© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: PhD Research, Random

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Anna Wierzbicka is a Polish-Australian linguist who has extensively researched intercultural linguistics, semantics and pragmatics. I have been reading many of her books and articles for my PhD research because she is interested in how language reflects ways of living and thinking, and more specifically, how the lexicon or words of a language can provide valuable clues to understanding culture.

Linguistic relativity, better known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, has been debated for quite a while by certain researchers who argue that human thought and language are completely separate and independent. Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct, is probably the most popular denier. However, Pinker was attempting to describe human thought and cognition on the basis of English alone.  Wierzbicka, among others, has rightly criticized Pinker for his views on the link between language and thought. Here are a few quotes from the introduction to her book, Understanding Cultures through their Key Words:

“To people with an intimate knowledge of two (or more) different languages and cultures, it is usually self-evident that language and patterns of thought are interlinked… Monolingual popular opinion, as well as the opinion of some cognitive scientists with little interest in languages and cultures, can be quite emphatic in their denial of the existence of such links and differences.”

“The grip of people’s native language on their thinking habits is so strong that they are no more aware of the conventions to which they are party than they are of the air they breathe; and when others try to draw attention to these conventions they may even go on with a seemingly unshakable self-assurance to deny their existence.”

“The conviction that one can understand human cognition, and human psychology in general, on the basis of English alone seems shortsighted, if not downright ethnocentric.”

The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – that language constrains thought and prevents users of a language from thinking about certain concepts – is indeed wrong. The weak version of the hypothesis, which Guy Deutscher attempted to explain in his popular article Does Your Language Shape How You Think? and his book, Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, is generally accepted by most linguists. Deutscher, however, insists on stating that language creates thought when in fact it may be more accurate to say that culture influences thought, which is then expressed through language. Personally, I believe that language reflects and describes ways of living and thinking, but it does not necessarily shape or determine how you live or think.

This is precisely John McWhorter’s criticism of Deutscher’s book, though I do have to disagree with his assertion that color perception as evidence of linguistic relativity is “dull.” If someone does not think cultural elaboration through the lexicon, such as the famous words for snow example, is interesting or relevant, then why does that person bother researching languages and cultures in the first place? Besides, as Wierzbicka explains, “once the principle of cultural elaboration has been established as valid on the basis of ‘boring’ examples, it can then be applied to areas whose patterning is less obvious to the naked eye.”

Here’s an interesting experiment you can try with color perception. It will be very easy to choose which square is a different color in the image below.

However, it will probably be a tiny bit harder to find which square is different in the second image. (If you’ve seen these circles before, beware that I did change the location of the different square!)

Yet the Himba of northern Namibia have the exact opposite problem. They are able to detect the different square quite easily in the second image, but took longer for the first image, because their culture, and therefore language, has a different way of categorizing shades of colors. Not every human being thinks in terms of  ROYGBIV. Because English speakers do not normally classify colors based on slightly different shades (or at least what we perceive as slightly different shades) of green in the second image, it is harder for English speakers to see it at first glance, but the absence of that word does not mean that English speakers cannot see it at all or do not have the ability to form the concept in their minds.

My native language does not have a word for Schadenfreude but I certainly know what it is and can understand the concept. The fact that German has one word for this concept and English does not simply means that the concept is perhaps more salient for users of German, but it does not mean that users of other languages cannot conceive of what it is. There are countless “untranslatable” words such as saudade, hyggelig, or litost that express the values and thoughts of the people who use these words. They provide insights into the life of the society and culture to which the language belongs. We cannot even begin to understand a different culture if we do not know the words because it is through language that culture and ways of living and thinking are expressed.

Another book by Wierzbicka I recommend, Translating Lives: Living with Two Languages and Cultures, includes the experiences of twelve Australians who speak more than one language. Their stories and their lives show how language, culture and identity cannot be separated and what it is like to live with, and between, multiple languages and cultures. For anyone who is a speaker of another language, the idea that you are a different person and that you interact with other human beings in a different way when using different languages seems a bit obvious. But most monolinguals are not aware that their worldview is shaped by their native, and only, culture and language. They tend to assume that the every human being thinks in the same way but simply uses different words for concepts, objects, ideas, etc. Even if they know a few words in another language, they believe that translations found in dictionaries are sufficient. Dictionaries may list freedom as the translation for French liberté, but are they really the same thing? How about truth and Russian pravda? Anger and Italian rabbia?

To quote Sapir: “The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.”

When I speak French, I am fully aware that I am not the same person as when I speak English. I do not interact with other French speakers in the same manner as I do with English speakers while I’m speaking English. There are certain concepts that I find easier to express in French, and yet others that do not have a strong enough emphasis or connotation for me if I use French rather than English. When I hear the word milk in English, I have a different concept of what it is compared to when I hear lait in French. I’ve explored some of these cultural differences before (Cultural Differences in Photos & Culturally Relevant Photos), but they are not limited to separate languages. There are, of course, differences among dialects of the same language. Whenever Australians say the word thongs, I picture a very different article of clothing than they do!

