Why do American students always need help translating and the French rarely seem to be confused about anything? I'm American myself, so don't think this is some sort of hate speech, it's just a curiosity...
Hi, i'm french. I can tell you that french students are confused more often than you think. It's probably because you don't live in france, but learn english for us is not very funny too. Of course, english is easier than french, and it's the universal langage, so perhaps we learn it with more pleasure than you when you learn french. For me, american students don't seem stupid, french is just difficult. We see always more the idiots of our country that those of the others (Sorry for the mistakes)
I'm semi-fluent in French, but that's from living in Europe with French people. I took it in school forever and could barely say "bonjour".
It's the same for Brits when learning other languages. I think it's the hegemony of the English language which has made us lazy. After all, if everyone else can speak your language, why bother learning theirs? That seems to be the mentality, it's a shame....
hi guys, I have this chat very often with Brits, and i think it's a question of educational priorities (ie foreign languages are not very important in many schooling systems). It's nothing to be ashamed off... As long as you're not too corky when going to foreign countries and speak loudly in english just in case people'd be deaf and not foreign!!! Only kidding ;-) I think it's educational more than anything else, and this problem occurs in many countries. As many french people I absolutely hated English at school (I obtain the amazing score of 5 out of 20 at ny French A-Levels) but then went on to live in Britain by chance and discovered how exciting it is to really learn a language!
lol, that's with everybody. My mum needed explain help going from Igbo to English, translation wise. As a contrast my best friend's sister needs help going from French to greek, everyone gets tied up on a language that isn't their own, not just Americans.
I was born in american but I don't consider myself a patriot. "I consider myself a child of this Earth"-Micheal Franti. They are dumb. I take french. I can't speak it fluently and I've been in a french class for 4 years. I guess I can understand it, but i can't speak it.
Hi I agree with Peace-Phoenix. I travelled in some contries and saw a lot of americans trying to get something. Even if they have some basis in french, they tends to use english words. I asked some of them why and they told me that they didn't think their sentences were perfect so they didn't wanted to try it just in case it leads to misunderstanding. I went to germany few years ago and try to buy some train tickets. I ask the guy if he understand english. He said no. Since I don't speak german, i continued in english and he understood perfectly what I wanted but always answered me in german. He seems more shy than "not able to speak in english". So I think there is a lot of things that can leads to this behavior. The important thing to remember is that the real goal is to understand each other no matter the way used. Sébastien.
I think that the big reminder there is body language and charisma. Language is a very fluid stream of interaction both sensual, and procedural. 70 % of what is said in any given scenario of motorized individuals is residual physical-throwoff. Though there is the other side to that spectrum to, which is the deduction of alignments in self-maintained self-awareness, in such movements. Kinda like familiaraity, and functional-systematicism.
Yeah that is true! I am not from France nor the usa but Ecuador. I speak Spanish as mother language, I've been learning French for 1 month, and I can understand a lot of phrases in French, because Spanish and French are very very similar...BUt English is different from French because it is not an italic language and its grammar has been simplified...It's just history!
