French

[atitarev]

French is much clearer (generally speaking) than English, IMHO. In Russia, students learning German and French are usually faster to start understanding native speakers than those learning English. Even after many years of learning and exposing myself to English, I find that listening and understanding English songs is objectively harder than French or German but that's me.

Just in case it helps, I noticed that some English language textbooks, phrasebooks teaching French incorrectly explain the French pronunciation. The words "coup d’état" and "café" is pronounced quite differently in English and French If you want to understand well, you need to learn the right pronunciation, first of all!

Please listen to

. Her voice and perfect articulation has inspired many to learn French!

Lyrics:

Le temps qui court comme un fou

Aujourd'hui voilà qu'il s'arrete sur nous

Tu me regardes et qui sait si tu me vois

Mais moi je ne vois que toi

Je n'ai plus qu'une question

Tes yeux mes yeux

Et je chante ton nom

Si quelqu'un d'autre venait

Je l'éloignerais et je me défendrais

{refrain:}

Je suis une femme amoureuse

Et je brûle d'envie de dresser autour de toi

Les murs de ma vie

C'est mon droit de t'aimer

Et de vouloir te garder

Par dessus tout

Hier aujourd'hui demain

Comptent un seul jour quand tu prends ma main

C'est comme un plan fabuleux tracé là-haut

Pour l'amour de nous deux

Qu'on soit ensemble longtemps

Ou séparés par des océans

Si un danger survenait

Je l'éloignerais et je me défendrais

{au Refrain}

Je suis une femme amoureuse

Et je te parle claire , et tu dois savoir

Ce qu'une femme peut faire

C'est mon droit de t'aimer

Et de vouloir te garder

Je suis une femme amoureuse

Et je brûle d'envie de dresser autour de toi

Les murs de ma vie

C'est mon droit de t'aimer

Et de vouloir te garder

Et de vouloir te garder

This

is lighter and easier to follow (Mireille Mathieu - Une histoire d'amour).

Lyrics:

Une histoire d'amour

Où chaque jour devient pour nous le dernier jour

Où on peut dire "à demain" à son amour

Et qu'on est là tout près de lui à regarder

Mourir sa vie

Une histoire d'amour

Où pour nous deux le mot toujours semblait trop court

Tu vois pourtant nous n'avons plus beaucoup le temps

Non mon amour tu ne dois pas, il ne faut pas

Pleurer sur moi

Ne me dis pas adieu

Je vais fermer les yeux

Viens près de moi

Et prends-moi dans tes bras

Restons ensemble

Serre-moi fort

Tu vois il me semble que ma vie s'endort

Dis-moi "je t'aime"

Une histoire d'amour

C'est la chanson de l'océan les nuits d'été

Un souvenir qui va durer l'éternité

Pour moi ce soir ma vie s'en va mais notre amour

Ne finit pas

Une histoire d'amour

Ça ne peut pas vraiment mourir en un seul jour

Ne reste pas le cœur en deuil à vivre seul

Il te faudra voir d'autres ciels, d'autres soleils

Ne pleure pas

[chrix]

Oh, I thought Meng Lelan said that French was much harder in general. Surely this wouldn't be the case for reading, would it. Though definitely I've always found it puzzling how the written language makes all these distinctions the spoken no longer does...But it nicely illustrates how Chinese might have evolved in ancient times (sorry, I digress).

I bought a French language learning calendar for the new year, every day I'm looking at some dialogue, text etc.

[Meng Lelan]

Oh, I thought Meng Lelan said that French was much harder in general.

It's so hard that I expend great effort in telling my deaf students not to take French in high school.

I bought a French language learning calendar for the new year, every day I'm looking at some dialogue, text etc.

Oooh, nice, care to share details about where you got it, title, etc?

[chrix]

I understand it's hard when lipreading, but even when reading it?

About the calendar: a German publisher, Harenberg, publishes a line of language calendars (English, French, Spanish, Italian), including a "final test" at the end of the year. You can check out the tests for 2009 here: http://www.harenberg-kalender.de/jahresabschlusstest_sprachkalender/index.php

To me it looks like they're geared towards lower intermediate.

Today it taught me the "longest word of the French language": anticonstitutionnellement, though I'd be cautious about such claims

[atitarev]

I don't find that French would have problems lip-reading.

The articulation of the French sounds is not the same as in English, so you have to pronounce the vowels the French, not the English way. The French make the lips like a round tube when saying ou, u, o, œ, etc, each with a different intensity. For é the lips are stretched to the sides. I am sure there books on this in English.

English speakers tend to have lips stretched to the sides, as in a broad smile, even for sounds like oo in book, which was a surprise for me a long time ago.

[Meng Lelan]

The French make the lips like a round tube when saying ou, u, o, œ, etc, each with a different intensity.

That's right, it's like speechreading a round tube, every French speaker looks like the same round tube to me.

[atitarev]

That's right, it's like speechreading a round tube, every French speaker looks like the same round tube to me.

Well, you don't have to lip-read if you're not native. An English language speaker looks like they are always stretching the lips (so called flat position) to the non-native speaker.