Hi guys! I speak just a little but will probably improve my skills.
Time may not permit, but I will do my best!
Dear Mr. Alan.
Your essay is quite entertaining, academic and informative. Very beneficial for language learners. Of course, I occasionally speak or write French in connection with my English.
with kind regards.
Hello,
Feodor Chaliapin the great Russian singer sings the La Marseillaise.
It is beautiful!
youtube.com/watch?v=mPq0NE8m … re=related
I sent this letter to an other thread. I am very sorry!
Dear Alan,
You has written a very beautiful tale for us from the factual reality. As you used present tenses , everything became real as if we have been sitting in a cinema and we watched a film.
It was a very interesting period in English history. We can learn lot of new and we can brush up what we learned in the grammar school. “Live and learn”-than the proverb says.
When Geoffry Chaucer /interesting his name is of French growth (Fr:chausser= shod)/ decided to write the Canterburry Tales in English, his contemporaries thought him a crazy . Why didn’t you write in Latin or French? - they asked him.
A famous Hungarian poem said whose genuin translation isn’t on the Google so I tried to translate:
„ Only where great matters had been born where they were brave who dared.”
Chaucer (1343 -1400) was brave so he could become ’the father of English poetry’. In the literature, his name the English Bocaccio,(1313-1375) because his Decameron was written also in Italian and not in Latin and their theme is very similar. I have to mention also Dante who wrote his Divine Comedy in the Italian language.
I never thought that this problem used to exist in England. Incredible in nowadays when in every country of the world can speak English.
In this time our Hungarian poets wrote in Latin or in German. Our first poet -who dared to write in Hungarian – lived in the beginning of XVI century. His poems were about the Hungarian history, very objectively and not about referring to sex in humorous way or his private sentiment. He left only one short poem which is very personel and shows his talent. It is very sad. And characteristic of our history.
About French. I don’t look on its bright side. I have to reveal that for a Hungarian to learn the same word with two kinds of pronunciation,- is a hard nut to crack.At any rate I had to sacrifice my French speaking (not reading) for English speaking and reading. What to do if my daughter chose an American and not a French man. But today I prefer English to French. My distress that I began to learn sooner French than English. If I have begun my learning with English today I could speak fluently.
Late regret is in vain. -Hungarian proverb.
(Meaning: There are things ( words said, events happened etc) one cannot undo/change/make it better,one just has to live with the consequences and move on.)
You asked about my method of learning. I read more and more. Everyday I listen voice records. I never resigned myself to not to decipher anything. This is sometimes takes long time. If I look up an English word in the Hungarian-English dictionary after I control in the Oxford Dictionary, where I can see in which context I find the good word. Conversely it is easier as I know rather well my mother tongue.
Best regards:
Kati Svaby
#44 letter would have been written to The Green Shots thread . I’ve just copied there. I am very sorry for my mistake.
Hello Alan,
Few days ago I received again “Do you speak French” -newsletter. I thought what new one I could write.
Lately I read about the Roma language and it was interesting that they don’t have word: agriculture, stock-farming etc. Why ? because the Roma didn’t deal with these jobs… They borrow these words from the people where they lived. And the article spoke about that from the language the historians can know lot from the different nations 'life.
From French lot of words remained which are in contact with the fashion, foods, musical instruments ,etc. I collected some:
-French been = green been
-French stick /French bread / French loaf = baguette= Good French bread has a crispy crust and a soft interior
-French cuisine:haute cuisine:cooking of a very high standard
-French onion soup= soup with caramelized onions like a broiled cheese crust …on French soup.
-French dressing = a mixture of oil, vinegar etc. used to add flavour to a salad.
-vinegrette= is the same than French dressing
-French toast= slices of bread that have been covered with a mixture of egg and milk and then fried.
-French press= a special glass container for making coffee with a metal filter that you push down.
French fry= a long thin piece of potato fried in oil or fat.
French pastry =(patisserie, sweat baked goods) It is good to have French pastry with a hot cup of chocolate.
French mustard = sweetish mustard
Style
French door= the French door brings a lot of light into the room. A glass door one of a pair, that leads to a room, a garden/yard or a balcony
-French window= floor length window
-French polish= a type of varnish ( transparent liquid that is painted onto wooden furniture to give it hard shining for face.
French knickers= a piece of women’s underwear for below waist that fits very loosely and has a wide part of the legs.
hairstyle
French pleat/French twist a hairstyle for women in which all the hair lifted up at the back of the head, twisted and held in place./Chignon
French braid=all the hair is gathered into one large braid down back
Instrument
French horn= a brass musical instrument that consists of a long tube curled around in circle with a wide opening on the end.
