What is franglais?
According to about.com, franglais is the "dialect" that is created by mixing French and English together. According to us, it is sleep-depriving struggle to blend french and English not just into our words, but into our lives. Think of it as a really bad waltz in which the woman can dance well, but the guy can barely count to three. One has grace and rhythm but is in no in a position to take over; the other is dominant but is constantly tripping over himself. Like french and English, they seem incompatible. Maybe Dancing With the Stars can help....
Wish us luck, and feel free to share your stories en franglais or en whatever you wish!
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I appreciate your enthusiasm and your dancing analogy, and I do wish you luck with this, and with conjugation. (My French is pretty poor, but I’m thinking that you may also want to check your “that’s life” tag — for reasons unclear to me, I believe that "life" in French takes the feminine article . . . .)
ReplyDeleteYay! A first comment! Thanks for the feedback, and articles are a weak point for us :)
ReplyDeleteThere are those purists who think franglais is a blight on the French language. I'm a little right of center on that. Languages evolve or they die.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I am told, the French are sticklers when it comes to language usage, more so than in other cultures. (Académie française, anyone?) I have to say I'm more on your side, Starman. Language, to a certain extent, should be determined the people and not by the government. This site could be worthwhile (je ne sais pas, it's all in french!)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.academie-francaise.fr/
Franglais is fun. When I studied abroad (Aix en Provence) my American roommate and I developed our own little patois, using whichever word came to mind at the time. Sentences such as "Could you jete this in the poubelle for me?" were not uncommon.
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