Language Barriers?

[Eagle]

greeneyeddreamer, one question - is your friend fluent in Canadian French or Parisian French?

A few people I've spoken with while travelling have told me that those speaking Canadian French are sometimes treated worse by the French than English speakers.

It will be interesting to see what your experience is?

Cheers!

[me]

greeneyeddreamer said:

real french.

REAL French, lol! do Canadians speak fake French??

if someone doesn't/won't understand, ask someone else. if you're in a store, go to a different store.

the treatment i heard the Parisians gave my French Honor Society member sister, is a big reason i've avoided the city.

but, i hear they're actually nice to Americans these days, and appreciate the effort to speak the local lingo. perhaps you should pretend to be American? ;D

[Eagle]

David,

REAL French, lol! do Canadians speak fake French??

From what I can gather in talking to people, the Quebecois French is not considered to be "real" French by those who speak Parisian French. It seems to fall into the category of a dialect OR a "coarse" or slang version of the language.

One Quebecois person I spoke with recently said some of the words have different meanings between the two versions of French. The example he provided was the word to describe a child's doll. The Quebecois word for this is the same as "woman of ill repute" in the Parisian version.

Of course, not being a French speaker I'm not thoroughly familiar with all the differences between the two versions of French. While Canada might "officially" be a bilingual country (our taxpayer dollars at work!), out here in Western Canada French is NOT prevalent at all (even though many parents put their children in French Immersion schools).

Cheers!

[herrbert]

me said:

do Canadians speak fake French??

Do you speak English?

[me]

herrbert said:

Do you speak English?

yep, i speak American Standard English, with some minor Texan colloquialisms in the mix. have never had problems being understood in England. there are a handful of words that have different meanings, but just a handful. i would certainly not suggest that what i speak isn't "real English."

when i was staying in Rome, other guests at the Beehive were a group of young Swiss women. the Swiss-German they spoke with each other was very different from the German they used to speak with me. the strong Swiss accent was actually funny, but it was just as real as the German they spoke to me.

the Dutch spoken in Flanders is just as "real" as the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, no?

if British visitors in Texas were "not understood," i'd suggest that the British in question move on to someone else.

- d

[WillTravel]

My friends and I were talking about African French movies, and we agreed that African French can be clearer than Parisian French.

I have heard that when a TV program from a former colony (be it Quebec or whatever) is shown on French TV, they will use subtitles.

I guess the same thing can happen when we see a Glaswegian program, to be fair.

[greeneyeddreamer]

eagle said:

David,

REAL French, lol! do Canadians speak fake French??

From what I can gather in talking to people, the Quebecois French is not considered to be "real" French by those who speak Parisian French. It seems to fall into the category of a dialect OR a "coarse" or slang version of the language.

One Quebecois person I spoke with recently said some of the words have different meanings between the two versions of French. The example he provided was the word to describe a child's doll. The Quebecois word for this is the same as "woman of ill repute" in the Parisian version.

Of course, not being a French speaker I'm not thoroughly familiar with all the differences between the two versions of French. While Canada might "officially" be a bilingual country (our taxpayer dollars at work!), out here in Western Canada French is NOT prevalent at all (even though many parents put their children in French Immersion schools).

Cheers!

haha thank you for clearing that up for me. When I said 'real' french, I meant Parisian France. In Canada, it is common for people to think that Canadian French, or Quebecois (not fake!), is much different from the french spoken in France.

[herrbert]

me said:

herrbert said:

Do you speak English?

yep, i speak American Standard English, with some minor Texan colloquialisms in the mix. have never had problems being understood in England. there are a handful of words that have different meanings, but just a handful. i would certainly not suggest that what i speak isn't "real English."

when i was staying in Rome, other guests at the Beehive were a group of young Swiss women. the Swiss-German they spoke with each other was very different from the German they used to speak with me. the strong Swiss accent was actually funny, but it was just as real as the German they spoke to me.

the Dutch spoken in Flanders is just as "real" as the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, no?

if British visitors in Texas were "not understood," i'd suggest that the British in question move on to someone else.
- d

But still there are some differences from the Oxford English.

Within the Netherlands, you have some other languages, like 'Frysian', that is considered a language, and a regional language 'Limburgs'. If people from these areas speak their language or dialect, it's really hard for people from let's say Amsterdam to understand them (if not impossible).

Flandres has different words in their dictonary, that we don't understand or use, but most of the language is the same. Most difference words they use are made up words for new things, were the Dutch ofter just 'borrow' the English term. In Belgium they want to find a Dutch term to describe this. The same can be said from Afrikaans. I can understand people from South-Africa, who speak this, but it sounds funny, and I really need to focus and listen carefully. (and they also have words we don't use.)

The same can be said from the countries were they speak German. There is a standard German (Hoch-Deutsch), that is spoken by most people, but there are differences in each region.

[me]

Ostfrieslander jokes were common in Münster back in the day.