That is not to say that all words in a language are culture-specific. If they were, cultural differences couldn’t really be explored. Linguistic relativity is actually combined with linguistic universality. Wierzbicka is also the lead researcher on Natural Semantic Metalanguage, an approach to cultural analysis that is based on the idea that there are, in fact, a few universal meanings expressed by words (semantic primes) shared by all human languages and that using these primes can help eliminate cross-cultural miscommunication. Listen to/read her interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for more information.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this! Do you believe that how we speak shapes how we think OR that how we think shapes how we speak? Or are language and thought so interlinked that we cannot separate them?

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French, Learning Other Languages, PhD Research

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Happy Australia Day to my Aussie friends!

Australia Day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. The Commonwealth of Australia was officially formed on January 1, 1901, when the colonies federated but this date is not widely known as Commonwealth Day since it is already a public holiday (New Year’s Day) and Australia Day had already been established on January 26.

Though it does not celebrate independence from Britain after a bloody war as the American national holiday does, Australia Day traditions are quite similar: barbecues, beaches, parades and fireworks. However, today I will be participating in another British/Australian tradition which I know nothing about. I will be attending a cricket match at the Adelaide Oval!

In any case, to celebrate all things Australian, I give you a commercial that will seem oddly familiar to Americans:

 Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden cars
They go together underneath the Southern stars

 It is the Australian version of the famous American jingle by Chevrolet! (Chevrolet is called Holden in Australia.)

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet
They go together in the good ol’ USA

I hope everyone has a great Australia Day!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Australia

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I was warned about the high cost of living in Australia before moving here, though luckily it is not as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps it is because I came directly from France rather than the US, but I feel as though the only expense that is very high in Australia is rent. Yet keeping in mind that there are only 20 million people in this entire country (roughly the size of the US minus Alaska) and that most of them live in the big cities near the coasts, it’s understandable that the rents would be higher in a city of millions of people compared to 50 thousand, which was the average size of cities where I’ve previously lived.

Rents have also increased in recent years due to the mining boom and the strength of the Australian dollar, which is now a few cents stronger than the US dollar. For comparison, it was 1 USD = 1.50 AUD ten years ago. Once you leave the large cities and head to the countryside, prices are much cheaper and similar to what I’ve found in the Midwest. Yet living in the countryside in Australia is a bit harder than in the US because of the lack of people, which means a lack of certain infrastructure facilities and services. Many of the small towns only have populations in the hundreds.

However, cost of living is only half the story. Incomes also need to be taken into account. It doesn’t really matter what the cost of living is or how much you make; what matters most is how much money you have left over each month. In France, my bills were high but my salary was incredibly low. In Australia, my bills are still high but my salary is 50% more than what I made in France – and keep in mind that my income in Australia is a living stipend that is just above poverty level, whereas my income in France was for a full-time job that required a Master’s degree. So I am much better off financially in Australia.

For anyone who is interested in living in Australia, here is what I currently pay living close to Adelaide (only about 5 miles/ 8 kms from the city center):

Monthly Bills

Rent (includes water): $1300

- two-bedroom, furnished 60 M2 apartment run by a student housing company that is 2 minutes from campus so I can walk to my office. Obviously I could cut this in half if I had a roommate but I quite enjoy having the whole place to myself. In 6 months I plan to move to a house in the suburbs, which run about $1000-1100 a month. (Other big cities have higher rents; luckily Adelaide is not as expensive as everywhere else. Less than an hour outside of Adelaide, rents for houses are around $800 a month.)

Electricity: $50 for most of the year; $100 during “winter”

- there is no actual heating system in the apartment so I have electric heaters, which means that this bill is higher in the winter months but I do not have air conditioning because 35° C / 95° F is the perfect temperature to me. No gas in this apartment (only electric stove/oven), but I have heard it is cheaper.

Internet: $30 (but will be reimbursed)

- for 10 GB of data per month, but you can definitely find cheaper/more data. Since I’m in student housing, it was just easier to use their pre-paid internet. Some companies do offer unlimited ADSL internet (no data caps) for about $60 a month. Home internet costs will be reimbursed by the research degree fund at my university so technically internet is free for me!

Cell phone: $25 (pre-paid, which I rarely use)

Groceries: $150

Transportation: $15 (about half off normal fares thanks to my student ID)

Laundry: $8

Renter’s insurance: $14

I have no telephone line, cable TV, car or car insurance/maintenance costs and my university scholarship pays for my health insurance (and I could get extra coverage for optical, dental, etc. for $25 a month). I may eventually get a car when I move further away from campus, but for now I can get by without one.

• Total monthly bills: about $1600

Yearly Bills

No residency card because my visa is valid for the duration of my PhD.

