Written French v Spoken French

[SaligoBay]

Hello

I've been reading the other thread about whether you need to know French to move to France.

My experience is this - and I'm not being big-headed when I say this, but before I came to France, my French was good, okay? I could read anything you put in front of me, Paris Match, Proust, n'importe. I knew pretty much as much as my husband, whose degree was French&Swedish. Subjunctive - piece of p*ss!!

But pride comes before a fall! The simplest things fail you in spoken French. You find, e.g. that "il parle" sounds exactly like "ils parlent" - et bof, tout d'un coup you're stuck in mid-conversation!

Or imagine a picture - a boy, a girl, a dog. Whose dog is it? In English it's obvious, his dog or her dog, because the "his/her" refers to the owner. But in French, it refers to the dog, so "c'est son chien". But grammatically you still don't know whose dog it is - and again you're stuck!!!

I mean, these are just *really simple* examples of stuff you don't learn in school. Odd but true. I'm glad I "knew" French before I arrived, but there's always something new to learn

Bonne chance! With enthusiasm, a smile, and a sense of humour, you can go anywhere

[letrangere]

I'm
>glad I "knew" French before
>I arrived, but there's always
>something new to learn

I'm hoping to sit the DALF this November (standard required to gain admittance to a French university) so my French isn't too bad either. But I still have absolutely no doubt that I'll be learning the language for the rest of my life. And why is it that when you do reach a certain level, everyone around you assumes (quite wrongly in my case) that you know absolutely everything?

Oh, and even with the benefit of hindsight (ie years of study), I'm not so sure I would honestly ever describe the subjunctive as "a piece of p*ss". Looking back, there were times when I believe "a piece of something else" would have been more accurate!

Margaret
(off to wrestle with Diderot's l'Encyclopedie)