this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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[–] spizzat2@lemm.ee 61 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] ebc@lemmy.ca 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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[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 43 points 7 months ago (3 children)

From experience the french do the same with english

[–] Forester@yiffit.net 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 28 points 7 months ago

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

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 months ago

Que dis-tu ? Je ne parle pas anglais

[–] eierkuchen@feddit.de 3 points 7 months ago

That's the joke

[–] VulKendov@reddthat.com 3 points 7 months ago

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

[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 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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[–] elvith@feddit.de 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"

[–] bitMasque@lemmy.world 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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[–] VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)
[–] ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Norway might not be accurately described in this map. While walking through the airport, every airport worker kept trying to speak to me in Norwegian. I don’t know any words in their language. It would be cool if I did, but I don’t. Anyway, they always looked confused, repeated themselves more slowly, and waited for a response from me. Eventually, I realized one of them was asking me about my backpack.

[–] Flughoernchen@feddit.de 8 points 7 months ago

Also I feel like the French really appreciate it if you try. Or at least hate you a little less. In my experience, after showing off my best (still bad) bonjours and mercis all of the people I talked to turned a lot friendlier and were even willing to speak a little English.

[–] MadBigote@lemmy.world 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.

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[–] DumbAceDragon@sh.itjust.works 21 points 7 months ago

"Pardon my French"

Absolutely not

[–] QT1@lemm.ee 16 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Is that you, Werner Herzog?

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 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.

[–] Sertou@lemmy.world 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."

[–] _cnt0@sh.itjust.works 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.

[–] ebc@lemmy.ca 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!

[–] ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Pour les spécificités étrange avez vous un example?

[–] ebc@lemmy.ca 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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[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 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@sh.itjust.works 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.

[–] VulKendov@reddthat.com 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah but Latin's pretty much a dead language, and the Greeks never spread their "disease" of a language on the scale that the French did

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 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@sh.itjust.works 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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[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 10 points 7 months ago

Hey, an Anglo-Québecois!

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 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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[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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

[–] JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 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

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (13 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.

[–] Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago

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

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[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 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.

[–] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

I actually did this

[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)
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[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 4 points 7 months ago

Ça me va. On fait comme ça👍

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Croissant, baguette du fromage, rien rien.

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[–] shalva97@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

I did that to Russian language.

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