No income taxes because my living stipend is tax-free.

No occupancy tax on my apartment.

• Total yearly bills: $0

Prices for other things such as clothes, books, electronics, etc. are more expensive than in the US but it is quite easy to find sales and discounts. Some stores such as Kmart and The Reject Shop have more “normal” prices as well. Telecommunications are more expensive than France but comparable to the US. Bundles for home phone/TV/internet are around $100-150 a month. Food items can be hit or miss, especially fruits and vegetables, depending on the weather. Bananas were $15 a kilo when I first arrived because the crops had been wiped out by cyclone Yasi in Queensland, but now the prices are back down to less than $2 a kilo.

Staples such as bread, milk, and pasta are quite cheap but cereal, yogurt and cheese are more expensive than I would have expected. Gas is just over $5 a gallon ($1.33 a liter) while eating at restaurants and going to the movies are pretty much New York prices. Since Australia is an island that is rather far from everywhere and has strict import and quarantine rules (to protect from diseases or pests further destroying the native populations), higher prices are reasonable for some things. But with the strength of the Aussie dollar and the ease of shopping online nowadays especially at US stores, there is more competition for local stores to lower prices.

If anyone would like specific prices for certain things, let me know.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Australia

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My second book published by Dover Publications, Great French Short Stories of the Twentieth Century: A Dual-Language Book, is now available!

The original French stories are on the left page and literal English translations are on the right page. There are 15 stories representing authors and settings from France and other French-speaking areas such as Quebec, Guadeloupe, Mauritius and Senegal. This book is designed for intermediate/advanced learners of French to increase their vocabulary and learn more about the literature of the Francophone world.

For beginners of French or those interested in traveling to a French-speaking country, my Say it in French phrasebook (+ Food and Wine supplement and 2,500 English-French dictionary) is also available.

To celebrate the release of my second book, I’m doing another giveaway! If you would like a FREE autographed copy of either my Say it in French phrasebook OR my Great French Short Stories dual-language book, all you need to do is:

• send me an e-mail at ielanguages (at) gmail (dot) com or comment on this blog post,
• let me know which book you would like,
• and what country you are located in (I will send it from either the US or Australia depending on where you are located)

BY SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, AT 9:00 AM EASTERN STANDARD TIME (NEW YORK TIME)

I will choose two winners at random; one for each book. Giveaway is open to residents of planet Earth. One entry per book per human being.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Congratulations to the four winners! The books have been sent to you!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | 42 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French

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Traveling by train is still a pretty nice experience in France, and even though Australia is just as big as the US, long-distance train travel across the continent is quite enjoyable Down Under too. I have taken the high-speed TGV and slower regional TER trains in France numerous times, and when I first arrived in Australia, I took The Overland train from Melbourne to Adelaide. I don’t have much experience with trains in the US, though I would love to hear some opinions on Amtrak.

Most areas of France are well-linked by trains and the TGV routes lead to the major cities. Annecy is only 3.5 hours from Paris on a direct TGV line and tickets can be as low as 17€ or 22€ if you buy early enough. The TER ticket prices never change and you can buy them right before getting on the train. The convenience of being able to hop on a train and get to where you want to go without having to drive (especially if the weather is bad) was always a nice possibility in France. I took the TER to Grenoble last week from Annecy and while it cost 37€, it was probably only slightly more expensive that paying for gas and tolls – which are rather expensive in France – and knowing that I didn’t have to drive through the snow or while tired from traveling/jet lag was worth it.

Even though Australian trains are not high-speed and the journey from Adelaide to Melbourne took 10.5 hours, I would gladly do the trip again to see more of the countryside between the large cities. Australia has fewer major cities (and people! there are only 20 million people in the entire country after all) but they are all linked by railways and tickets can be as low as $50 for some routes. Taking luggage is free though sometimes there are restrictions. For example, the Overland allows 2 checked suitcases at 20 kg each.

I traveled a lot by plane while living in France, but mostly to other countries since France is rather small and taking the train is usually easier. Flying in Europe tended to be a hassle because of the ridiculous liquid ban and always having to go through security at every stopover if you didn’t have a direct flight. Luckily with the Schengen Space nowadays most airports don’t require you to go through security as often as long as you are traveling completely within the borders (similar to flying domestic in the US), and even though you can at least lock your bags (unlike in the US where TSA gets to steal your stuff), friends and family still cannot accompany you to the gate. Plus the US continues to use irradiating body scanners, while they have been recently banned in Europe where they only use non-irradiating scanners. You only have to face the dilemma of get cancer or get groped in North America. So I have never liked flying because of the unpleasant ambiance I find at airports, especially American airports.

And then I flew on a domestic flight in Australia.

What a world of difference:

•  ANYONE can go through security to get to the gates.

