Who does speak French here ? Qui parle Français ici?

[mylye2222]

As I am now documentating myself about the Franco Americans I would just like to know for personal general culture inprovement only,

Do you Speak French?
How did you learned it?

Thanks DUers!

[PCIntern]

1. "here around"? Yoda-ese? nt

[DavidDvorkin]

40. Non-native speaker, I assume

Please don't mock.

[PCIntern]

41. I wasn't...

if that were the case. How is anyone supposed to know that? The post itself asked if anyone spoke French - it did not self-identify. Sorry if I offended the individual…nice of you to step forward.

[madamvlb]

2. Oui!!!

Married a Frenchie.

[vt_native]

3. Un petit peu

enough to start a conversation in Montreal which will end up in English.

[Nay]

15. Moi aussi. Un petit peu. Ma mere etait Quebecoise.

I never learned it as a child because my dumb father forbade my mother from speaking French to us because "it would confuse us." What an idiot. He was an alcoholic asshole, too.

[arthritisR_US]

17. Wow, my late husband was FrenchCanadian. We

lived a few of the early years in Quebec and later in Toronto and then Calgary. We raised our daughter in the latter two cities and we insisted she be in French Emmersion from pre K right up until she graduated high school.

Some members in his family spoke a wee bit of English but not much. For us we felt she has two heritages and so to honour her French part Emmersion was one of those steps

[Nay]

24. You're lucky! My father didn't give a hoot about anything but himself. It took

me quite a few years to figure that out.

[arthritisR_US]

38. When we have gone to Quebec to visit his

family, people comment that my daughter doesn't even have an English accent when speaking French. There were two sides in our marriage and I felt adamant that she know her French heritage as well. We even cook French Canadian dishes at Christmas and other occasions along with my British dishes.

[PDJane]

4. I read it, understand it, speak some........

I learned it in school. I'm a Canadian, tu comprends, and was taught at a time when Franch was compulsory all the way through high school. It was taught badly, and they should have started much earlier; I was on the cusp of the changes.

Still, I am grateful for what education I did receive.

[MineralMan]

5. I can speak and understand French to some degree.

I studied it in High School. When traveling in France, I was able to carry on all needed conversations. I'm not even close to being fluent, though.

[femmocrat]

6. I can only read it.

I had four years in high school and two in college. Straight A's! I even tutored it. One of my greatest regrets is not sticking with it to get a teaching certification.

I cannot speak fluently or understand much spoken Francais.

[closeupready]

7. I do - learned it at the Alliance Francaise,

both in the US and in France (for a year). I speak and read it good enough, I think, hehe.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. No, but I've mastered profanity. Learned it in high school and the USMC.

And, practice it daily when dealing with politicians, shrink wrap, and a recalcitrant computer.

[ucrdem]

9. bonjour mylye!

Oui, je parle français, pas bien j'ai peur, mais j'aime beaucoup la langue que j'ai étudié à l'université, il y a longtemps LOL!

Et vous, comment est-ce que vous avez appris le français? et qu'est-ce que vous pensez de l'anglais?

[mylye2222]

10. Eh bien. .. Je suis Française! !!

But I enjoy having English conversations as many as possible! !!

[ucrdem]

12. quelle chance! :D

Et je comprends exactement, parce que je suis le même, j'aime parler français avec mes copains français/e/s ici.

Et je sais que vous savez mylye, mais pour les autres ... nous avons une Groupe Francophone chez DU, et tous le monde sont bienvenus!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1164

Visitez-nous là s'il vous plaît!

.......................
p.s. avez-vous regardé ce film? Je comprends que c'était très populaire cet été:

[KingCharlemagne]

11. Un tout petite peu. (J'etais prof d'anglais dans un lycee a Beaune

de 1985-86.)

By the same token, I have no friggin' clue how to get accents grave and aigu to show up on an American keyboard. Pardonnez-moi!

[ucrdem]

13. If you have a PC it's pretty easy to set up, haven't tried the others:

http://french.about.com/od/writing/ss/typeaccents.htm

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

14. Built in on Macs

Contact me if you need details.

[lonestarnot]

16. What does this mean?

"J'ai Obtenu Cette" ???

[Ellipsis]

18. I have got this

[lonestarnot]

20. And how is that pronounced?

[closeupready]

25. Shay Ob tenu Set.

Some will pronounce it, "Shob tenu Set", but that's really sort of gutter. "I have obtained this." (translated literally - I presume, in that light, that it was a political conversation about Obama, Mr. "I got this!"?)

I recall during my time in France, I'd say something like, "Shay Pah" for "Je ne sais pas" and my landlady would go all Rambo on me, "Je! Ne! Sais! Pas!"

[SheilaT]

27. I want to quibble that

it's not "shay" but "zhay". The zh represents how you pronounce the z in the word azure. If you pronounce it like the z in zebra, you're pronouncing it wrong.

