Janine: Bonjour and a great big welcome to The Good Life France Podcast. I’m Janine Marsh and I live in the middle of nowhere, rural northern France. I’m a writer and editor of The Good Life France Magazine and website. In this podcast I’ll be telling you everything you want to know about France and more alongside my podcast partner Olivier Jauffrit.
Olivier: Hello, bonjour, bonjour, bonjour. I’m Olivier. I mean: Je suis Olivier. A Frenchman in London. There’s a few but I am the only one doing a podcast with Janine Marsh from The Good Life France! Boom. Beat that.
And today we’re going to be talking about – how to talk French! Cool
Janine: That’s right – though we won’t be talking in French, we will be talking about the French language! We’ll share some key tips to help you get by in French that are really easy to remember – even if you’re not fluent. It’s a short language lesson and there will be no test at the end!
I’m going to start with a question first – Olivier – True or false? The French language is the most beautiful language in the world…
Olivier: It is true of course. Bien sur ! The French language IS beautiful Janine. I have one example for you:
If I ask you in English: “do you like cheese Janine”. It sounds like a basic question right. I am just asking you if you like something. I am looking for a fact about you. That’s it. But now, if I say it in French: “Janine, aimes-tu le fromage”. That’s a completely different thing. When you hear that, you want to like cheese, you want to have cheese right now. You see what I mean…
Also, French media (and only French media obviously) have been saying for some time now that the French language will be the most spoken language in the world by 2050! Thanks to the development of African countries mostly. It is the 4th one at the moment. That must be for a reason: it’s a beautiful language.
Janine: Well this is what all French people think. And of course it is hard to disagree with a French person because you can hardly get a word in as French people just love to talk and share their language!
Though as you can tell if you listen to this podcast, I am almost French, as I talk a lot!
So – the most important word in the French language is bonjour.
Olivier: Yes it’s true. We say bonjour a lot. 5 times in less than 5 minutes already.
Janine: I really love that though. When you go into a shop in France – it’s polite to say bonjour, even in my local supermarket, if I walk in and the people working on the cash points are looking my way – we always say bonjour to each other. And you say it when you go into cafés and bars, pretty much everyone really – except the train or metro or the bus – don’t say it when you go on public transport – except if there is a driver – not to the passengers! Seriously though you can’t say bonjour enough. I counted once, when I was in Dijon in Burgundy, and you know, I can’t go past a bakery or a chocolate shop, or a cheese shop, and in Dijon there are just so many delicious shops, even more since they opened the incredible gastronomy village at the International city of food and wine… anyway I can’t pass any of these shops without a look at least, drooling at the window, taking a photo and I counted my bonjours – including stopping for a hot chocolate, lunch, dinner and a glass of wine – how many do you think I said Olivier?
Olivier – I don’t know – 10? 15 maybe?
Janine: 53. I said bonjour 53 times in one day!
Olivier: Wow. That must be a Guinness book record. I’ll have a look. But there’s more… in France if you already said bonjour to someone, what do you do? Don’t worry, we are here to help. There’s a way… You simply say Re-bonjour. Clever isn’t it? It’s like when you enter something again, you re-enter it right? Well, we apply the same thing to bonjour in France. When we see the same person for the second time, we say re bonjour. Which means: “hello again”. It’s quite casual though. I don’t think we would say that to someone we don’t know very well.
Janine: If you don’t say bonjour when you meet someone in France, they’re likely to think you’re a bit rude! The next most important words are s’il vous plait – please, and merci – thank you.
Right, that’s the easy bit out the way. Let’s talk about homophones – French words that sound the same – but mean different things!
Olivier what’s the French for sea?
Olivier: Mer (sounds like mare)
Janine: What’s the French for mother?
Olivier: Mere (sounds like mare)
Janine: What’s the French for Mayor, as in the Mayor of Paris?
