“I can understand a lot of French. I just can’t speak it,” students mutter. Pronunciation of French language for many is just plain tough. Even after more than 20 years of traveling in France, even after studying at the Sorbonne, the French remind me that I am not from ‘here,” meaning France. Do they hear a little Midwestern accent? Oh, gosh. I’m from Chicago. or Chicawgo. or Chicahgo. My accent is supposed to be neutral, used by television broadcasters. Oh well. “It’s a matter of pride about a language. It’s just the way they are,” I console myself. I have learned to flick it off my shoulder, like a stray strand of hair. But it’s good to listen to French television, French shows, French people speak their language. You’ll begin to hear the accents from people living in the provinces. In France, remember, Paris is the epicenter. For centuries French peasants living in the provinces trudged to Paris to work, sell their wares, and then made it back home to their villages. These peasants were not from Paris. But they were French.
With awareness of a few things, some practice, the situation can be improved. I cannot say that a person will be speaking French so well that they are mistaken for a French person. But the way they speak will be authentic and have its own charm. That is the essence of being French. Be yourself.
First, let’s consider nasalisations — These are the killers for many French language learners. In American we can have a twang, but it’s not like the French nasalisation. So, when you say, “Nous aimons,” (which has a double whammy liaison and nasalisation and can get a little confusing), you make a nasal sound for the verb ending, “ons.” You do not pronounce the “s.” Nasalisation is just like that - nasal - or - “in the nose.” Practice saying, “oh” with the throat open. Then practice moving the back of the tongue up closer to the nose and saying ,”ohng.”
I once had a teacher at the Sorbonne who ranted about how Americans couldn’t learn languages. There was a Dutch student in the class who spoke five languages - easily. I just shook my head. We Americans do have a problem learning foreign languages. We are more landlocked. We start to learn foreign languages far too late in school. Many students and their parents are practcal and don’t see a future in learning a foreign language. The parents want what’s best for their children. But Warren Buffet said that right now is the best time to work on yourself. Learning a foreign language is one way.
Our language programs in the public school were started in the ‘60’s. The Russians were the first to send up Sputnik in the late 1950’s and guess what? We didn’t have a clue about going into space and we didn’t know how to speak, read, and write Russian. We didn’t know anything about Russians, how they lived, how to trade with them (if we wanted to), how to get intelligence on them. Even better, and more interesting, how were we ever going to be able to just talk to Russians, if it ever came to that? In eight years we got a man on the moon. But we are still struggling with French.
Back to the Sorbonne teacher, I just ignored the comment, spoke up, made mistakes, took risks.
Liaisons - These are the little linking sounds that bring two words together. It is hard for nonnative French speakers to hear them. All the words run together, like water over rocks. Look for words that have a consonant at the end and a vowel at the beginning and run together. You’ll find a liaison. Once you get the idea, it just gets easier. Practice: “Vous êtes,” “nous aimons,” “nous étudions,” “vous étudiez,” When you read and practice with material, mark the liaisons with a pencil. I know it’s old fashioned. But it works.
Intonation — The French have a way of speaking a sentence. The voice starts low, goes up, then dips and comes down. To Americans it can sound snobby. But it is just their way. In American, we don’t do that. I had a french roommaate who signaled to me when she didn’t understand my slang or intonation. She would sing, “ to dooh, to dooh, to dooh?” with a rise in her voice to signal to slow down, speak clearly, remove the slang. By the end of the year she was fluent in American English.
The words “um” and “euh.” American say, “um,” when they need a little time to say something. The French say, “euh.”
Appropriations of language — The French borrow American expresssions and mix it up. They call it “franglais.” And there is much protest by the French about it. People borrow language and exchange expressions all of the time. It’s natural. When I was studying in France, it was cool for a French person to have a t-shirt that said, “UCLA” on it. The French went around saying, “UCLA” as if it were some kind of word. It sounded like “OOhclah.” When we explained to our student friends that UCLA was an acronym for the University of California Los Angeles, we just all laughed.
We borrow other expressions eaisily such as “savoir faire.” It literally means “to know how to do something.” It translates as having style in the way you do things.
English does absorb other languages quickly. The word “selfie” is now in the lexicon. Maybe it all started with William the Conqueror when he beat Harald Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Tapestry of Bayeux shows the whole battle in living embroidery. William brought a lot of French words to the English court and the vocabulary. A whole aristocracy spoke French. For example, “ le porc” for pork, the meat you eat. And “le cochon” for the pig. English has a lot of cognates, similar words, and so that helps in learning French . But you’ve really got to do is practice. Repeat this tongue twister: “Les chaussettes de l’Archiduchesse sont sèches.” It means the Archduchesses socks are dry.” How about it?