While I've gotten a lot more comfortable speaking French in the last two months, I've also been picking up some bad habits. There are a lot of Senegal-isms that are really improper French expressions that are starting to sound normal to me. A lot of them are just Wolof phrases directly translated, when they don't actually translate.
Here are some examples:
"Tu t'en vas?" It's meant to mean, "You're going?" But it really makes no sense. The proper French would be "Tu y vas?"
"Il y a du mieux?" It's supposed to say, "You're doing better? There's improvement?" It translates to "There is some better?" It should be, "Tu vas mieux?"
"Tu peux m'apprendre l'anglais?" I hear this one ALL the time. "You can learn me English?" In Wolof, to teach is "to learn to someone," so it makes sense to a Wolof speaker. It should actually be, "Tu peux m'enseigner l'anglais?"
I'm trying not to pick up bad French habits, but I'm worried that my judgement about French grammar may be slipping a little.
It sounds like when someone who has studied English in another country comes here and they want to speak it the way they were taught rather than the way it's really used here. It might (strictly speaking) be correct, but it isn't the way most people really speak... I'm still in awe that you guys are learning a foreign language in a foreign language!! My little polyglot <3
ReplyDeleteDiversity, variety, and different situations. Just like the English spoken in India or the Spanish Spoken in Equatorial Guinea, the French that people speak in Paris is not the only kind of French. It makes me happy to know that you are learning about this diversity and learning about these variations that many students who go to Europe would never be exposed to.
ReplyDeleteI had that happen to me when I went to Mexico with my church group. We hung out with the younger church kids and they taught us a bunch of slang! Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, some of the pre-teens at the circus school in chamalières used the expression "Tu peux m'apprendre..." when they were trying to be slangy slash simply had bad grammar. Even the French find a way to butcher the language, same as we do with English.
ReplyDeleteI picked up quickly on the "t'as fais tes devoirs?" a lot of slurring occurred in the local CF speak it seemed. Whip out "pour revenir à nos moutons" in academic speak to say "to get back to the main point" and the (French) teachers will love you however... I wonder what the Senegalese would say about that... colloquialisms are so fun! I wish I could remember more of them!
actually, apprendre means to learn and to teach!
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