What are your thoughts?

[Ivor Nidea]

I would be interested as to what your reaction is to this interview of Joey Barton talking about his experience in the French football league?

I believe he comes from Liverpool and normally speaks with a strong Liverpudlian accent.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/nov/26/joey-barton-english-french-accent-video

[NormanH]

You can still hear the Scouse underneath.

He probably thinks he is talking French.[I]

I have noticed this before: people who imitate the  English spoken by the French thinking that this IS French [:D]

[Hoddy]

The way I speak English has changed since my French improved. I don't think I speak with a French accent even though my sentence construction has changed. Has anyone else noticed that they use 'one' much more readily than they used to ?

Hoddy

[g8vkv]

As someone who can distinguish between north and south Liverpool accents and the posh stuff on the Wirral, I can assure you that it's 90% Scouse, with a dash of Foreign.

[idun]

I was wondering if he believes that speaking like that 'is french'?

When I visited Canada, I called a friend who had moved there about 6 years earlier. She had gone from a well defined northern english accent, to a canadian accent. When I asked why, she said that it was 'easier', but commented that I hadn't lost my accent. So with the same accent that this footballer used, I asked her if she wanted me to speak like that now......... I was joking.

Has my english changed, yes, it probably has, but in ways I cannot define, I don't think that I use 'one' more. My way of looking at life most certainly has...... if that counts???[Www]

[NickP]

Before you all get too excited and pompous he was taking the proverbial. Remember; scousers are famous for their wit! Not a lot else, but their humour is renowned. [:P]

[Chancer]

Not sure at all about the accent, he may or may not have absorbed it, he may well have spoken with that lilt before, the heading of the article to be accurate should have been English footballer speaks in French manner, ie the construction of his sentences.

And in that manner I can identify 100% with him, he is thinking in French and speaking in English, pretty much everythinh he said was how I would now automatically say it in English so it was quite a shock to analyse it and reflect on how it should have been said, how I would once have said it, now I can see exactly what my friends and family mean when they say I speak weirdly now.

Just a few from the top of my head that I can recall, the grey matter is not so good now but there were loads more.

For me..............

I watch the game yesterday and I think...............

All everybody speak about

....... would have been happy to see

I'm a little bit bored from the English media

I watch Lille yesterday and they have 10 men

Have more about it (correction) has more about it

Its big difference.

Remember that they have editted out all but what they want to show, there was a similar reaction ridiculing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the French media quoting selected edits of one of his interviews, they all said that he had lost the plot, in fact he was just losing his French, I understood exactly what he was saying and would have expressed it the same way in French, the difference is no-one expects any different of me, still thanks to his notoriety I can now use the word "feeling" in French.

I 100% dont think that he was taking the micky although he does seem quite intelligent as footballers go!!

One of the main reasons that I read and post on forums is to keep my hand in with the english language at least written.

I will have to do a speech one day and have it recorded so I can afterwards just how much my speech has changed, I am not aare that I speak with an accent but I know that I often pronounce words terminatiing in "ion" in the French manner as it has been commented on.

 

 

[mint]

[quote user="Hoddy"]The way I speak English has changed since my French improved. I don't think I speak with a French accent even though my sentence construction has changed. Has anyone else noticed that they use 'one' much more readily than they used to ? Hoddy[/quote]

No, when I speak English, I speak English and when I speak French, French.

However, there are exceptions [:)]  I can no longer pronounce place names like St Malo, Grenoble, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Ribérac, Chevalines (very topical recently) like a true English person anymore![:P]

Edit:  Sorry or pardon (as the French might say), if you think of "on" as "we" rather than "one", then you would not be tempted to say "one" when you mean "we"....er.....can't put it better than that.  If I am helping someone with translating, I always make them say "we" and not "one", a bit like when you are translating "bonjour", you'd translate it as "hello" or "good morning" or "good afternoon" and not "good day" (unless you are Australian, of course!)

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I seem to remember reading or hearing about some research which found that non-native English speakers find it easier to understand English people if they put on a mock foreign accent.

He's got nothing on Steve McLaren though, now he sounded totally retarded.

[Clarkkent]

I think that Mr Barton has been taking lessons from Rene, in 'Allo, 'Allo ....

[YCCMB]

The only time I've ever found myself speaking vaguely pidgin English was in my early twenties when I had a French boss who had spent many years in Australia and married an Australian, yet still spoke English with the kind of accent that requires intense concentration to decipher. Yet he spoke his version of English with such conviction! He would use words which were close enough to English that they would have me reaching for the dictionary, just to make absolutely sure that he wasn't correct.

I'd find myself saying things like "When you debark from the ferry" because it sounded so plausible after listening to him....

In general, though, it's really cringeworthy to hear people speaking their native language as if it isn't their native language. Which for some reason always seems to start from the premise that the present simple tense is the only one anyone ever uses.

I go now.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Mr Ceour de Lion II"]I seem to remember reading or hearing about some research which found that non-native English speakers find it easier to understand English people if they put on a mock foreign accent.

[/quote]I thought that was an urban myth like the one which holds that all foreigners can understand a language if it is spoken loud enough[:D]

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I don't know, but I understand French far better when it is spoken by an English speaker compared to full on proper French.

The guy's a mess anyway. He's the English version of Eric Cantona, except Cantona was a brilliant player to back his arrogance up.

[PeterG]

What are your thoughts?

Tossa

[g8vkv]

http://tinyurl.com/c824qgp

[Ivor Nidea]

Enjoyed reading your replies on this topic (I don't get out much).

It would appear that this (J.Barton) fine young man is really quite intuitive in zeroing in to the psyche of how to conduct an interview with the foreign press. As reorted here...

http://www.channel4.com/news/joey-bartons-french-accent-a-sign-of-a-sophisticated-mind

Indeed he is so sophisticated he can adapt, at the drop of a hat, to any situation. As seen in the video clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGiGT89G24

Edited. Apologies for the links. Blooming software!

[idun]

Pity that sophisticated mind was not at work during this incidents that included the police and courts et al.[:-))]

[woolybanana]

A word like 'anker comes to mind!

[Chancer]

I know nothing about football or ,the high profile players including Joey Barton, what I saw of the viral interview was someone I thought was very intelligent intuitive and with a good knowledge of the French language, your first link bears this out, what I couldnt understand were the comments like "To55er", was it because he is a rich footballer I asked myself?

Then I watched the second clip and I realised why [:D]

[Rabbie]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

A word like 'anker comes to mind!

[/quote]He doesn't work for a financial institution does he[:D]

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

Since when has Joey Barton been a high profile footballer? He's an average midfielder whose been in trouble with the cops more times than Steven Gerrard and John Terry combined.