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Re: OT: Teaching French

From:Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 23, 2004, 5:13
Yes, we're used to American pronunciation of French.
Probably the clearest think the interlocutor will get
will usually be: these people are American. But never
mind ! It's just the same for us abroad. And anyway,
it's better to tell a few sentences, even incorrect,
even strangely pronounced, in the local language, then
to address directly to a native in English, without
even asking: "excuse me, do you speak English ?"

--- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
wrote:
> Philippe Caquant wrote: > > >I think the main thing is vocabulary (not so much > the > >written one than the spoken one - pronunciation IS > a > >problem in French). > > > They know quite a few words, but they don't > pronounce them quite right. > Mind you, neither do I... according to my > dictionary, crois as in Je > crois que... is kRwa (I think.. unless I'm > confused)... as hard as I > try, I find it difficult to follow a French R with a > w. But mum and > dad... they pronounce tu and tout the same (ie, they > can't tell the > difference between u and y), 2 and 9 become @ (just > looking at the > X-SAMPA chart for the right numbers and symbols), > Dad turns e~ into an > and a~ into on usually... well, the vowels are well > and truly shuffled > anyway. They're not so bad on the consonants. :) >
===== Philippe Caquant "High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Joe <joe@...>