GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-02-2006, 12:46 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 7/2/06 12:26, in article , "Judith
Lea" wrote:

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes
If one has that basic grasp of the commonest verb variations, it's then
quicker and easier to pick up French by "total immersion" which as you
say is the best way to learn a language. Can you get French TV at home?

Yes Janet, you sound just like my husband - my French is great, everyone
hangs on to my every word - they just stare at me. My husband then
explains (in a restaurant) that I have just asked for Duck jam instead
of confit d'canard.

This sounds like one of my better gaffes in Italian - hot, bothered and
beleaguered by my children, I was doing some food shopping. I asked the
startled shopkeeper and his heavily pregnant wife if I could have 'sei
pommerigi' instead of 'sei pommodori' - six afternoons, instead of six
tomatoes. Once she realised I was not inviting her husband into a career as
a gigolo, the wife laughed so much I thought she was going to give birth
then and there!

The French waitress was also rude in that she corrected me three times
when I asked for the desert menu, it was amusing the first time she
stressed the pronunciation; and I then tried to say it as she said it,
she repeated it again, in a louder voice, and again I tried but when she
repeated it to me, in a very loud voice, for the third time, I retorted
with just bring me the ****** menu please (in my best French of course).
After all I had gone there to eat not to have a French lesson!

VERY rude! But I think that a smattering of the basics and then as much
chat as you can get your hands on is a very good way to learn a language.
If you have just a start in the verbs and how to ask for a few things in
shops etc., it's remarkable how quickly you can build on that. Some friends
of mine moved to France several years ago and spoke what was really very
basic school French. They made a deliberate choice to live where there were
no foreigners and within a year they had made almost entirely French friends
and were yakking away nineteen to the dozen.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)