Ah, French. So...foreign.

"Again and again, the drama of learning French, failing to learn French, being less good at it than one should be occurs in these American histories, as it would not in a book of Italian or even Russian memoirs.  (It is interesting to speculate on just how well, or not, the leading writers in this book spoke and wrote French: James was certainly in effect bilingual; but Hemmingways's friends had their doubts about him, and Stein's French was, by some reports, shaky.)

This is not necessarily a bad thing; an accent and a stumbling tongue can sometimes help one "get" a foreign culture. Hercule Poirot solves the mystery because no one thinks he gets the point.  But French for us is a struggle, a mountain to climb, and that mountain intrudes as part of the landscape in every Parisian scene described by an American; it is one of the reasons that our Paris is less narrowly serene than other people's."

-from Adam Gopnick's Americans in Paris 

Comments

[J]

French is not an easy language to master.

[Jean-Luc Picard]

French is not an easy language to master.

[Megan]

I just loved his book. My father gave it to me as a present before I moved to Germany...maybe just to rub in the fact that I was following my love to Germany and not Paris, where such things belong.

[WiscoBlonde]

I spent 6 weeks in Paris when I was 14. My friends there made me repeat the phrase, "Je promenade en le jardin de fleur," over and over until tears streamed down their faces. Even now I can still say that sentence flawlessly even when so many other words escape me.

[J]

And just what events inspired that post, dear Coquette?

[Lyza]

Wow, that sounds like a good book. Very descriptive and beautiful.

[Rossana de Sordi]

Bonjour,
je veux bien t'envoier l'article d'elle mais j'ai besoin d'un adresse email. Je l'avais scanné pour faire un lien avec ma note sur la boutique Colette. Finalement j'ai laissé tomber mais je l'ai toujours dans l'ordinateur.
A bientôt
Rossana de Sordi
http://artmodeetcreation.typepad.comssana de Sordi

[Drew]

I still remember how my French teacher reacted when I finally got "Il y a de la neige en Norvège" (I think) right. Just wish I had a more useful phrase as my "perfect phrase".

[Emily]

Oh, but when does the language get easier? I've been here since Jan 06 and still speak like crap. Though I try.

I just added that book to my Amazon Wish List. Can't wait to read it.

[Aylin]

hi,
as i work for a french company and try to be nice enough if i talk to the french guys who don´t like to speak english, i´m just learnin french now. but it´s a hard job. understanding is one, but speaking feels horrible. sad, cause i really love francais!

[Stu "El Inglés" Harris]

Henry Miller's french was atrocious, despite the fact that he lived in Paris for 15 years.

[Katie]

My French accent is horrid, so flat and American. But when I switched over to studying Russian in college, my professors used to complain that I spoke Russian with a French accent. Go figure.

[Luna]

I remember from my time in paris that my friend had a terrible time pronouncing "Montmartre". My perfect phrase is 'Il faut que je m'en aille'. Which I loved using in front of my french friends because it always made me feel very relaxed in the language - almost slangy.

I love your blog by the way and am extremely jealous you are living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

[eurobrat]

French is indeed absurdly difficult.

[camille]

Hi coquette!
Has your picture been taken recently? Let's say, by a french women's magazine? May issue? page 96?

[Coquette]

I have no idea! In November I was stopped on the street by Glamour....is it that?

[camille]

that's right! Glamour, May 2007, page 96.

[Coquette]

Oh noooo, do I look ridiculous?

[Neil]

Woo-hoo, you're in Glamour? As for bad French, I still have trouble pronouncing "croissant" correctly.

[Stu "El Inglés" Harris]

croissant, yes....

Message to all Americans: yoo-hoo, the accent is on the FIRST syllable. Thank you for your co-operation.