Olivier: Maire (sounds like mare)
Janine: Yup, to me they all sound the same! And that is what makes learning French so much fun. Doesn’t it sound the same to you Olivier?
Olivier: Well yes, I have to admit it does but it’s all about the context!
Janine: And we need to talk about tu which means you, and vous – which means you. Tu is informal and/or singular and vous is formal – and/or plural. So how do you know which one to use?
It’s complicated, even for French people! Generally, tu is what you use for friends. Vous is what you use for people you don’t know well, your boss, government officials, the President and royalty. But it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Olivier: Yes, it is! My parents live in Nantes, west of France and they have a neighbour, whose been a neighbour for a long time, years in fact. When they first met, they called each other vous – comment allez vous, how are you, that sort of thing. Quite formal which is normal when you meet someone and when you are from an older generation. But somehow, they never got passed “vous” onto calling each other “tu”, despite seeing passing each other in the street most weeks and stopping to chat. And now, you know what? It’s too late, my parents can’t suddenly call their neighbour by “tu” – it wouldn’t seem right! We have a word in French tutoyer – and a French person might say to you “on se tutoie ?” ‘– shall we call each other “tu” – yes really, and then you know you’re past the formal side of things!
Janine: so if in doubt – use vous, not tu. Unless you’re talking to a child, or a friend, or family… ok let’s move on.
Olivier: Tu as raison Janine… you’re right.
Let’s talk about the letter h in French, which is silent, so you never ever hear a word beginning with ha. And amazingly French people don’t even laugh hahaha they laugh ah ah ah…
Olivier: Of course we do. Why would we put the h before the a when h are silents in the French language! And anyway, we don’t like the h! We say ‘and-ball, ‘amburger, ‘otel, ‘ockey and ’alloween! Just imagine if we had to say a sentence full of H like you do… That would probably be a nightmare for us: like… I went to the hotel and had a hamburger before going to see the hockey match on Halloween day. God that’s painful…
Janine: I love it when the Bread Man delivers the bread to our village and, you know I’m teaching him to speak English, and he’s helping me with my French, and I try to get him to say his h’s and he says ‘ave a ‘appy weekend’ and I say non it’s have a happy weekend and he tries so hard and he makes all these strange noises and my dogs love it, they jump around him as he’s going red in the face trying to ha ha ha and after several years of trying, I’m resigned to the fact that it’s just never going to ‘appen..
Janine: And what about the fact that the French language isn’t just about words – it’s also about noises, and body language.
Now, I know you can’t see me or Olivier but if he was to ask me a question and I didn’t know the answer, I can reply silently – you won’t hear me but if you could see me you’d know that I am shrugging my shoulders, which means “I don’t know” without saying it. That’s because French people are allergic to saying that they don’t know something…
Olivier: Yes, noises are also important in French. When we don’t know something, usually, you can hear it. We go like this: alors la, … aucune idée ! No idea. Or when we need to tell our child off because he or she is about to do something foolish, we go “tsstsss…” don’t do that. It is not allowed. Also, when we are bored, we do “pfffff”, this movie is the worse movie in the world. It’s bof…You see. You need to learn noises too. Finally, when it’s time to go we say “aller hop”. Off you go. That hop word is almost like a sound and probably comes from up in English.
Janine: And so on that note, we are bringing this language lesson to an end! Merci for listening, s’il vous plait please share our podcast so we can say bonjour to many more people!
Olivier: Aller hop, now it’s time to answer one of your questions…
Janine: Today’s question is a really interesting one. It’s from Eugenius Bart (what a great name) who lives in San Francisco and he asks “What is the most visited attraction in France?”
Olivier do you know what’s the most popular attraction in France?
Olivier: Yes I do – in fact I went past it just last week… It’s the Eiffel Tower in Paris!
