Thursday 14 August 2014

I've got rhythm, well actually I have not and that is my problem

Yesterday I was assessed and found to be wanting.
Wanting a clip around the ear many might say but actually it's my rhythm. Not my dancing although that to be fair is rubbish. My rhythm of speaking the French language and that is why French people find me so difficult to understand.
 Apparently the end of the sentence should go up and be stressed more powerfully and I am not doing that, thus confusing French speakers as I start the sentence. That look of fear I get from certain French men is not because I am a sexual predator but because they are scared they won't understand me... and I talk a lot in English or French.
Julia my French teacher has a friend staying with her ( 2 young people at Verfeil)   she is on holiday from Alsace, where she teaches French and prepares  amongst other things etrangers to pass the nationality test. Julia asked her to listen in to my progress and I was found wanting on the accent side... so continue with the lessons, listen to  French radio and TV and in the end I will get there.
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Malc says: I think that the inflection rises at the end of subordinate clauses and falls at the end of a sentence.
Quand je vais a Toulouse, (rising inflection) je prends le train. (falling inflection). It also seems that French has no particular stressed syllables, so each syllable in a word is equally stressed, unlike other languages.
Val says I am now totally confused. Malc remembers he was  taught about rhythm at University but the  French teacher did give me a wavy line showing stresses and said "go up at the end"
A very complicated language French ( or is that as you get older)
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