Tuesday, June 12, 2012
To Parler or Not Parler - C'est la question
The challenge with the language continues to be my inability to understand them. They all understand me reasonably well and often compliment me on my speech. Nevertheless, they all just speak too fast for my comprehension. We are trying to figure it out by watching French TV with French subtitles. The verdict is still out on this approach. The absolute hardest task is calling a business and getting a recording with a full menu of options - none of which are clear to us. Another almost impossible task is receiving a voicemail message entirely in French. It is so frustrating that we put a greeting message on our phone in French that says, "We are Americans. Please speak slowly - verrrrrry slowly." Perhaps that will help a bit. When we are out and about, everyone knows we are Americans as soon as we open our mouths, so they lower their expectations of our oral skills which is fine. No huge embarrassing gaffes so far, but they are bound to happen eventually.
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Bonjour! I'm Cecily O'Connor's daughter, Whitney. I lived in Paris for a year as a student, and Mum thought I'd enjoy your blog. So far it's wonderful and brings back so many memories! Your best bet for becoming used to the speed at which people speak is just to spend time with them and speak as much as possible. A great deal of our comprehension comes from body language and lip-reading, we just tend not to realize it. Once you get a little more comfortable, try listening to the radio (I found it less frustrating than the news since it's in snippets). You and your hubby can also make a pact to speak French at home. The trick to the speed is to stop translating everything; you need to think in French. I even used to make my grocery lists in French. You'll get there, I promise!!
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