[closeupready]

31. You are not incorrect. "Shay" is considered gutter; "zhay" is acceptable.

Oh, how uptight the French can be about language, and yet, in almost any other human activity, it's 'laissez-faire'.

[SheilaT]

33. Obviously I hang out with the wrong

people.

Don't think I'd ever run across the "shay" pronunciation before. I need to get out more often!

[closeupready]

36. lol, I know - this particular guy was a lot of fun.

And he'd say, phonetically, "shwee pas" for "Je ne suis pas" lol. But I'm forgetting at the moment the other expression that used to drive my landlady batshit insane. If I think of it later, I'll post it here. Cheers!

[closeupready]

42. I remembered the exchange I had with her -

She was not just my landlady, but a physician, very connected politically, and a WWII era survivor, a woman of great intellect and gracious beauty. Having said that, I remember explaining to her about something, in French, "... because ..." which - in French - is parce que; young people and rougher types pronounce it, "pars-ka", but when spoken traditionally, would be "par-si-ka". Anyway, yes, she went off on me about that. She stopped me mid-sentence, and corrected me.

Language is serious business with them. Then again, so is Jerry Lewis, so there you go.

[arthritisR_US]

19. Un petit peu. nt

[bemildred]

21. Un petit peu.

Three years in High School.

[hfojvt]

22. je t'aime

And of course, I learned that from all the lovely French ladies who kept saying it to me. I met beaucoup of them after I took part in the coup d'etat.

And even after it was a fait accompli that they were not my raison d'etre, they still said non, je ne regrette rien.

But I am guessing you don't believe that merde, and I need to arret anyway because I am all out of Francais, which I don't really parlez vous.

[Tracer]

23. Oui.

Took French in school, then spent my junior year in Paris.

The best year of my life.

I was fluent back then, am pretty rusty now -- but got along fine last year when I was back in Paris.

[elleng]

26. Oui.

In high school, and continued in college.

[BeyondGeography]

28. Raises hand

Lived there for four years as a student and had a serious Parisian girlfriend. The only way I could have (l)earned it.

Elle me rendait fou, mais ca valait bien la peine.

[Aerows]

29. Je ne parle pas français

[SheilaT]

30. Moi, je parle un peu francais.

J'avais un professeur à l'école secondaire qui était un excellent professeur.

During WWII he served as an interpreter for the French forces in England, including M. le général, DeGaulle.

I learned a great deal, have kept up with my French surprisingly well, despite coming up next year on my 50th high school reunion. It helps that I have had a couple of opportunities to visit French speaking countries, although never for more than a week at most. I also had a co-worker some years back, and we'd speak to each other in French fairly often. Made our mono-linguist co workers a little crazy, not that we cared.

I love it when I'm out somewhere and come across some French speaking person, and I simply start speaking to them in their language. They are always so amazed to meet an American (especially here in New Mexico) who can do so.

[uppityperson]

32. Je parle un peu, parlé français est difficile à comprendre

Mon souer a épousé un homme français.

J'ai étudié le latin pendant quatre ans au lycée. Je peux lire le Français mieux que le parler.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

34. "ils sont partis."

What is he saying....the track announcer at Evangeline Downs?

[U4ikLefty]

35. Freedom Fries

no?

[mnhtnbb]

37. I can get by in travel French--but less than I was able to 30 years ago.

I first took French in 3rd grade in private school in New Jersey.
Then in middle school, high school, and also college level.

My reading comprehension is still pretty good, but, alas, my ability
to speak has really fallen off. Found that out in France last spring.

[laundry_queen]

39. Ca fait longtemps

Mais je peux parler un peu encore.

My mom is French Canadian (not from Quebec though, but her grandparents were) and French is her first language. My dad didn't want her to speak French to us when we were little, but eventually we moved to a French town that had a French immersion school and she told him she was putting us in French imm. whether he liked it or not, LOL. So I spent all my school years in French Immersion, got a bilingual high school diploma and then had a year of Francophone university.

Then I moved in with someone who didn't know French, moved away and lost all if it in a decade.

Then I moved back and now all my kids are in French immersion. I'm trying to get my French back but it's not easy. And the French I do remember is pretty slangy (thanks to my extended family, lol). I am pretty sure no one in France would be able to understand my accent, LOL.

When my life is a little less hectic, I'm going to see if I can join a group of people who like to speak French to keep up the language (I know there are a few social clubs around here dedicated to it). For now, I spend quite a bit of time helping my kids with their homework and that helps a lot. My reading skills are still really good so I read in French to my kids quite often (they have to take out 1 French book a week from the library). It's amazing how you can lose a language quickly if you don't use it regularly.

[Marr]

43. I can get by, but I'm sort of an American Borat.

I've always liked the French language. Took it in highschool, learned a lot watching movies and reading magazines. Worked in Paris for a while, too, and picked up a lot there. There's nothing like immersion.