype spread by some english-speaking peoples (especially english) who don't would like to make Fance a english speaking country.

As you can see by yourself I'm Fench, and can communicate in English.
Como puedes verlo, soy frances y puedo comunicar en Espanol
Come vedi, sono Francese e posso communicare in Italiano
Comme tu le vois, je suis Français et je peux communiquer en Français
com veus, soc frances i puc comincar en catala

5 languages is maybe not enough...

____________________________________________________________

Yann le Grenoblois
---------------------------

Bernard, you remind me of a very interesting link.

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/enotero/langues.htm [fr]
____________________________________________________________

Hans-Ulrich
----------------

Hi Bernard

Very well for you, but I think you're a exception, the most French people don't want to learn English or Spanish, so the most French only speak (nothing against France, for example the most Americans only speaks English and the most Spaniards only speaks Spanish).

Take care
____________________________________________________________

bernard
----------

hello Hans Ulrich.
I just want to ask you something
I suppose you are German. I went to Germany a few years ago. I was surprise to see that moqt people was cunable to answere a simple question in English. And, of course almost nobody was understanding french, italian or Spanish... Have you been in France ? Do you know some french people?
Or are you just repeting what you have heard said ?
I'm sorry but germans are not very good in speaking foreign languages...
____________________________________________________________

nico
-----

Hans-Ulrich, when you say : "I know that the French generally don't like learning foreign languages."

What the fuck you mean?!

If you consider that many people form south west France are originally spanish or portuguese (same kind of % in the south east + italian), you are wrong, many french speak spanish.

+ italian is spoken in some south area + algerian + regioanl languages like breton, basque, auvergnat, flemmish...
Many french speak more than 1 language
Hans Ulrich, I guess like most of Germanic people you don’t like jewish people, no offense of course! O yes you will tell me it’s a cliché, won’t you?

Typical cliche! You should not read tabloids, this is bad for you.
____________________________________________________________

Yann le Grenoblois
---------------------------

Hans-Ulrich,

Northern Europeans whose native tongue is some Germanic language will find English easy to learn because:

1/ Words are stressed in their own language, whereas in French, only the end of the sentence is. So we tend to not notice the stress.

2/ The most frequently used words are very similar to those of other Germanic tongues, whereas ours are Latin.

3/ American films aren't dubbed in their countries, unlike in France.

4/ Maybe they sought to have their school teach English efficiently at an earlier period than France. I don't know. The English classes I attended in high school were very similar to those Tom (who's Polish) attended. http://www.antimoon.com/other/englishclass.htm [en]

5/ We do want to learn English. A very profit-making buisness for an Anglophone in France is to teach English. Many French people attend classes for adults. But for the reason Tom points out in his article http://www.antimoon.com/other/englishclass.htm [en], this is not enough to learn English.

I wish I came up with some witty ending, but it's lunch time. Bye. ;)
____________________________________________________________
Fredrik from Norway   Friday, May 27, 2005, 13:32 GMT
I think lots of French people give a good effort speaking English, which to them is a rather foreign Germanic tongue. Their English can sound very boring, pedantic and theorretical, especially in writing, as the French tend to use the English words they already know from French, the "hard words" borrowed from Normand and Latin, For instance they will say "vision" in stead of "(eye) sight" etc...
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 14:39 GMT
I don't think the French are disinterested in English,they seem to show more interest for English then most English show for French.But one has to consider that,speaking another language isnt a need for most French people.Most of them go on holiday in France or to other French speaking nations.Plus a large number of other countries teach their inhabitants (at least a bit of ) French.And A large number of the French might never run into a person who doesnt speak French (like Anglophones).
I think that its mostly predudices.
Hans-Ulrich   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:27 GMT
Nico,

Me: "They want in France to speak only French... "

Nico: "this is wrong "

I don't think so. Ask people who was someone in France.
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:32 GMT
No,its wrong,

(Litt. in German:Sie wolten in Frankreich zu sprechen nur Fransosisch )
Hans-Ulrich   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:36 GMT
Sander,

Willst Du mich irgendwie auf den Arm nehmen?
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:39 GMT
Zou je gewoon Engels willen spreken?

No,your sentence just isnt right,I know what you mean...but its not right.

It could be : They want people in France to speak French.
Travis   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:40 GMT
Sander, that'd be:

Sie wollten nur Französisch zu sprechen in Frankreich.

(Remember that word order with use of zu+infinitive may work differently in German with te+infinitive in Dutch or to+infinitive in English; any object in such a case in German goes *before* the zu.)
Travis   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:42 GMT
Actually, one doesn't need a zu+infinitive there in the first place, which I forgot about (as I was trying to fix up Sander's sentence). That'd then be:

Sie wollten nur Französisch in Frankreich sprechen.
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:43 GMT
Yes, I tried to translate =>"They want in France to speak only French... "<= litterally.
Yann le Grenoblois   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:46 GMT
Oops, ahem, this is getting very Germanic in here. Help me, I'm a poor ignorant bilingual guy. :)


Fredrik from Norway,

<<Their English can sound very boring, pedantic and theorretical, especially in writing, as the French tend to use the English words they already know from French, the "hard words" borrowed from Normand and Latin>>

Nah, you say that only because as a Germanic language speaker, you are prejudiced against Latin words ;)
Seriously, yes, you Germanic people have an unfair advantage in "regular" English words. But, really, to refer 70% of the English vocabulary as being "pedantic and boring" is a bit too harsh.
Beside, I can assure you they can sound perfectly normal. You just have to be French. :)


Sander,

your comments are very interesting. I'm not too sure how many French people have "never run into a person who doesnt speak French", but it is definetely true that we can speak French abroad in certain countries and that must have some impact on some of my countrymen (much less than Hans-Ulrich would have it though).
Yann le Grenoblois   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:48 GMT
<<They want in France to speak only French>>

btw, wouldn't "They want to speak only French in France" be more correct?
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 20:53 GMT
Well,I don't believe that the French are too arrogant to learn a foreigh language,and your right probably right about "never run into a person who doesnt speak French" (but with old people as well?!) + French has the 'advantage'that its more widespread in the world then German.
Hans-Ulrich   Friday, May 27, 2005, 21:07 GMT
"French has the 'advantage'that its more widespread in the world then German."

In the world maybe (of course not as much as Spanish), but not in Europa, where German is the most spoken language.
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 21:10 GMT
Yes,but German is almost non existent outside Europe,French isnt. (like a lot of other European languages)