Expressions.
to take a French leave= slip away without saying good-by
…=to leave work without asking permission.
Pardon my French =Excuse me for my swearing
Pardon my French Madam I didn’t mean to offend
Pardon my French, but I think you should just shut up and piss off right now.
Well,
I don’t study French or at least by that time, but I really hope that someday I could learn French and speak it fluently.
I love France and anything relate to then it’s much more easy for me to have patient to look up to or just read things write about it
Respected sir,
i cant speak french but i can chose and find our special phreses and idoms.
Thanks for long and very very interesting stories…
There is a French sentence when I repeat every day when I began my housework.
"Chaque chose soit à sa place " = ‘Everything be in its place.’ As I spoke sooner in French than in English - though now I can’t remember lot of things,- but this sentence remained in my mind and helps me to put everything in its place.
3 hommes?
That’s rich Monsieur President
(source: The Sun)
Hello,
I spoke in French and due to my French I have to control always the pronunciation. In French the pronunciation is regular but in English the stress of the words is changing, no rule, you have to learn the pronunciation of every words. I think this makes more difficult to speak in English. I’ve just read an article and I had to listen a well known word’s pronunciation : association - because only I could pronounce only in French.
I try to send only this word pronunciation.
Hello Alan,
Thanks for the beautiful essay. it do not deterred me from learning english, in fact it makes it more interesting. I do have problem of word usage, meaning which word in particular to choose in a particular conversation of writing. need your help too in that area. Thanks Alan.
Samuel.
I’m a spanish-speaker and as would be the usual case, I started learning english at school and some years later I took up french. My first impression on french was that it was an interesting mix between spanish and english. The grammar and the pronunciation is simmilar to spanish, which is to be expected considering both languages have the same roots; but there were also many words identical to english but only on a written basis as pronunciation is quite different. From my point of view, I think it would be easier for someone who speaks spanish or any other romance language to learn french easily and fast, whereas I think that despite the huge amount of borrowed words from french found in english, it would be more difficult for an english-speaker to learn that same language. I can’t say for sure, I’m not a native english-speaker myself, but I consider more accurate to compare english in terms of similarity with other languages like german, they’re closer related. I don’t remember considering english as a good base for french, I think it didn’t affect my learning process of the language whatsoever; on the other hand, spanish was a really big help for french, starting with verbs conjugation which is pretty similar. What’s more, on second thought I think english was and still is more of a hindrance than a help in learning french since i tend to mix up the writing of many words which are almost the same.
Changing the subject, this is my first time taking part in this forum. As someone wrote in some of the first comments, I have been getting emails from this website but never really cared to share my opinion on the different topics, and recently realised that I was wasting a great opportunity to develop my english skills. That’s why from now on I want to participate on every occasion, so I’ll be looking forward to more of your essays Sir Alan.
Now here are my answers to your questions:
Which particular problems did you face when you were learning english?
The first difficulty I remember was the use of auxiliaries since there are no such particles in spanish. I remember having a bit of trouble understanding the difference between “do” and “does” but it quickly became second nature.
The order of the words in a sentence represented another problem while I became used to the english structure.
Finally, the trickiest part of english for me up to this day are the oh, so popular! phrasal verbs! It’s so difficult for me to remember which preposition is the one I should use since there are so many similar phrasal verbs, like for instance: fill up, fill out, fill in…They’re almost the same thing, I get so confused when I have to choose one of them to complete a sentence or idea. Why couldn’t they just stick to FILL as the verb and leave it at that? I know the type of structures like phrasal verbs make the language richer but they can also be a great obstacle, especially since english speakers are so fond of creating new words every day and they come up with a new phrasal verb every second making it impossible to keep track of them:(
Second question: Do you find it easy, for example, to choose the right word when you look up something in a dictionary and there are two or three words that seem to mean the same thing?
Sometimes it can be confusing. When there are many words with the same meaning I get a little anxious thinking which one would be more natural for the idea I want to express. For example, words like Hit and Strike, Throw and Toss, Near and Close. All they are very simmilar in meaning so whenever i come across words like these ones, I check some example sentences before using the verbs or words in what I’m writing or trying to say.
A very long post indeed!
I felt like writing in english a lot today. I wonder if anyone will really take their time to read all this. Were that the case, I’d really appreciate any corrections/suggestions or at least some opinion on what I wrote. I’m open to debate any time!
I have a question for you.
“You’re crazy, Geoff, you must realise that English will never last, You should have written in French or at least Latin.”
In this case what is the meaning of last?
English will never survive/endure.
Thanks.