As l'anglaise in France I get a lot of 'Oh you are from England, where it is cold and rainy and you have bad food and a bad healthcare system' and as much as I can find all that funny, the thing that is really getting to me after almost 6 months is the use of English words in French. There are quite a few of them, often to do with the media, technology and British/American food. As an English speaker encountering these words you think, wahey, this word is easy to say, then you say it and nobody understands you. Issue.
Gnahhh so here commences my rant about how the French around me seem a little narrow minded, it's just like they dont want to understand what I'm trying to say. For the English words I have to think about it and put on my best mockingthefrench accent to say words such as 'burger' 'brownies' 'earl grey' etc. Today a group of frenchies had NO idea what I meant when I said 'pesto', when my french pesto pot definitely said 'pesto' on the side. Apparently it sounds more like 'pestu'. How is that so much different that they fail to understand what I mean?!? I don't think it takes a genius to work out what I'm trying to say when there is one tiny difference between the two languages rather than making a foreigner, who really struggles with the language, feel like an idiot. I got a little annoyed and pointed out that actually it is an Italian word anyway.
At least they have stopped screwing their faces up in a 'I-dont-understand-you-foreigner' way every time I talk.
I think perhaps I am more annoyed at myself that I can't pronounce the new words I'm learning. My brain can form the sentences but my mouth can't speak them. AND, reflecting on this a bit, I bet the French feel the same when beached in England and deemed incomprehensible when pronouncing the billions of French words we have. So I shouldn't feel so touchy about it.
Rant over and out.
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment