idun Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 I know it's been covered before, but sometimes, I do have trouble and end up speaking franglais, it just comes out and ofcourse we all understand it at home. IF I ever meet anyone from here, I often wonder how much franglais would be spoken.........or maybe not? Would some people simply not understand? Today I have had a particularly franglais day, lots of english words have not come to mind and french ones have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 I speak it all the time, just cant help it, the French understandably are very confused, my English friends and family find me harder and harder to understand although they think its funny, the only person that does understand me is a Franglais speaking friend in La Dordogne.A couple of years ago we met at his then flat in London and were joined by another old pal who has lived in France for 20 years, it was a real Franglais fest and for me it was so liberating to be able to communicate freely for the first time in years.I have just finished reading a hilarious book called "Let's parler Franglais!" b y Miles Kingston, its a little gem and I consider myself priveledged to have stumbled on it, it is a summation of the column of the same name that he wrote for Punch in the 70's and 80's, I highly recommend it.Le fameux column de punch.Maintenant un major movie. Well, presque.Maintenant en Paperback Pingouin!Le quick method de Franglais. Comme parlé par M. Edouard Heath, Valery St John-Stevas etc.Le Franglais et un doddle! Parlez Franglais et le monde et votre oyster. Apres 10 secondes vous serez un expert, un belt noir des langues - sans kidding.............You get the picture!I never knew that I spoke like Ted Heath!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 2, 2011 Author Share Posted September 2, 2011 Love it. I'll have to get a copy of that book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Probably long out of print, I just picked it up because it looked interesting, part from being really funny for me, being written in Franglais it was really easy to read.Do a google search on Jean Claude Van Damme and see how the French se moque de lui, there are loads of youtube clips, everyone I know thinks that he has really lost the plot but in fact he after 20 years in the states he has lost his mother tongue and speaks franglais, I have seen the interviews in question and he makes complete sense to me.The book is ISBN 0 14 00.5625 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 I found it on the web and have ordered it now. I'm sure that we'll all thoroughly enjoy it. J-C Van Damme, what an odd bloke he is, is it just his franglais that they moque? He has a mullet, now that was always 'odd' wasn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Idun and Chancer, you are splendid examples of franglais-speak, at least on the forum, [8-|]I don't know about real life. What I do like, (as someone who is also part of the Franglais fraternity) is to have involved and animated conversations with other bilingual friends, as we weave in and out from one language to the other.I had a Lebanese friend once, and of course together we spoke a mixture of English and French, except that she also injected bits of Arabic inopportunément.At home, we speak English all the time. This always seems to surprise people, but we it find normal since we met in England, where I never spoke French. When I say we speak English all the time, of course it tends to be franglais too - English is just the baseline.[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 You must rememberhttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fhzv_eurotrash-series-7-show-4-1996-with_fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyF Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I'm nowhere near bilingual, though my French is reasonably good, but even I find some French words creeping into my English conversation after a few months here, especially the ones with no easy English equivalent. Rather like the elderly French woman quoted in the local paper this week as talking about le fun. [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 [quote user="NormanH"]You must rememberhttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fhzv_eurotrash-series-7-show-4-1996-with_fun[/quote]Thank you Norman, that has brightened my day, I didnt know that you too were a fan of Prince Charles [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Tres Heureux to see things are perking up for you Norm . . .[8-|] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Strange this subject should come up this morning. A quarter of an hour ago, OH was preparing to go dog walking. The weather looked like rain and I rushed out to bring in the washing (which hadn't long gone out and I wasn't best pleased, but that's by the way).As they left, I called out "don't forget your.....", the only word coming to mind being impermèable ! I was stumped, not because I couldn't say mac or anorak or rain jacket or any of those things but I didn't know which of his many waterproof garments he was going to take on this heavy, sticky day which yet threatened rain.There are occasions when only franglais will do, n'est-ce pas?[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 What a blast from the past! I have Miles Kington's second book "Let's Parler Franglais Again!". Very yellowed pages now, but I've read it so many times and it still makes me chuckle.Published in Penguin paperback 1982. UK £1.25 !!"Pratiquement un also-ran pour le Prix Nobel" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 We have trouble with our phone number whenever we need to give it over the phone to somebody in the UK. Translating back all the "quatre vingts" is nigh impossible.[blink] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 You know, when I give phone numbers in English, I have to do it in double digits zero five, twenty-five, thirty-three, etc. Can't do like in the old days, in single digits..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I adored Miles Kington and still have all the Franglais books (he did half a dozen or so.) Click on the link for a compendium book which is still in print from Amazon, Idun.I experimented with my physio - who always likes to speak English to me and reciprocates by teaching me unusual words and phrases - by speaking English to her in a "French" (the inverted commas are for my version of the accent). She reckoned she found it far easier to understand than when I spoke to her in my genuine English accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Sorry, I quite forgot this masterpiece, The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman. [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 YES, I have a problem with phone numbers now. When I call France and they want my phone number I cannot say the house number in two digits at a time, I don't 'know' it like that, so I have to go and look at it where I wrote it down in BIG writing so that I can see it sans lunettes. It's the only way I can do it, really. I was OK going back to the english way of dealing with numbers, probably because I always worked with numbers and we would have to read them out that often when checking stuff that that came quite naturally.When I call France and if there are too many soixante dix septs and quatre vingt dix neufs, I'll say the number back ONE letter at a time. That way, me and the person at the other end are sure. I much prefer the way the Suisse and Beligians say their numbers, much more pratique.The good thing about franglais and the argot is that when people read it, and they don't know it they should look it up, it will expand there vocabularly no end. The only thing is, and I don't know about Chancer, but I do not usually (well maybe sometimes ) use les gros mots that I know on here, and maybe Chancer is a nicer person than I am and doesn't even know them.[Www]. Sometimes I think that I know far more swear words and insults in french than I do in english. NOT that I use them, but unless my lips start moving when I think (I hope not), I just think them a lot of the time when appropriate situations merit them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Animal Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 [quote user="NormanH"]You must rememberhttp://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fhzv_eurotrash-series-7-show-4-1996-with_fun[/quote] J'adore de Caunes (et Garcia)http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7smha_de-caunes-garcia-charles-et-diana_fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Thanks Christine...It's worth learning French just for the double entendres [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I've just caught myself saying, "I'm going to see if there are any guêpes in the piège"[:$]Having set the thing up this afternoon, I was eager to see if it'd caught anything and wasn't thinking about what I was saying, oh dear..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 But that is OK, many of us on here understand and those that don't could get a dictionnaire up and see what these words mean, or simply not understand, which would be kinda sad really.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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