• You can lock your bags.
• You don’t have to take off your shoes.
• THERE IS NO LIQUID BAN ON DOMESTIC FLIGHTS.
• The security agents are actually nice!
• Qantas still provides free food and free checked luggage.
• Even though Virgin Australia (on a Saver fare) and Jetstar (the low-cost offshoot of Qantas) make you pay extra for food and luggage, it’s still rather affordable to fly across the country.
• DID I MENTION THERE IS NO LIQUID BAN AND ANYONE CAN GO TO THE GATE???

The only thing that I didn’t like was that no one checked my ID at any point so I could have used someone else’s boarding pass to get on a plane. But overall flying in Australia is a very pleasant experience and a thousand times better than flying in the US.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Australia, French Culture, Travelling

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Traveling from Australia to France always involves a lot of flying (ok, Australia to Anywhere involves a lot of flying), but changing seasons is another big shock that is hard to get used to. I spent Christmas in summer with temps in the 30s C / 90s F and then I came back to the Alps where it is snowing and barely above freezing.

I went from this:

to this:

and on Sunday I will be heading to Michigan where it is even colder and more snow is in the forecast.

I am enjoying my time in France even though this trip is rather short (only 4 days). I went to Grenoble yesterday to meet up with Crystal (Crystal goes to Europe) and Dana (grenobloise) and today I am spending New Year’s Eve in Annecy. Actually, I’m spending most of my time with this furball since I haven’t seen him in nearly six months:

He hasn’t changed at all.

Bonne année à tous et à toutes !

Happy New Year everyone!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Annecy, Chambéry & France, Australia

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In honor of my first Australian Christmas:

Aussie Jingle Bells by Bucko & Champs (they have quite a few funny songs, such as Deck the Shed with Bits of Wattle and Australians Let Us Barbecue)

Christmas in Australia by Brian Sutton

Six White Boomers by Rolf Harris

Christmas Day the Australian Way by Angry Anderson (nice geography lesson of Australian places)

White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Australia

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Some of these are obviously rather comédique rather than folklorique. Enjoy!

23 décembre by Beau Dommage

La valse de Noël by Fernand Gignac

La toune de Noël by Crampe en Masse

C’est Noël, il neige dans ma tête by Paul et Paul

Le père noel s’t'un québecois by Les Cowboys Fringants

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French

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More Christmas songs in French! Most of these videos have lyrics so you can learn the words and all of them are French versions of English songs you probably already know. Don’t forget the five songs I posted two years ago: French Christmas Songs

La Promenade en Traîneau (Sleigh ride)

Le Petit Renne au nez rouge (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer)

Le Père Noël arrive ce soir (Santa Claus is comin’ to town)

Les anges dans nos campagnes (Angels we have heard on high)

C’est l’hiver (Let it snow)

Quebecois French and Australian Christmas songs to come!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French

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A linguistic analysis of language and identity of LOLcats. Isn’t linguistics the best thing ever? (And aren’t Lauren & Jill awesome!?)

I can has language play: Construction of Language and Identity in LOLspeak from Lauren Gawne on Vimeo.

Follow Lauren and Georgia (yet another adorable Aussie linguist) on Twitter @Superlinguo and on Tumblr.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Random

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I travelled to Canberra this past weekend to attend the Australian Society for French Studies Conference at the Australian National University. To coincide with the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia and Australian Linguistics Society conferences also taking place in Canberra this week as part of Langfest, the three themes of the conference were translation, language teaching, and discourse analysis. Obviously I attended most of the teaching presentations, though I do have an interest in translation. The conference was bilingual but most presentations were in French. I was excited to find out that the 2012 conference will be at the University of Adelaide on September 27-28, so I hope other French researchers will join me there because I am definitely attending.

Béatrice Chassaing from the French Embassy offered some interesting statistics on Australian-French studies. About 6,000 students at Australian universities are studying French, but only 500 study abroad in France. In fact, less than 1% of all Australian students study abroad. In comparison, there are 3,700 French students currently studying in Australia. The French Embassy has recently started a program to increase Australian student mobility to France and to develop Australian universities / French companies partnerships by offering paid internships for Australian students in French companies established in Australia  or in Australian companies operating in France. For more information, download the Internship Program information sheet. And if neither study abroad nor internships sound appealing, the teaching assistant program is still an option. There are about 65 positions available for Australian citizens to teach English in primary or secondary schools in France or the DOM-TOMS (including New Caledonia) for seven months. The application deadline is December 12 to start teaching in October 2012.

Other plenary talks included Pierre Bondil reflecting on his translations of crime fiction (polars) over the years and Pierre Labbe explaining the concept of le Softpower à la française. Two adorable Americans who have lived in France for 45 years, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier and Constance Borde, also spoke about their translation of Le Deuxième Sexe (and I really hope they attend the conference next year because I loved talking to them about how great Australia is!) Unfortunately I had to leave early on the second day so I missed Philippe Met’s talk on “Le lendemain matin…”, ou la traduction d’une ellipse : scènes post-coïtales dans le cinéma français des années 30.

