My wife and I both studied French for many years in grade school through early college, and for a while we could converse passably well. But those skills, like so many others, have atrophied over the years. We can still read reasonably well, but speaking and listening to a native speaker are more difficult skills. You can compose whatever sentences you like in your head, but what comes out of your out-of-practice mouth and tongue is likely to be embarrassing. But the real danger is saying something well enough that the other party decides to continue the interaction in French, leaving you looking dumb-founded if they go off script at all.
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Eisenhower has setbacks before he got to Normandy too.
(If I ever make it back to France, I’m going to Normandy)
Been twice, and the emotional experience is impressive.
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I found it useful to listen to the subway stop announcements as I read the signs.
For most of them I could have tried 50 times and never landed on the correct pronunciation.
I have only been to Paris twice and have had a similar experience as Limey, attempting to speak French only to have them answer back in English. The only conflict I had was the first time a beggar kicked my bicycle for my refusal to give him 5 (or was it 6?) franks, so he could buy a sandwich and a cold beverage. He was very specific. I said sorry but no. He said he “didn’t want my sympathy, he wanted my money.” And kicked my bike. I then rode away to avoid escalation.
On my second trip, a guy attempted to pick-pocket me in very a crowded train station. I was on a tight schedule and was already stressed out. I turned around before he could pull my wallet out and shoved him hard against a wall of lockers. He acted like he was going to fight back but his buddy/watcher alerted him the the approaching gendarmes and the two fled disappearing into the crowd.
But overall, I love Paris, it’s a great city, very dense and full of green spaces and the best mass transit system in the world.
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A friend of mine from Mexico, once suggested that I stop trying to speak Spanish to her because it I sound like a retard.
Her favorite poets all agreed Spanish is the loving tongue. But she never spoke Spanish to me… after that.
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pero ella
conmigo no habló
(I had their Spanish language cd as well as the ingles)
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I got to see Flaco and Augie a couple of years ago at the Fischer Dance Hall. They were great. They sure are old. They did a bunch of Texas Tornado songs. Also seen Joe Ely do that song on many occasions. Joe’s version is my favorite.
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I was in Paris with the family earlier this summer. The last time I studied French was first semester of my freshman year in college (1995). But, I did some very rudimentary brushing up and started every conversation in French and was met with almost enthusiastic politeness.
The pinnacle was trying to obtain some medication in a pharmacy after my son picked up some nasty bug bites. I did the whole thing in French, including fielding the pharmacist’s questions (and converting my kid’s weight into kilograms). Once the transaction was complete and the medicine in my hand, the pharmacist reached over, patted my shoulder, and said in perfect English “very nicely done.”
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I love this so much.
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I’ve may have shared this before, but here goes:
Summer before my senior year in college I was an exchange student in Holland. I met 2 Italian girls and amid small talk I told them I found Italian and Spanish pretty similar.
“No! Italian is not like Spanish! It is like French!”
Ooookay.
I’ve heard Itaaaaaliaaaaaan girls sometimes hold their religious habits in front of your eyes
Just to get you tied
My guide at the Colosseum a few months ago said “if you speak Spanish, you can learn Italian in a week”.
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It was a personal highlight. I knew I was being judged, it was nice to know that it was with approval.
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I have used this trick countless times – It was especially helpful in Thailand where I could correlate the sounds to the Thai script (which is not very faithfully represented in the roman script versions). It really came in handy when trying to sound out the name emblazoned on the hospital I was looking for.
That’s what I’m sayin.
I can pick out words in spoken Italian and can usually read signs etc reasonably well.
French? Not so much. I might be able to pick out a few written words every few sentences. Spoken French might as well be Mandarin to my ears.
ETA: I do find it melodic and pleasing, I just can’t discern what is being said
One of my daughters is Viet and spent a few torturous months teaching me Vietnamese phrases. She gave up on me but I was undeterred when I went to Vietnam for two weeks a few years ago. I brushed up on my key phrases and then, when I got there, poured through and listened to everything I could at the airport and on the trains to get acclimated. Yeah, it was a total waste. The tonal structures of the language and my bland english-esque way of hesitantly saying words meant I ended up calling people bad words and asking for dubious things to happen again and again. So that by day 4, I had a street foodie tour guide ask me to “just stop”. LOL.
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Imane Khelif has named JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit.