For those of you who travel to France - are you now bilingual? 😀

Janine said:
I do surprise myself when I realise just how much O level French I have retained after 50 years!

It goes to show that learning is best done young :)
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It surprised me as well when I was moved to Geneva. My French PA used to gossip with her mates about who was sleeping with who and what a nice arse Jean-Marie Durand had :Eeek: (I never looked) etc….. all interesting stuff. She was out one lunchtime and I was booking a service for my car with the garage …… she returned unexpectedly and went totally apeshit when she realised that I spoke decent French:rofl:

”Why did you not tell me that you spoke French?” - “You never asked”


edit……. She didn’t speak to me for a week. Then saw the funny side. The only French person with whom I have worked who had an English sense of humour. Some of her jokes I dare not repeat
 
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I have degree-level French from 40-odd years ago. The problem with knowing too much - I have all the grammar theory anyone will ever need - is that you know you’re making a tw*t of yourself when you should be doing so much better. The advantage of being over 60, however, is that you no longer care as much about looking like a tw*t. A few drinks help, too.
 
Rapides said:
I have degree-level French from 40-odd years ago. The problem with knowing too much - I have all the grammar theory anyone will ever need - is that you know you’re making a tw*t of yourself when you should be doing so much better. The advantage of being over 60, however, is that you no longer care as much about looking like a tw*t. A few drinks help, too.
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I like your style….
 
Janine said:
I do surprise myself when I realise just how much O level French I have retained after 50 years!

It goes to show that learning is best done young :)
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I've making a serious effort to improve my limited skills and have been studying French for the last 3 months using the Duolingo app. It is good at keeping me at it, I've done a lesson every day, mainly because it moans at me if I don't. :)

But the extract in your OP uses "tu" which is what Duolingo uses. From my schooldays tu was only used with children or close friends. I guess things are more informal now. :)
 
carolyn said:
I loved Latin at school. Being a very old fashioned girls Grammar school once the O’level choices were made it was Needlework or Latin, unbelievably limiting. The clever girls did Latin and everyone else had to do needlework. I had 2 wonderful years of Pliny, lovely stories of dolphins and Vesuvius. My cousin at the Boys school down the road had a different exam board which seemed to focus on the Roman legions so he was happy as well!

One of the other choices was Greek, German or Geography. I desperately wanted to do German but chose Geography because even though my Granny was dead by then I knew she would have been horrified by me doing German. One of her sons had been murdered by the Nazis in Sachenhausen, 2 more had fought. Interestingly one of the guards has just this week been found guilty and sentenced to prison for his crimes. How strange that this thread has reminded me of that choice nearly 50 years ago.
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tacr2man said:
My German is regional (Bavarian sort of west country German) been commented on in other parts of Germany , as we did several student exchanges which resulted in life long family friendship and visits . Having lived in Australia for about 15 yrs my Australian is quite fluent as well :LOL:
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In the mid 60’s. I used to go out from the camp in Bergen (near Belsen) and visit local pubs, after an initial frosty reception I ended up with some friends and a German girlfriend, so my German ended up being pretty good.
Ended up going to Beaconsfield on an interpreter course for the military. Still got a lot of it and can still “think “ in German which is a nice surprise after all this time and quite useful when I meet a bossy German.
Mitch
 
yodeli said:
Oh Dear..... :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
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Years ago I had a French neighbour. His Dad, who spoke no English at all, had had the whole Del Boy thing explained to him by his son.

Took him to a pub in the New Forest and introduced him to the regulars, after which he touched his forelock and greeted them with 'Mangetout, everyone'. Brought the house down and he drank free all night.
 
Only allowed to do one year of French at the school I went to, none of which was useful stuff, when you’re over there. We just take phrase books, surprisingly they really help, and we seem to remember what we’ve learnt, when we go back.

On the other hand, the next time we’re in Scotland, we’ll brush up on Stanley Baxter’s Parliamo Glasgow, via You Tube.
 
We holiday in France a lot (with and without the MH) and we are lucky enough to own a property there too. My French does improve during our visits but I have noticed I become almost fluent the more alcohol I consume - mind you, others havent got a clue what I’m talking about.😏😏

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DBK said:
I've making a serious effort to improve my limited skills and have been studying French for the last 3 months using the Duolingo app. It is good at keeping me at it, I've done a lesson every day, mainly because it moans at me if I don't. :)

But the extract in your OP uses "tu" which is what Duolingo uses. From my schooldays tu was only used with children or close friends. I guess things are more informal now. :)
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I would not say this actually.
As far as I am concerned , I will use TU with perfect stangers on a forum for example, but in real life, no way I would say TU to someone I've just met unless the person wants me too.
The only other example I have is when I meet a new member of the family or of a close friend.
But it's not everybody thinking so:
In September I was invited to one of my oldest friend's daughter's wedding in Spain. I've always known her sister as well. Sister came as well to her niece's wedding, and I met her husband, whom I said TU straight away. About same age, friend's hubby... sounded normal to me.... NO, not to him, I was told , we don't know each other , so I won't say TU to you.... Oh OK ... I see.... Avoided all evening to talk to him as I was put off by his very distant attitude!
On Saturday I will meet my God Daughter's new boy friend. I say TU to her so I will say TU to him, and I might get cross if he says OI ... say VOUS to me (he won't ,.. that's for sure, he is too young for that)
So you see the rules can be unsure. You think it'll be ok, but the different educations get in the way.
I'm a black foot... roots are mainly latin/mediterranneen. I might be a bit too cool for some French.
On the other side I am much stricter with my children' partners.
According to the way I was brought up they should call me "mummy"with a VOUS.
My son, thinking I was cool with all this, said to his partner before we met , you call her by her christian name and use TU .... I was in shock when she did!!! But could not decently correct her without really embarrassing her...
SIL calls me by my name but uses VOUS ....
 
yodeli said:
I would not say this actually.
As far as I am concerned , I will use TU with perfect stangers on a forum for example, but in real life, no way I would say TU to someone I've just met unless the person wants me too.
The only other example I have is when I meet a new member of the family or of a close friend.
But it's not everybody thinking so:
In September I was invited to one of my oldest friend's daughter's wedding in Spain. I've always known her sister as well. Sister came as well to her niece's wedding, and I met her husband, whom I said TU straight away. About same age, friend's hubby... sounded normal to me.... NO, not to him, I was told , we don't know each other , so I won't say TU to you.... Oh OK ... I see.... Avoided all evening to talk to him as I was put off by his very distant attitude!
On Saturday I will meet my God Daughter's new boy friend. I say TU to her so I will say TU to him, and I might get cross if he says OI ... say VOUS to me (he won't ,.. that's for sure, he is too young for that)
So you see the rules can be unsure. You think it'll be ok, but the different educations get in the way.
I'm a black foot... roots are mainly latin/mediterranneen. I might be a bit too cool for some French.
On the other side I am much stricter with my children' partners.
According to the way I was brought up they should call me "mummy"with a VOUS.
My son, thinking I was cool with all this, said to his partner before we met , you call her by her christian name and use TU .... I was in shock when she did!!! But could not decently correct her without really embarrassing her...
SIL calls me by my name but uses VOUS ....
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Crikey - what a minefield! I would certainly get it wrong.

Last time I was in France, I ended up ordering two of everything because I couldn’t remember which was ‘un’ and which was ‘une’ . Much easier to say ‘deux’ 🤪

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Has anyone mentioned Stanley Unwin yet?... He used to talk like that.
 
Janine said:
Crikey - what a minefield! I would certainly get it wrong.

Last time I was in France, I ended up ordering two of everything because I couldn’t remember which was ‘un’ and which was ‘une’ . Much easier to say ‘deux’ 🤪
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We have strange plurals sometimes and we have a joke about it .
A lot of words ending with AL will go AUX when plural
un cheval, des chevaux
un bocal, des bocaux
musical, musicaux
But of course there are exceptions... wouldn't be funny otherwise! :p
Un chacal .... ????:eek:
A man ordering animals for his zoo, wants 2 of the latter and starts writing:
I would like 2 .... errrr... eck ... what's the plural of this one, so changes his way to ask and write
I would like one chacal.... mmmm better order 2 actually!:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
Being an 11+ drop out, they didn't trust us with anything other than English, so my French is limited. "je suis un nain francophone"
 
Having done A Level French (and German) I went straight from school to train for a few years in Belgium and then Switzerland where my languages came in very useful. While living there I adopted the local way of counting instead of the way I had been taught in school (70 became ‘septante‘ instead of soixante-dix, 80 became ‘huitante‘ instead of quatre-vingt, and 90 became ‘nonante’ instead of quatre-vingt-dix). So much easier to say nonante-neuf for 99 instead of the traditional French mouthful quatre-vingt-dix-neuf. I still count like that and I love how the French are completely thrown a curveball when they hear a form of slang from a Brit when they’re probably not expecting anything more than the basics.

For those who might get it:

Frappe, frappe.
’Qui est là?’
’Losty’
’Losty qui?’
’Oui’

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