this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 62 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I can think of about four-twenty-ten-seven reasons not to learn French.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

seventeen is said as ten-seven in French.

Belgium's got it, though: soixante, septante, huitante, nonante, cent

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 7 months ago (3 children)

From experience the french do the same with english

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago

Oh i guess i got whoosed. I thought it was a just the usual beef with french.

[–] idefix 8 points 7 months ago

Que dis-tu ? Je ne parle pas anglais

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I'm fine with that. French has done enough damage to English.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

That's the joke

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

"Je ne parle pas français" There you go, everything you need.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I can say "I don't speak [language], sorry." in about 10 languages, just so if someone tries to speak to me I can say that to them.

So far only one person has said any follow up things in that language. I like to think it was "but you're speaking it now!" but probably just about work stuff.

Is it weird that I get a very tiny kick out of the slight confusion I can see on some people's faces?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

IIRC if you cannot do it because you never learned it it's "Je ne sais pas parler français"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (6 children)

"I do not speak French" versus "I do not know how to speak French". Both are correct, though only the latter clarifies not speaking the language because they do not understand it, rather than purely out of spite. So in this specific case, the former could be used as a subtle FU.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Not all Germany is like that. I was in Freiburg last winter and the can't/don't want to speak English. Only the most tourist places would speak English, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

This doesn't reflect my housemate's experience in Italy at all. Evidently if they detect an American accent in your "buongiorno" they'll just spend the rest of the day mocking you in Italian and occasionally just yelling "DONALD TRUMP HAMBURGER TRANSGENDER" at you.

[–] DumbAceDragon 21 points 7 months ago

"Pardon my French"

Absolutely not

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Is that you, Werner Herzog?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

This is what one of Edmond Dantes alter egos did in the Count of Monte Cristo. “Lord Wilmore” was an eccentric Englishman who understood French perfectly well, but refused to speak it:

… Lord Wilmore appeared….His first remark on entering was, "You know, sir, I do not speak French?"

"I know you do not like to converse in our language," replied the envoy.

"But you may use it," replied Lord Wilmore; "I understand it."

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

Imagine if French people learned English and chose to speak it online/in-game instead of assuming everyone speaks French as if it is still the lingua franca.

[–] _cnt0 11 points 7 months ago (6 children)

J'ai dû apprendre le français à l'école. L'alternative aurait été le latin. Je déteste tellement cette langue.

You can keep all mistakes I made in that sorry excuse of a garbage language.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Tu détestes le français spécifiquement, ou juste le fait d'avoir eu à apprendre une autre langue?

Le français, je peux comprendre un peu, il y a quant même plusieurs spécificités étranges à cette langue. Ce n'est pas pour rien qu'on passe plusieurs années à l'apprendre avant d'éventuellement passer à la littérature. Je crois que les cours d'anglais langue première font cette transition beaucoup plus tôt.

Détester le fait d'avoir eu à apprendre une autre langue, là je ne comprends pas du tout!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Pour les spécificités étrange avez vous un example?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Pour un apprenant anglophone, par exemple:

  • Les objets inanimés genrés
  • Les lettres muettes en fin de mot (s au pluriel, e final, etc)
  • Les différentes façons d'écrire un même son (é, er, et, ai)
  • Les différentes façons de prononcer une même lettre (c, s)
  • L'énorme quantité de conjugaisons de verbes possibles
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ironiquement, tu n'as pas fait de fautes, tu as même pensé à l'accent circonflexe à « dû ».

[–] _cnt0 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I always had better grades in French than in English. Which bothered me, because I hated French almost from the start and thought English was/is much more important.

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[–] idefix 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ok I'm biased but Latin and Greek are so much worse (yes I've been there).

[–] _cnt0 3 points 7 months ago

Friend of mine went to a school which fashioned itself as "the old school" (as in historically old school). They learned latin and old greek instead of anything useful. He was furious when he came back from vacation in Greece and he only found one person, an old professor in Greek history, who he could talk to.

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[–] Kecessa 10 points 7 months ago

Hey, an Anglo-Québecois!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Va swinger la bacaisse dans l'fond d'la boite à boîs

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Je ne parlé français, même que je comprend un peut le français.

(Almost nothing, I just took one class lol).

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I mean, this is what you call a power move.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (11 children)

If a French-speaking person gives you shit for pronouncing words in French wrong, dare them to say "LinkedIn" in the presence of your English-speaking fluency and try to not humiliate themselves. Maybe first bait then with one they can do, like "Facebook" before crushing their spirits.

Like we could get mean with "squirrel" or "thorough" or "hedgehog", but those are less reasonable that they'd have fucking consistent practice with.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Ha ha ask a yank to pronounce "squirrel" or "mirror" you'll get sqwrrrrrrl and meeeeer

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I need to know how they would pronounce it. I took French so long ago, and for such a short time, I barely remember any of it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Leen koo din.

For some reason 3 syllables and for some reason a very rounded "ooh" that is absolutely nowhere to be found in its spelling.

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[–] JamesStallion 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This may be the most Canadian meme ever made, even if unintentionally.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Very few of us know any of it, the further west you go the less you’ll find it

But we do view Quebec as better than Ontario

And French people as better than Americans

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

The weird thing about knowing a foreign language is sometimes u might offend people for trying to speak their mother tongue when they're working on their English, so like unless you are in a country where that's the spoken language, it's super awkward any time you want to actually use that language that you learned.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I actually did this

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Ça me va. On fait comme ça👍

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Croissant, baguette du fromage, rien rien.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I did that to Russian language.

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