Like everybody in France under 45 is fluent in English, and who the fuck wants to talk to an older European. Every single French colony without exception is phasing out or has phased out the use of French as France was such an awful colonial power. Did you know that Eclair is pronounced aey-clare? This does nothing for me. I guess some people want to read Les Miserables in the original Foot Mold Language, just like random people enjoy reading Ovid or Cicero in Catholic script.. And just like Latin, fuck that everything has genders and complicated conjugation.
I swear, the French teachers in school were trying to impart the vibe that if we know the French language, French women would have sex with us.
I refuse to defend any facts that I asserted in this essay.
Like everybody in France under 45 is fluent in English
this isn't even remotely correct lmao
Death to America
for real. their accent is so thick they may as well be speaking french
OP clearly never met a French person. Even if they can speak English, that doesn't mean they will do it just to conviniance a foreigner.
Problem is that they are assholes even if you try speaking but have an accent or aren't amazing. I also got yelled at in brussels, in a QUEER COMMUNITY SPACE, in the bathroom because I didn't speak french. Like this dude was yelling at me "In brussels we speak French not english" I just like put my head down and left. Just what the hell
Just cause they know English doesn't mean they want to use it while you're in their country.
Learning a second language is a gateway to living anywhere that's not
BTW, do you get that brand of Anglo expat that doesn't learn the language after living their for years and talks to everyone like a kindergartner in English? Or is that just a global south thing?
we get them here in hungary, which is not global south but not western europe either. i've always assumed anglo immigrants are just like this everywhere.
It must be rad to tell everyone in perfect French how absolutely terrible Amerika is. Do the lord's work!
Not in France and I don't speak French, I'm only defending them as a matter of principle
I have visited though
I actually like going to france? I seem to be the only person. I also like speaking the language. It is a fun one, very melodic.
I do not understand why French is put on the same level as actually useful languages. We've got a continent and a half that speaks Spanish right next door, and >40 million Spanish speakers in the country. There's a billion people who speak mandarin. 400 million who speak Arabic (kinda). Hell there's more indigenous language speakers than French speakers here.
Actually I do understand (it's racism).
Don't forget that ASL is the third most used language in the United States! No point in focusing exclusively on spoken languages, right?
In any case, I find it questionable to talk about languages in terms of "usefulness" like that, trying to measure "usefulness" based on an objective "number of speakers minus percentage who speak a language I already speak": there are plenty of reasons why a language can be personally useful to somebody, plenty of reasons to want to learn a language aside from how many new people one can talk to; and heck, learning one seemingly useless language can be great for building the skills and knowledge for taking on another language, or for becoming more flexible in using one's own first language.
That being said, you're not wrong to call the pedestal that French is put on compared to other languages a product of racism... Actually, I'd argue that a lot of foreign language education isn't even meant to get you proficient in that language, but rather more for the sake of, like, standardized school tests. Thus the languages that are put on the highest pedestal are just going to be the ones where the infrastructure already exists for getting butts in seats and tests on desks.
Hey, viens t'en au Québec! On a de la poutine, de la bière, des manifestations comme en France, du hockey, et de la neige en crisse!
The beer is good. Demos are on another level.
But there are the laws against wearing hijabs and turbans. . . . and all the other racism.
Actual French speakers in rural Louisiana are few and far between. It was official govt. policy until the 80s to prevent Cajun and Creole kids from speaking French in school.
Le Croibecois speak English too! Hell you might as well teach Newfinlandish.
Understanding Newfie idioms is unironically more useful if you ever work the rigs.
Counterpoints:
1: the instruction manual for my guillotine is in French. How am I supposed to figure out where to put a king's neck and where to place his body if I can't read le manuel d'utilisation??
2: Debout, les damnés de la terre
Debout, les forçats de la faim
French women would have sex with us.
That was a warning to stay away from the language.
Like everybody in France under 45 is fluent in English
Bro I can tell you the ability of French people to speak any other language is a complete disaster. I came across people who went to study English at uni (my uni's language dept being considered one of the best btw) and still struggled with fluency
Tbh, acquiring language fluency via the academia is a myth. Without Immersion, you can never be fluent.
English vocabulary is 50% French so you're basically speaking 50% French anyways owned
Learning French gets you many points towards Canadian permanent residency
For affordability compared to the other provinces, and also better family welfare. Plus, it used to be easier to immigrate to compare to other provinces
It did change a lot, I came to QC almost 20 years ago where the province is considered the best place to be for immigrants with kids. I think Quebec is catching up to the rest of Canada in terms of privatization and liquidating the public services.
Now, they want tech workers and low-skilled (mainly seasonal) workers. I know a lot of French who come to Canada because it is still affordable compare to Paris and they don't really land on long term jobs.
Why would I leave America? I have a front row seat where I can watch the downfalls of the western world <3
Idk if you trans but idk if I wanna be around for that lol
I mean, I'm not even joking when I say this... Well, I don't have plans to learn French necessarily, but one of the big reasons why I want to build my Norwegian skills is for the sake of the older folks who don't speak or aren't comfortable with speaking English. Older folks are by all means a mixed bag — trust me — but I still just like being around and hearing from them generally, and I wish them well, I don't want them to feel lonely or forgotten.
who the fuck wants to talk to an older European.
Me. I love French daddies.
I swear, the French teachers in school were trying to impart the vibe that if we know the French language, French women would have sex with us.
stop already i can only be so unmotivated
Well yeah, but that's not really a bad thing. I think learning a language is good, regardless of whether you actually have a use for it.
Learning things is good. It's also good that schools still teach things like that, it's great that kids have the opportunity to learn a second language, especially if they're anglophones, since those tend to live in a bubble. Even learning Latin is good, it makes you think about grammar and language itself in ways you wouldn't otherwise. The way capitalist education is headed they might not teach these things for very long, since they're "useless".