Australia-France websites to check out:

• Australian Society for French Studies
• Australian French Association for Science and Technology
• French-Australia Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• Ambassade de France à Canberra
• Australian Embassy in Paris
• The French in Australia (Discovery Collection from State Library of New South Wales)
• Explorations and Encounters in French (FREE 322 page e-book from U of Adelaide press; CD-ROM is also available to purchase)

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Australia, French Culture

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I attended a symposium last week at my university on language education in the Asia-Pacific region. It was very interesting and fascinating and left me wanting to learn every Asian language and visit every Asian country. I also attended the new postgraduate student induction and have been finishing up the final revisions on my research proposal. Next week I’m off to Canberra for a conference (and a little sightseeing!) so I probably won’t post again until I return.

Some notes I took at the symposium:

• English is the official working language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – all of which have English as an integral part of their primary curriculum. Quite a difference from the European Union with 27 member states and 23 official languages!



• A common myth about second language learning is that a student’s native/home language will hinder acquisition of the second language and that starting to learn a language as early as possible is always better. In fact, using the child’s home language to teach core concepts such as math and science and introducing the second language (such as English) later yields better results. In North American contexts, students take about 5-7 years to learn English well enough in order to learn other subjects through English. In non-Anglophone contexts (such as Asia or Africa), it takes longer – usually 8 years. English Only movements such as those that restrict usage of Spanish in the US or Aboriginal languages in Australia are not supported by linguistic research. Using one’s native language helps in the acquisition of a second language, especially at a young age.
• The closing of the second day of the symposium brought up questions that perhaps we don’t have the answers to (at least, not yet). For example, is motivation the real issue? Low levels of language study in Australia (and the US) have been a problem for a while, but is it really a lack of motivation by the students or is it more related to educational structures? The foreign language budget is often cut and classes cancelled to make room for more “important” subjects, while at the same time governments continue to stress how vital knowledge of languages is for students’ futures. It should also be noted that the motivation for teaching languages is very different (usually economic or political) from the motivation for learning languages (usually humanistic). Even if there is a lot of teaching of a language in schools (such as English in Asia), is there learning? Are schools the best places to be educated?

If you’re interested in the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia Education Foundation website provides information about Asia literacy in Australian schools.

In December, I’ll start posting about my actual PhD research and the wonderful world of vocabulary acquisition and lexical variation!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning Other Languages

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Thanks to corpus linguistics, the differences between written and spoken French are easier to describe and analyze. Since I am particularly interested in how textbooks treat both types of French, I was happy to see research comparing corpus linguistics data to textbook representations of the subject pronouns by Waugh and Fonseca-Greber at the University of Arizona. Their data confirms that textbooks teach the written form of French, but that the spoken form is still largely ignored.

The pronouns that they analyzed were tu, nous, vous, ils, and on. In written French, the pronouns mean:

• tu : you (singular and familiar)
• nous : we
• vous : you (plural and formal)
• ils : they
• on : one / you / they (indefinite)

However, their data shows that these labels are inadequate for spoken French. In their corpus of 194,000 words, nous meaning we was only used 1% of the time, on was used much more often to mean we (76.3%) than in the indefinite sense, and there was almost a 50/50 split of both tu and ils being used in the indefinite sense rather than just meaning you and they, while vous was also used in the indefinite sense in a few cases. Statistically, vous used in the indefinite sense is not very significant (only 1.3%), but it does prove that this use of the pronoun is possible in spoken French. The most interesting to me was comparing on and tu used as indefinites, as tu was used more than twice as often as on!

Therefore, in spoken French, the subject pronouns are:

• tu : you (singular and familiar) AND one / you (indefinite)
• nous : very rarely we
• vous : you (plural and formal) AND very rarely one / you (indefinite)
• ils : they AND one / they (indefinite)
• on : we AND sometimes one / you / they (indefinite)

In a few ways, learning the spoken pronouns is easier. Both tu and ils in the indefinite sense correspond to the English usage of you and they in the indefinite. On is not used as often in the indefinite sense much like one is not used all that often in English. And since nous is rarely used, the verb conjugation of first person plural is also rarely needed.

I remember many of my textbooks emphasizing that you cannot use tu in the indefinite and that it is incorrect and bad French. But many times what is considered wrong in written French is not, in fact, incorrect in spoken French. It’s simply the notion of appropriateness within the context, and textbooks need to make this distinction clear AND teach both forms. However, textbooks still seem to be written according to intuition and not corpus data.

Linguistics is concerned with how people actually use language, as opposed to how people should use language. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive, and the teaching of languages should be as well.

