Foreign languages and accents

[Mattk]

When we speak French for example we are taught to speak in a French accent so how come the French don't speak English with an English accent?

I ask from genuine curiosity as I may purchase the rosetta stone language course.

[tiggerblue10]

Somehow I don't think the French would agree about the Brits speaking French in a French accent.

[sandyRoe]

I don't know about accents but I wouldn't recommend Rosetta Stone

[MarkRae]

We may be taught to speak French in a French accent but, with very few exceptions, none of us does...

[Postdog]

Dunno if that is strictly true about us being taught to speak with an accent. Some people have good diction whatever language they speak and maybe adapt to the fluency of the language more than others would.

Del boy speaking French for instance - OK I know it's not proper french, but it's still with an English accent.

[mike11111]

The French people I know who are good English speakers DO speak with an English accent. Just as you have English people making a poor attempt at speaking French, so it is with French ( or any other nation) people trying to speak English.

[ummmm]

English speaking French is like the accent that French speak English in.

[naomi24]

We are taught to speak French with a French accent - but few of us manage to speak it with a French accent. I often wonder if I sound as endearing to them as they sound to me. I must remember to ask my French friends.

[ELVIS68]

King of all accents..Steve McClaren

http://www.youtube.co...yJ27Y&feature=related

[ummmm]

My BF knows a Dutch bloke that speak English with a Dublin accent.

[ELVIS68]

He does Dutch too.......

http://www.youtube.co...AWrmQ&feature=related

[mike11111]

It is the accent which gives comprehension to the native speaker. If we all went around speaking foreign languages as in Allo Allo, we would be badly served. As a fairly fluent French speaker myself (with the accent to accompany) I am often embarrassed by the efforts of my compatriots. The worst I ever heard was that from the then PM, Edward Heath, who, on signing the Treaty of Rome enabling Britain to join the EEC (as it then was), made a speech in Paris in French (obviously scripted for him). It was like listening to a first year grammar school boy reciting from his primer, with no real understanding of what he was saying. I can remember curling up in embarrassment.

[naomi24]

Mike, //with the accent to accompany//

How very confident you are in your own ability. You remind me very much of my French Canadian friends. ;o)

[MarkRae]

I sympathise with Mike. I have a degree in French and, unless I'm introduced to French people as "Marc l'anglais", they normally can't tell that I'm not French. However, it took a good ten years to get to that stage, including living and working in France...

[boxtops]

My experience is that it can depend on who teaches you, too - I learned first from a French lady at my primary school, and a later teacher asked me whether I had spent time in the Bordeaux area, due to my accent in class. Sadly - not much used these days. OH lived much of his youth in Germany so picked it up from the locals too, I think that helps with comprehension and local terminology.

[mike11111]

Very confident. My French friends and contacts would agree. Certainly streets ahead of French Canadians, who are not all that highly-rated in 'La Belle France'.

[MarkRae]

Mike: Pourquoi est-ce qu'il n'y a pas de chaises dans les églises de Cuba?

[mike11111]

Exactement, Marc. All my French friends think I was brought up in Normandy. I can only attribute this to my very first French teacher, way back in 1960.

[boxtops]

Il n'y avait des chaises dans les églises en Angleterre dans les Âges Moyens

[ummmm]

Mark - why ask a question like that?

[MarkRae]

> Il n'y avait pas de chaises dans les églises en Angleterre dans les Âges Moyens

Cela se peut, mais ce n'était pas ma question...