French Is Alive and Well (and living in Africa)

Ah, mon petit blog mon pauvre petit blog français!  Comme je t'ai négligé! 

I see from my stats that this blog gets more views than either of my other two--though not a single one is coming from France.  Hmmm.  My negligence, I suppose, is the result of over-extending my blogging resources and trying to maintain and update three separate blogs regularly.  I shall see what I can do to make amends.

As I've mentioned before, French is the language I'm most confident with, though sadly I have lost some of the enthusiasm I had when I was a college student majoring in it.  Blame that on Italian.  Still, if there is one language (other than English, of course) with which I might consider carrying on a conversation with a native speaker, it would most definitely be French.  I know more vocabulary; I know the grammar reasonably well (even the simpler subjunctive mood tenses); and I'm more adept at the most difficult aspect of speaking in a foreign language: putting the words in the right order to form sentences that won't sound weird to a native.  

Too bad about French, isn't it?  There is considerable evidence that, though it is still a formidable player in the language game, according to this article, Top Ten Most Used Languages it no longer places in the top ten most used tongues of the world.  This is distressing news since, though the musical tones and nuances of Italian and the practicality of Spanish has distracted me lately, it is a lovely language with a long and distinguished history.  

Indeed, my French pen-pal says that almost all contemporary pop singers in France sing in English and struggle to get concert gigs in the United States.  Quel dommage!  French sounds very musical and one only needs to listen to Edith Piaf or Jacques Brel to appreciate its beauty and power.  

So, let's hope French can hold its own as Chinese, English, and Spanish all have their day in international dominance.  There are still plenty of people who insist that it's the most beautiful tongue in the world and it seems unlikely that it will decline precipitously.  Ce serait impensable.

Yet, there may be hope on the horizon. Check out this USA Today article about the future of French and how Africa plays a significant role in its promise for the future: The Future of French

The cats on the pew purr, plus meow

J'ai un peu de peur des rues françaises .  If I didn't complete botch it up, that means 'I'm a little afraid of French streets.  French has so many 'unEnglish' sounds.  I've already mentioned the travails of trying to pronounce the French word for 'street,' rue, which is double-trouble.  First, you have to deal with the throaty 'r' sound and then with one of the many possible pronunciations of  'u.'  So, a neophyte has to avoid the tendency to anglicize the word and pronounce it 'roo,' which is wrong on two counts.  Then there's the problem of the 'u' sound in a word like peu (a little or a little bit).  If you were to pronounce it like the English word 'pew,' you'd be close enough that you just might be understood by a Frenchwoman, if she takes the word in the context of the rest of your sentence.  But that's not quite right.  To me it sounds as though you're starting to say 'pew' but sort of chop it off at the end.  It always sounds like it has an almost imperceptible 'r' sound in there somewhere, sort of like the British often tack on a faint 'r' sound to some words ending in 'a' (though they would rigorously deny that they are doing such a thing).  But if you put too much of an 'r' sound on the word peu, it would sound dangerously like peur, the French word for 'fear.'  Damned if you do; damned if you don't.  And then there's also the word plus to deal with.  What it takes to get this right is listening and repeating the correct sounds ad infinitum. Here's a little video that deals with some of these problems: 

Well let's switch gears for a moment.  All this talk of the subtleties of French pronunciation is giving me un peu de peur.  Fortunately my local library carries copies of the CD's for Pimsleur's French.  I believe they have levels from beginner to advanced.  The problem is that it appears that there is no way to change the format of the CD materials to mp3's that I could save them on the device I use to listen to French when I do my daily exercise.  Presumably, that's technically illegal anyhow.  So, I do have a portable CD player, but the issue is that it seems to require a huge amount of battery energy, and I'm forced to replace the batteries so often that it gets to be rather expensive.  I suppose I need to start buying rechargeable batteries, since I think I do have a charger somewhere.  Anyway, the Pimslear CD's are very good, I think.  native speakers introduce a series of conversational type dialogues, so that you learn the right pronunciation in small, manageable chunks.  I also like the way it makes you participate in the dialogue.  Nothing but listen-and-repeat can be counterproductive.  One needs to be ready with a quick, unforced response to typical conversational questions.  I can't afford to buy the CDs, though I do think they are worth the price for serious language learners.