Waugh and Fonseca-Geber’s article “Authentic Materials for Everyday Spoken French: Corpus linguistics vs. French textbooks” is available for free if you’d like to see examples and the full statistics.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French

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Thanks to Anders, we now have the 20th language tutorial on ielanguages.com: Danish / dansk

Tutorials I to III are available, though some grammatical explanations and sample sentences still need to be added, especially in the last part. Anders plans to record mp3s to go along with the tutorials and I will be adding the vocabulary to the Germanic Comparative Lists alongside the Swedish vocabulary that is already available. Any Norwegian speakers out there who can help add to the Norwegian tutorial or comparative lists?

Danish Tutorial Index

Danish I Tutorial

Danish II Tutorial

Danish III Tutorial

Copenhagen, Denmark

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning Other Languages, Website

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If you would like to teach English in the public school system in France or the DOM-TOMs as an assistant for the 2012-2013 school year (October 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013), use the links below to find out the specific requirements and application process for your country. In general, you must be a native English speaker, have finished two years of university & be less than 30 years old by October 1, 2012, and speak French at an intermediate (B1) level. The teaching assistantship program in France is open to citizens of other countries as well, to teach German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, etc. in French public schools. Refer to the official CIEP website for all countries and languages involved in the program.

Assistants work 12 hours a week and are paid about 780€ a month net, with paid vacations in October, December, February, and April. As of this year, there is only one contract length (7 months) but you can still choose between two levels: primary (elementary school) or secondary (middle school, high school, or both). For the majority of countries, assistants can be assigned to mainland France + Corsica and the overseas départements of Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and La Réunion. Assistants working in the overseas départements have a slightly higher salary to compensate for the higher cost of living; however, assistants working in Paris or other cities with high costs of living in mainland France do NOT have a higher salary. Australia and New Zealand also send assistants to New Caledonia, but the school year is between March and October so the application process is different.

You can read through my Guide for English Language Assistants in France for more detailed information and my personal experience as an assistant, as well as download all of the ESL lesson plans I created for my classes. If you have questions about the program, search the Assistants in France forums where many past assistants such as myself (I’m the moderator) help out the new and hopeful assistants.

All applications for Anglophone countries are now available, and the deadlines range from December to March. You should be notified between April and June if you have been accepted.  Most countries require you to go to the French embassy/consulate to get your visa before leaving for France, so make sure you take that into account because it could be very far from where you live and you will have to pay for your own transportation. All Australians must go to Sydney and all NZers must go to Wellington, for example. The visa is free, however. Assistants are responsible for buying their own plane tickets to France and finding their own housing (though some schools may be able to help with this.) Non-EU citizens are also required to undergo a medical visit upon arrival in France. Since assistants have low incomes, they are eligible to receive money from the state (CAF) to help pay rent, though the amount depends on age, current rent, previous income, etc. Assistants are allowed to have a second job as long as they get permission from their school and it does not pay more than 30% of the assistant salary.

Links to each country’s French embassy page on the assistant program and the approximate number of positions available:

• USA : 1,450 (last year 2,100 people applied)

Deadline is January 15, 2012, and there is an application fee of $40. Dual French-American citizens are no longer allowed to apply; however, all other dual EU-American citizens may apply. Also check out the TAPIF USA page on Facebook if you have questions that are not answered on the French Culture site linked above.

• Canada : 300

Deadline is March 1, 2012. Canadians must be enrolled in university at the time of application.

• United Kingdom : 1,200

Deadline is December 1, 2011.

• Ireland : 60

Deadline is March 2, 2012.

• Australia : 65

Deadline is December 12, 2011. There are also 4 positions in New Caledonia, but the deadline for teaching March-October 2012 has already passed. Application deadline for New Caledonia is usually in September.

• New Zealand : 40

Application is available now. Deadline is March 12, 2012. There are also positions in New Caledonia, but the deadline for teaching March-October 2012 has already passed. Application deadline for New Caledonia is usually in August.

• India : 50

Deadline is December 15, 2011.

• Jamaica and the Bahamas

Deadline is beginning of January 2012.

Citizens of South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados are also eligible, but I could not find any pages on the assistantship program on the embassy websites. The official CIEP site has applications for these countries, but the deadline dates are not specified.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Teaching Assistantship, Teaching English & Other Languages

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L’Académie française has once again called for more “defense” of the French language against incorrect use of the language, especially with regards to Anglicisms. I do not agree with l’Académie’s prescriptivist ideas on vocabulary use and trying to force the formal (often written) language onto the spoken form. It is one thing to determine if a sentence is grammatically correct concerning function words, verb conjugations, word order, etc. but it is completely different to proclaim that certain content words are incorrect since vocabulary choice is highly dependent on the topic, context, medium (speech/writing) and audience. As long as the meaning of the words are similar (such as formal vs. informal variants), there is no correct or incorrect use of a word over another. It is merely what is appropriate or not to that particular situation. Saying “Hey, what’s up?” to the president is not incorrect – because that would imply that it would never be used at all by native speakers, when in fact it is used quite often – but it is inappropriate to use an informal variant in a formal situation.

