Do you speak French?

[la_marée_haute]

Je ne parle pas francais.
Umm... bleu, verte, chateau, chat, libre, chien, un, duo, trios...


I took it in school but never really spoke it in class, though I can struggle through easy text still. Basically helps that I took latin in high school and you really get to see the similarities in some european languages. But spoken french? I get completely lost, it flows together and goes too fast for me to figure out words!

I've actually found that it's no faster than English at all. Any other language that you don't know always sounds fast, but it's not true (well, I'm guessing at least one language is really fast, lol, but most I don't think are). I used to think English was waaaay too fast to understand, but once I became fluent, I realised that's it's the same speed as French. Lol.

Also, French can be deceiving. You can put a lot of words together in a sentence by joining them on with '. To someone who doesn't speak the language, the sentence could sound like one or two words, while it was in fact 50.

 

[LA]

My mom put me into extended french in grade five. Our school offered it all the way to grade 8. It was supposed to be french for one half and english for the other half. We had math probably twice a week. My mom took me out of it and when I was in grade six I was terribly behind in math.

In grade nine we had a teacher that was a joke. We had to do a project in that class about a person (mine was Marie Currie) and we wrote it in english. I remember doing a lot of comics in that class.

 

[reachthestars]

Oui, je parle francais.

As well as an anglophone can, that is. I've just moved to what would be concidered the most french city in the province, and my friends in the course are all francophone, so guess what? I'm the minority, so we all just speak french. Some francophones give our group strange looks, because you get 2-3 people speaking french brilliantly, and then me . It's ok though, we all have to relearn it somewhere!

 

[jorats]

I think it's fantastic those that make an effort to learn french in Canada.
I've put my two boys through french immersion, one is very good at it but the other doesn't like it. He's good but refuses to speak it.

 

[Bronwyn]

I remember the French Immersion kids were practically their own club. I'm not sure why that was but in the playground they'd hang out together and that was that. Mingling didn't happen too much.

 

[Bati]

I think it's fantastic those that make an effort to learn french in Canada.

Isn't both French and English the same in Canada? Thought Canada was a bilingual contry (that official things had to be in two languages, not that all citizens speak both)

 

[jorats]

Government services must be offered in the two languages, that's about it.

To really learn French and make an effort, you have to be dedicated and not enough people are willing to do this.
I was very disappointed with the French Immersion program at my kids' school. I found it extremely lacking. But if a student is dedicated, like my oldest, then they go on to do extremely well in French or you can just breeze by and not really try and come out of it like a few other kids I know, they can't even hold a conversation in French. It's very discouraging.

 

[Bronwyn]

Exactly You have to want it.

I think I'm going to pick it up again. I haven't ruled out law enforcement at the national level and though I'd likely work as some sort of consult for bio-related stuff I'd still need French.

 

[Lise]

I don't know a lick of French. It is only mandatory in classes until grade 8... after which I promptly never took it again. It isn't helpful anyway, just being able to recite the months of the year or colors etc. I guess it is good to get the exposure but you will never be able to speak French just from one French class each year. About all I remember now is a movie series with a dancing "Anana" in it... Telefrancais? LOL

My aunt lives in Montreal and I have had mixed experiences there. Some people were very willing to switch to English for me, while others wouldn't at all. They would rather just have me standing there looking like a confused idiot having no idea what they were saying.

 

[Moon]

I was in french from 1st grade to 10th grade. I was quite good at it, but now I can pretty much get my point across in a very broken, round about way. I can find out where the bathroom and the bakery is though, LOL.

I was always pretty good at understanding french (if spoken slowly!) and I have a fairly good accent for it, but I have a lot of trouble writing in it or forming thoughts. I can read french quite well.

I have read that there are more and more french-centralized towns in the western provinces, especially Alberta. There is quite a movement for people who want to leave Quebec but don't want to live in Ontario... many end up in Alberta french-speaking towns.

 

[Melissa]

I was in French emmersion from kindergarten to grade 3. My parents pulled me out cuz my brother needed to change schools... turms out he was the one with the issues...

 

[Jack Sparrow]

Cool, just found this thread.

Je parle français parfaitement. C'est ma langue maternelle.

I was born in Québec City but my parents moved to Ottawa Ontario when I was 6.

I have 2 cultures, the Québécois culture and the Franco-Ontarien culture.

French people here in Ottawa often tell me that I have an accent from Québec and people from Québec tell me I have an accent from Ontario. So I think I might be kind of in between both accents.

 

[Bronwyn]

Does anyone find it like a hundred times easier to translate than put a sentence together?

 

[jorats]

Not for me, both is easy. lol

 

[Bronwyn]

Dang. I have to think quite hard between each word when speaking. ;D

 

[Moon]

I'm with you Bronwyn... like I said... I can read it pretty well, and understand it... so so if spoken slowly. But I am so bad at putting together sentences. Then again, I've only gotten worse as I haven't practiced it at all since 10th grade.

 

[reachthestars]

I've had to search for words lately, and it's really been bugging me. My friends keep telling me that I've been improving though! Apparently I have a good accent. For an Anglophone .

Am I the only one who lays in bed at night and speaks to myself in French? (Francophones excluded ). I'm not sure if it helps or not, but it's kind of neat having a convo with yourself in another language....

*shifty eyes*

 

[jorats]

Actually, I do do that...
Being married to an anglophone, I've lost a great deal of my maternal language, I'm still quite good but not as good as I should be.

 

[la_marée_haute]

Lol, well if I'm in France like I am now, if I speak to myself at all I do it in English and really really fast. My family over here can speak English quite well, but they get lost if I speak fast. Lol. And if I'm in Australia and I want to talk to myself I speak French. That works out well because my mum is the only one apart from me who speaks the slightest bit of French, and it's... well... bad, as she hasn't been to France for years.

 

[dubchick]

Apparently, France has always looked down upon the French from Quebec, telling them that it's not really French. Which is ironic because Quebec is constantly telling the francophone in Ontario that we don't speak real french. :roll:

if anyone thinks quebec french is bad... then they haven't been here in the maritimes.. a lot of the folks here speak what we call shieack (cant spell but prounounced shee-yack) or some call it franglaise... which is half french /half english... quite interesting to listen too.. if you are curious, there is this popular cartoon on tv lately called "acadieman" check it out..
im french- acadian... yet i was raised in calgary,alberta canada ...where its not very french... and altho ive been here in the maritimes canada for a while.. i havent picked up on speaking french... tho i can usually figure out what im reading in french..lol so thats ok...

its just funny because most of my family speaks french.... (maritime french and quebecqois french..) soooo.. when we get together... its kinda funny as soon as somone who only speaks english walks in a room with only french being spoken.. it switches to english.. just out of respect... ) does that mean french is harder to learn than english? or is the french taught in schools in canada just not up to par??