And it’s not only an attraction for tourists right, French people also love it. I think they have an interesting relationship with it actually. One cannot imagine Paris and France without its tower. However, I know some Parisians who’ve never been on it. But, those same persons would not imagine for a second the New Year’s fireworks not being fired from the iron lady – as we call her. And there is so many songs about the Eiffel Tower too. It’s symbolic. It was about showing our savoir faire to the world when it opened in 1889, and still is I think. You can see sometimes the tower being destroyed in some end of the world kind of movies… And each time, I go: oh noooooo, not the French iron lady!!!
Janine: Yes you are absolutely right! The Eiffel Tower is a legendary landmark and it’s also an icon of France.
Olivier: I like it personally. I mean it’s beautiful, it’s been part of our lives for so long. No really, She’s our grand ma. She’s been taking care of us for years. She’s watching over us. She is our French Queen. And something I like a lot is how she is presented on social media. On Twitter in particular. They made it like she is a person talking about what’s happening to her. Like this post published a few days ago: “Who dares to face the cold weather and visit me?
No. It’s great. I love La Tour Eiffel.
Janine: When the Eiffel Tower was being built by Monsieur Gustave Eiffel, he can’t have had any idea that it would become a global and much-loved icon. The Tower was created for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair), held to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution, and was completed on March 31 that year. Despite a fair bit of opposition, not everyone loved it, the tower was an instant hit. The first visitors to the Eiffel Tower which opened to the public on 15 May, 1889, were the British Royal family and Buffalo Bill. At 324 metres tall – if you include the radio masts, it was the world’s tallest man-made structure for 41 years until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930.
Olivier: It’s formed of 18,000 metal parts or 2.5 million (yes million) rivets. Repainting the tower, which happens every seven years, requires 60 tonnes of paint. And each time it’s painted a different colour! At the moment it is a sort of gold colour.
Janine: If you’ve ever been up the tower in the wind and thought it was moving – you’re probably right, it sways around six to seven centimetres (2-3 inches) in the wind. And if, like me – when I was 14 year old, you think it’s a good idea to climb the top via the stairs – just remember that there are 1665 (I never did it again, now I take the lift)…
Olivier: Yes and it is as beautiful from below anyway. Every evening, the Eiffel Tower is lit up and literally sparkles for 5 minutes every top of the hour, thanks to 20,000 light bulbs.
Janine: I love it when I’m standing at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and the lights go on and the crowds, there’s always a crowd there, sighs in happiness, a sort of “ooohhh”- you just can’t help it!
Olivier: Exactly. Plus. the famous Beacon emits a light beam which reaches out for miles, scanning the skyline of Paris and reflecting the tower’s position as a universal and symbolic landmark.
And all of this is why more than 7 million people a year visit the Eiffel Tower… I mean, there’s not much to add really.
Next episode
Janine: All this talk of the Eiffel Tower has made me long to go and see it! So Olivier – shall we meet up in Paris soon, and record an episode there? I reckon that will be fun eh…
Olivier: I love that idea. Coming up, Janine and Olivier in Paris. Season 1. Don’t miss it! And yes, binge listening is allowed.
Janine: In the next episode though, we’re going to be talking fashion. A few episodes ago we had the brilliant Olivier Giraud on the show teaching us how to be Parisian in less than one hour! If you haven’t heard it, have a listen, it’s a laugh out loud episode as Olivier Giraud takes you through what makes a Parisian so… well Parisian from food to attitude and – fashion. But Paris isn’t France is it Olivier…
Olivier: No it is not! The country was very centralised around Paris a few decades ago but much less so now. So we’ll be looking at the fashion of France, it’s history, some of the legendary fashion designers and fashion shows and lots of fun facts!
Janine: You can find me at thegoodlifefrance.com where there are thousands yes thousands of articles about France and all things French from culture to gastronomy, history and heaps more, and on the website you can sign up for the podcast and for our free magazine The Good Life France.
Olivier: And you can find me at parischanson.fr where I play the classic and French music you love – 24 hours a day.
Janine: It’s au revoir from me
Olivier: And goodbye from me
Janine: speak to you soon.