Telegraph has a recent article on L’Académie’s fight against English words in French. Their website includes a new page called “Dire, Ne pas dire” which includes les fautes, les tics de langage et les ridicules qui s’observent le plus fréquemment dans le français contemporain. Jean-Matthieu Pasqualini of the Académie said “We want to restore courage to all those in France and outside France who endeavour to defend and enrich the language. Let French remain a great language of communication and culture.” But what does he mean by enrich? Claiming that some words in contemporary French (that aren’t even Anglicisms) are absurd or wrong doesn’t exactly seem like a good start.

France’s culture ministry also has a new website for people to propose French words in place of the borrowed English words at wikilf.culture.fr which states “il ne s’agit nullement de déclarer la guerre aux mots étrangers, anglais en particulier, qui sont passés dans la langue courante – pas question de toucher au week-end et au sandwich – mais d’anticiper l’utilité d’un terme étranger qui pourrait s’installer en français.” (Telegraph’s translation: “This is in no way about declaring war on foreign terms, English in particular, that have entered into common usage like sandwich or weekend. It is about anticipating the usefulness of a foreign term that could be settling into the French language.”) While I’m happy to see that they acknowledge the natural state of constant evolution and change that occurs in all human languages, the fact that they are trying to propose French translations for Anglicisms that have yet to become so entrenched in the language seems a bit suspect. There is nothing wrong with wanting to use the French translations, of course, but why is it considered ok to use sandwich and week-end but not casting or email? Just because sandwich and week-end have been used in French for longer, that somehow makes them more acceptable?

I know I have expressed my annoyance at the use of English words in French in the past, but I am not frustrated because of the existence of the borrowings, which are natural and normal in any language. I am frustrated that language learning materials do not include the borrowings or other aspects of contemporary French vocabulary. They only tend to include the standardized form of the language, or what people should say (dictated by l’Académie) instead of what people actually say, which is not useful for students who need to comprehend the various dialects and styles and which leaves them with an inaccurate and stereotypical portrayal of the French language.

Another reason that resistance to borrowings is a bit unreasonable is that certain words in English are actually borrowings from old French, which then have later been re-borrowed back into French in the newer Anglicized form. Toast in English comes from old French toster, whereas modern French stopped using toster in favor of pain grillé, but has also borrowed toast from modern English. So is le toast really an Anglicism if it was originally French?

Are you French or English, Mr. Toast?

When it comes to Anglicisms, many people like to point out that Quebecois French has more English borrowings than French in France (which isn’t true) to justify their prejudiced view that Quebecois French isn’t “real” French. That’s just as ridiculous as saying American English isn’t real English or Mexican Spanish isn’t real Spanish simply because it is not spoken in the “mother country” where the language originated. I do not understand the colonialistic attitudes about language use, just as I do not understand why some people make a connection between the older form of a language and a supposed superiority of the variety that is closest to the old form. A dialect that is more conservative with change is somehow more desirable than the others, yet many people believe that the mother country dialect is also the most conservative which is not true. Quebecois French contains many aspects of Old French that speakers in France no longer use, which some wrongly assume are Anglicisms when in fact they are Old French.

In Quebecois, Belgian and Swiss French the three meals of the day are le déjeuner, le dîner, and le souper whereas most areas of France nowadays use le petit déjeuner, le déjeuner and le dîner.* Quebec French did not borrow le souper from English supper; English borrowed it from Old French soper which turned into souper in modern French. In France, le souper is another meal even later than dinner and is usually associated with rural areas or an older generation. The words dinner and supper in English have also changed meaning somewhat over time. In my dialect of English, dinner and supper are synonyms for the evening meal, but in other forms of English, dinner is the midday meal (instead of lunch) and supper is the evening meal (instead of dinner) so the older French, current Quebec and English meals were parallels at one time: déjeuner = breakfast (dé + jeûne: undo or break fast), dîner = dinner and souper = supper.

Wordreference.com has a thread on the names of the meals where native speakers contribute what they say in their region. Looking at posts #2 and #6, you can see how far the idea of bon usage and correct French (i.e. what l’Académie says is correct) has spread. I quote from the forum:

De manière correcte et quelles que soient les régions de France :
on déjeune à midi
on dîne ou on soupe le soir (plus utilisé en milieu rural)

and the post that made me nearly cry, which refers to the above post:

Tout-à-fait d’accord. Mais chez nous (sud-est), on continue à parler de “dîner” à midi. Chez moi, quand j’étais petite, on se simplifiait encore plus la vie : dîner, midi et soir . Le “déjeuner” c’était le petit déj’. Quand je suis sortie dans le monde, j’ai été très étonnée qu’on l’appelle “petit” !

Maintenant, grâce aux médias, la langue s’uniformise et on respecte de plus en plus le bon usage français.

