Re: OT: Teaching French

Chris Bates 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. :)
>
>
Try simply rounding your lips during the <r> sound.  That should give a
similar effect.  My problem, in French, is that I often pronounce /O~/
as /A~/.  Which I really shouldn't do, but I can't, personally, hear the
difference, which makes it hard to remember that they are different.

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