"David Rance" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 Martin wrote:

On 9 Feb 2013 19:42:55 GMT, Emery Davis wrote:

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:43:34 +0000, David Rance wrote:

On Fri, 8 Feb 2013 Martin wrote:

I never anything so daft as Monty in a straw hat driving a 2CV between
French gardens on TV this evening.

Actually I enjoyed the programme very much. What on earth was daft
about
it?

Lord his French was awful.

near to non existent.

Nonsense! True, his pronunciation was very poor, but so is that of most
English people, isn't it? He'd obviously lived in France some time ago
because he could come out with some common phrases quite fluently but he
did find other things less easy to express.

Our attitude to the pronunciation of foreign languages has been coloured
by the way we were taught when at school - at the least for the older
among us. The emphasis was too much on pronunciation, correct grammar and
agreements, to the detriment of being able to express ourselves. My wife,
who was a teacher of French for forty years and is now an "A" level aural
examiner, says, "What's the point of learning French, if the thought that
the French are going to laugh at you if you get things wrong prevents you
from going into a cake shop and buying a cake?"

Monty's lack of fluency is a lesson to us all that it doesn't *have* to be
perfectly correct! And those who sneer at him (because, presumably their
French is more fluent than his) ought to know better!

And all the BS about (mispronounced) paysans, honestly.

We certainly enjoyed the scenery, summer in the south and all that. Good
stuff when you're stuck here in the mud! But that straw hat...

Did you ever see a paysan wearing a straw hat and driving a 2CV?

Yes, my neighbour in Normandy always did when gardening (he died about six
years ago) and he'd lived in the same village all his life. It's not
unknown! And he would continually tell me off for *not* wearing a hat (but
not for not driving a 2CV!).

I know that Monty was not universally liked by urglers when he presented
Gardeners' World and, because of this, it seems that urglers will always
take the opportunity to ridicule him. But this is a different kind of
programme which seeks to present the different kinds of French gardens. He
was not trying to be an expert but an enthusiast. The first programme in
the series, in which he talked about the formal gardens designed by Le
Nôtre and his followers, I thought was excellent and his presentation most
engaging. But then I don't have a dislike of his style.

Just trying to put the other point of view.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK


David well said. Monty Don just 'has' to be hated by urglers no matter what
he does. I was waiting for the knives to come out and to those wielding the
knife, if you can do better, then get off your keyboards and present a
gardening programme that will please everybody.

I didn't see the programme, I am not a gardener, my wife is with over 50
years experience, but she liked it and after hearing her reports on it, I
was waiting for those to come out on the attack. I didn't have to wait long.

Now sit back and wait for the attacks on me, a non gardener, for DARING to
post on here. You won't have to wait long and we know who will be to the
fore

Have a nice day if you can.

Chucking it down with rain on the South East Coast of the Isle of Wight

Mike


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I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

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