I wonder if the millions of people in France who don’t use déjeuner and dîner in the same manner as the first poster know that they do not speak “correct” French. As for the second poster, I feel sorry that she thinks that her native dialect is not correct while at the same time praising the effects of standardization, which lead to her dialect being considered incorrect in the first place.

These are issues of geographic variation, but using one word instead of the other is not incorrect. Compare the use of pop vs. soda vs. coke in the US. I’m from Michigan so I say pop, but I don’t consider the use of soda or coke to be wrong or incorrect. They are simply different ways of saying the same thing depending on where you are from or where you are currently located. All dialects of a language should be seen as equals but the standardized form used in most writing, and which is generally based on the upper classes, is often considered the only correct variety. There is a place for the standardized form, especially for communication purposes and even teaching students how to produce language, but the other varieties are also just as valid as human languages and should not be reduced to incorrect deviations of the prestige form.

* Even more confusing is the spoken/informal use of déjeuner to mean “to eat breakfast” even in areas where the three meals are le petit déjeuner, le déjeuner and le dîner!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French

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Claude Guéant, France’s Minister of Interior, has recently made it even harder for foreigners to get a job. France still welcomes many foreign students (with 280,000 France is third in the world) but the list of métiers for which foreigners can be hired has been reduced from 30 to 14, with local préfectures being able to reduce the list even further. This largely concerns students and other foreigners who do not already have the right to work in France and who are attempting to either get a work permit or change the status on their current residency card (from student to worker, for example).

The government is trying to reduce unemployment for French citizens by limiting the number of foreign workers. However, only 0.03% of the 65 million people in France are foreigners trying to get a work permit (20,000 people who make up only 10% of all legal immigration) and there are 4 million unemployed French citizens. It seems like the government should focus more on training French citizens so they are prepared for the jobs that are available, but now more money and resources will be diverted to immigration issues instead of Pôle Emploi.

I still receive lots of e-mails from non-EU citizens asking for advice on how to find work in France. I always say getting a degree in France is the best first step because almost all require an internship at the end which can lead to a job, or at least contacts in the field. If you haven’t done the internship in France, you’ll be at a disadvantage. But now it seems like even having a degree from a French university won’t help as much as it used to.

Diplômés étrangers non grata : Claude Guéant « fait du chiffre »

La liste des métiers ouverts aux étrangers réduite de moitié

Immigration de travail: la liste très select du gouvernement

France : les travailleurs étrangers indésirables

Grandes écoles : les jeunes diplômés étrangers interdits de travail

Finding a job in France is not impossible but with more and more anti-immigration laws popping up, it is getting even harder. That was part of the reason why I left France (and the low incomes – half of French households have an income of less than €19,000!) but I do know many people who have found jobs and obtained work permits, though I do have to admit many of them were also PACSed or married to a French or EU citizen.

I don’t want to sound overly pessimistic about France but with the current state of the economy and immigrants often being blamed for problems that they have nothing to do with, foreigners trying to work in France should be prepared for an uphill battle.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: French Culture

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My Say it in French phrasebook (Dover Publications) is now available through Amazon.com for $5.95!

I have recently updated the Listening Resources podcast to include Swedish mp3s. Transcripts, English translations, and an RSS feed are also available. Check out the Swedish Listening Resources page for the first eight mp3s. (The mp3 player is not Flash-based so you can listen to them on iPhones/iPods/iPads too.)

I plan on adding more languages and dialects so let me know if you’d like to contribute!

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French, Learning Other Languages

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Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the European Day of Languages and Eurostat has provided statistics about the most studied languages in the 27 member states of the European Union plus Iceland, Norway, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey (though stats for Portugal are missing).

“In the EU27 in 2009, 82% of pupils at primary and lower secondary level and 95% of those in upper secondary level general programmes were studying English as a foreign language. The second most commonly studied foreign language at primary and lower secondary level was French (16% of pupils), followed by German (9%) and Spanish (6%), while at upper secondary level it was German (27%), followed by French (26%) and Spanish (19%).”

Take a look at the table in the PDF file. I was a bit surprised to see Spanish as the 2nd most studied language in Norway and Sweden, as well as Danish in Iceland, but the rest weren’t all that surprising (Russian in the Baltics and Bulgaria, German in Eastern Europe, French in Romania, etc.)

I’ve already posted about enrollment data for Australia, where Japanese and Italian take the lead (though Indonesian and French practically tie for third place). The ACTFL has a recent report for American public schools where Spanish, French and German are still the main three languages. The MLA has the same information available for universities and colleges, where Spanish, French and German are still the top three as well even with the large increase in Arabic and Chinese enrollments. American Sign Language and Italian are nearly tied for 4th place.

© Jennifer Wagner for Jennie n'est plus en France, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Who is linking?
Post categories: Learning French, Learning Other Languages

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