A question for French speakers

Pente   Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:15 pm GMT
The French have always seemed to be extremely fond of their own language. They'd like to have it understood all over Europe (and a lot of the rest of the world, too). But whenever a non-French tries to speak that lovely language in question, they rather just jeer at one's accent saying something like "you sound a bit funny". Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? I mean, if you want your language to keep its status of lingua franca (of some sort), why an earth demotivate learners of it? Is that the French great power complex (France hasn't been one since the WW1) or what?
Pente   Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:25 pm GMT
Why on earth didn't I proofread my message?
fleurs du bien   Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:28 pm GMT
Pente, ta question est très stupide! Il n'y a pas de réponse....
Guest   Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:39 pm GMT
<<if you want your language to keep its status of lingua franca (of some sort), why an earth demotivate learners of it?>>


It's called Judgement .
That is why the French language is in the sad shape it's in today. And it's a horrid, schreckliche language.
just a message   Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:07 pm GMT
us, the french people, we don't want our language to be spoken by everybody, and we are aware that it is far to be the case. But it is true that a lot of us like their language and are proud of it (but not everyone, a lot of french people dislike french language and prefer to use a lot of anglicisms)
PARISIEN   Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:50 pm GMT
First times I was in London, people often smiled at my poor command of English and correctly repeated the words I wrongly pronounced (*). I really disliked their haughty grin when lecturing me, I found that behaviour shockingly rude — till I realised I was doing just just the same when meeting non-Francophones at home.

Thus I understood that those people were just wanting to help me to improve my English. I'm very grateful for that, they taught me a lot.

It's a good thing to make fun of faulty accents. It's a hard but rewarding school (and foreigners pronouncing French 'u's like 'oo' are so stereotypically hilarious that we can't refrain from laughing...)


(*) This happens frequently in England but never in the USA, go figure.
wk   Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:07 pm GMT
What do you mean by pronouncing <u> as "oo"? Do you mean pronouncing the high front rounded French vowel [y] (spelled "u" as in "tu") like the southern England English /u/ which is realized as a fairly fronted vowel? How does it sound hilarious? And you're saying that it's different in America? Which dialect of NAE do you mean? Because the pronunciation of /u/ varies a lot depending on the dialect. For example. Southern, Midland, and Southwestern accents tend to have a much more fronted version than that found in Canada and the Northern and Northwestern states.
Leasnam   Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:24 pm GMT
I think what he's referring to is the approximate substitution of /u/ for /y/ by Anglo-phones because they cannot pronounce it (i.e. 'la lune' as /lA lun/ instead of /la ly:n/

Even Germans think this sounds odd when Englishers say /u/ for /y:/; "ur, er" for ö
Leasnam   Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:32 pm GMT
I would also like to add that this type of attitude is certainly not acceptable. It's crass and unsophisticated. Imagine a Venezuelan businessman coming to America and being jeered because he couldn't pronounce the 'u' sound in "cup" properly, but substituted a 'o' in British "lot" for it ("/kop/")
Clara   Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:14 pm GMT
"I mean, if you want your language to keep its status of lingua franca (of some sort), why an earth demotivate learners of it?"

This is the problem, french people don't want their language to be a lingua franca.
They don't care.
It's only some politicians who are old and upset.
We're fed up with this stupid reputation.
Clara   Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:21 pm GMT
"The French have always seemed to be extremely fond of their own language. They'd like to have it understood all over Europe."

This is untrue too.
We speak french because we're french, but we don't care about it. Of course, we're proud of our culture and our country (like many people in this earth with their own country etc...) but we don't expect people speak French in other country. If they speak it, we are generally surprised.
Guest   Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:23 pm GMT
<<We speak french because we're french>>


people in Cameroon speak French because are French too.
Julien   Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:50 pm GMT
people in Cameroon speak French because are French too

And American native in USA, aborigenes in Australia, Maori in New zealand and many ( african or asian) others ex-brit-colonies ? and ex-spanish-colonies ? so shut up.