A la prochaine...

Call Me Mr. Samsa

Bonne journée, mes copains.  Finalment, il est mars--le printemps arrivera bientôt.  

Call me Monsieur Gregor Samsa, aujourd'hui.  No, I didn't wake up as a cockroach, but as a yo-yo.  Yesterday I was italiano, but today I'm distinctly français .  At first I tried to control these spontaneous metamorphoses, but I've decided that it's useless to resist.  My affection for French, Spanish, and Italian are equal--with a slight bias towards the latter.  But I don't think I can completely abandon any of them.



The disadvantages of this infidelity are two-fold:  1) the hours I'm putting in for one language take away those I could be immersing myself in another and 2) since all three tongues are Latin-based and therefore somewhat similar, there's a danger of getting them confused.  I've already experienced that with Italian and Spanish, languages in which many words only slightly differ.  

I think what rolled me over to my French personality recently is that I'm finally beginning to feel a little better at comprehending more oral French.  Watching Inspecteur Barnaby (the French dubbed version of 'Midsomer Murders,' one of my favorite British detective shows) recently, I was delighted to find that I was capturing more and more of the dialogue, instead of hearing only a word or two here and there.  Since one of my main objectives for studying language has been to be capable of watching foreign films and TV shows in the original language without subtitles, this is a major breakthrough.  

So, how did this step-up in fluency transpire?  One thing that has contributed, I think, is that I've placed more emphasis on speaking.  Ironically, speaking French somehow helps in recognizing the sounds of spoken French.  And since I don't have access to any natives, my primary venue for speaking has been my library copy of Pimsleur's French instruction CD, which put a great deal of emphasis on speaking.  That, coupled with reading French aloud, has made some inroads.  This progress is very important, because if I have less difficulty with comprehension, this new-found skill will most definitely make me more confident to approach the next stage:  speaking face-to-face with a native speaker on Sykpe or some equivalent audio-video platform.

So today I have on my chapeau.  Tomorrow don't be surprised if I show up in a sombrero.  I'm a man of many hats.

A la prochaine...

Rude Awakening

Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs.  Comment allez-vous, cette matin? 

Today's ramblings (divagations, according to Google Translate) are on the controversial question 'Are Parisians unfriendly and rude?  I've heard resounding oui's on this topic and just as many vehement non's.  

I've heard that they are rude to you in Paris only if you make no effort at all to speak their language.  Some say that if you bonjour them a little, they are like putty in your hands.  There is probably at least a partial truth in that.  English speakers, especially Americans, are notorious for thinking everybody is born speaking English, so I can see why such an attitude might come across as arrogant and disrespectful.  And yet, I was surprised to see a short film clip in which the interviewer was going about the city asking various people (permanent residents as well as passing tourists) what they thought of the city.  A few said it was merveilleux, others sort of noncommittally noted the culture and lovely sights, but quite a few said Parisians were bitter, angry, and impolite people.  Here's a very funny CNN video about what Paris is trying to do to be more 'user friendly:

 

Here's a video about what Paris is trying to do to improve its public relations

I'd say, to be fair, that it's all about the hustle and bustle and diversity of living in a big city.  I lived in New York for decades and know that it was not always easy to make an effort to be polite to the tourists, who were there on vacation, while I was still in the day-to-day rat-race.   And perhaps there are some people who provoke rudeness.  And when you're trying to squeeze into a subway car packed like sardines, it's quite easy to accidentally poke one's elbow into someone's face.  And if you went around all day begging their pardon, you'd be apologizing all day.  

But still, we need to be civilized to each other.  Tourists are spending euros and dollars, so they need to know that they can be safe and comfortable, whether in Paris, Rome, or Boise, Idaho.  

À plus tard...