I heard an interview with a French person yesterday. They pronounced ”Happy” as “Appy.” Do they not have the “H” sound we have when it is at the beginning of a sentence? How do they ever say “Woo Hoo!!”?

This made me laugh. The French have adopted the English term, “brunch” but as far as I know, there’s no meal called “slunch.” Actually my favorite creative use of English by the French is “relooking” which means remodeling when applied to a building or makeover when applied to a person. Say that with your best [...]

Time magazine recently published an article about the challenge of learning English in France. Students pay high fees to private schools for English lessons after failing to learn the language despite years of studying in public schools.
But what’s really interesting is the reaction of many French readers to any discussion of how to improve English learning.
Articles in Le [...]

On one of my soujourns to Paris I sat at a cafe with my favorite book. “We would like some preservatives please,” I overheard the ladies seated next to me asking the waiter. The waiter looked more horrified with each request as their voices grew increasingly louder every time they asked for their ‘preservatives’. After [...]

Last year when I started my job with company x they paid for two weeks of intensive one on one French classes in Paris for me. The classes were good and I learned plenty but the problem with an anglophone trying to learn French in Paris is that so many people speak English it’s difficult to apply [...]

Recently my girlfriend had the idea of having a party that would allow us all to make more room in our closets while enjoying cocktails and conversation with good friends. The concept of la troc party, as they call it in French, is for everyone to bring any unwanted clothes, purses, jewelry, or shoes with the goal of [...]

People keep telling me that watching TV is a good way to improve your language skills so I’ve tried on and off to get in the habit of watching. But I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t been willing to make the commitment. Until recently that is, when I noticed that one of the [...]

 
Doing a little Métro reading this morning (over someone else’s shoulder), I spied this headline: Sea, Foot and Sun: Miami est la paradise des footballeurs.  Now, I know the French love using, not only English words in all things hip, but also full-on English sentences.  The trouble I’m having, however, is this word “foot”.
“Foot” in French [...]

Faux amis (false friends) are those French words that you think you know because they seem so much like a word you know in English only it turns out you haven’t got a clue. (Seriously, even after 20 months in Paris, this is still my default state of mind.) Like actuellement which seems like it [...]

Today I took Small Fry to our 19th century apothecary-styled pharmacy around the corner from our apartment. She woke up from her nap with a fire-engine red front and bottom. She needed diaper rash cream fast. 
As we walked into the pharmacy, she shouted, “Moi have coochie boo boo, Monsieur!”
Pharmacist: Ah bon? Tu as un bo-bo? Ma pauvre. (Oh really? [...]