[camille]

No, you don't look ridiculous at all. You look good and you say very sensible things.
Don't forget to put that in your cv! ;-)

[Seyyed Abbās-e Seyyed Mohammadi]

In the name of god
Hello Elisabeth fourmont
I am in Iranian. Male, 34, married. I live in Tehran.
Please help me:
I read two books of Pierre Rousseau (Persian translation, of course): Histoire de la science; Histoire des techniques et des inventions. I read approximately 20 years ago.
I tried much, but I did not find internet biography and picture(s) of Pierre Rousseau. According to an Iranian that works in OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS, as DIRECTEUR DE LA RECHERCHE, I found rousseau died at 1983. you can see my article in the http://seyyedmohammadi.blogfa.com/post-201.aspx .
I like know a good internet biography of Pierre Rousseau and picture(s) of he. I like know, were there girl(s) or/and son(s) of Pierre Rousseau, or no.
Why there is no your e-mail in your weblog?
There is no Fourmont in the Duden Aussprachewörterbuch.

[samantha]

I was just going to say the same thing as Camille, I was reading my Glamour last night, and saw your face and thought "Hey, I think I know who that is!" And then I saw your name and realized that it really was you. It's funny how many foreigners they interviewed - there was also a Swedish girl, a German and une italienne.

[Jessica]

I am only in the year 2005 of your blog so far but I love it. Please venture on over to mine
http://fashionohlala.blogspot.com/

Merci.

[J]

Joyeuses Pâques!

[Madeleine]

Oh, my god, I so feel all y'all's pain. . . My accent sounds perfectly Belgian, not that perfect Parisian gloss. Table sounds more like taub, then tab-le. Don't even get me started about nonante. .

[Vincent]

That's well said, "the drama of learning French". But do you English speaking people realize how truly difficult it is, for a French, to speak English correctly? Reading may be quite easy, but understanding, e.g., a US movie (I mean, the ones with dialogues - real dialogues) is a nightmare. Mastering the various accents, from the average British one to the Australian..., getting the idiomatic expressions right..., decoding the acronyms you seem to affectionate even more than we French do... I spent 10 years at school trying to learn english; I began to love it at college (when, at last, we were allowed to read classical litterature rather than newspapers clippings...); now I think I get a phrase correct from time to time...

[kayla]

I have been taking french for two years...and it is quite difficult. Those irregular verbs can be a pain. But when it gets hard, you should think about how much you love the language. Maybe doing that will help you learn more. p.s. I really love your blog. It gives great coverage for fashion and just about anything. Would you check my blog sometime? I just started.My blog thoughtsofafashionista.blogspot.com

[Jessica]

i know it's been mentioned in your blog a couple times but there is a WHOLE other verb tense in French. I've taked three years and I still don't get it.

[Jessica]

i know it's been mentioned in your blog a couple times but there is a WHOLE other verb tense in French. I've taked three years and I still don't get it.

[Philippe]

Jessica: even the French don't it, trust me on this one.

[Philippe]

+get...

[jenni]

have the french a similar superstition about friday the thirteenth, or another date? just curious.

[Svastik]

I've been learning French for almost 6 years now, but I haven't been able to make it past the usual dialogues. I do, however, make sense when I try to express an opinion, but there is absolutely no way whatsoever that I could write a 300 words essay on anything. I do have the right accent and I love the sound of the language, but grammar is a great pain in the rear end for me, even though it bears a great resemblance to my native tongue, Romanian (they're both latin languages and have very complicated grammar rules). In comparison, English was a piece of cake for me. Of course, I still have trouble with colloquial language, but I've pretty much mastered the basic grammar rules, and am able to understand movies, read novels and express opinions in essays, yay me :)

[melissa]

it's sunday... scratch that... early monday morning and i've spent the last two hours perusing your posts and every little link in each...

as i'm sure you've heard countless times before, you're a wonderful writer! i'm an "aspiring" fashion journalist (very aspiring as i only just made it through my first year of uni) and want your life. can i swf you? just kidding. but seriously...

what did you go through to get to where you are? i'm always in such awe of people in the business i'd like to get into... how do you do it!

enough gushing... s'il vous plait, ecrivez plus! j'aime votre travail!

(i'm also an aspiring french speaker - my mother's from montreal, less exotic but still... c'est la vie!)