Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Ze French accent



If you're French, how many times did you hear that comment: "I love the French accent, it's so sexy / lovely / exotic / glamorous / refined / romantic..."?


As crazy as it sounds, one thing I really wanted to get rid of when I moved to Ireland was my French accent. I don't know why, but I always thought that losing my native accent would be the ultimate proof of integration. I thought that if I showed I made the effort to speak like an Irish person, I would be more accepted as one of them. The truth is, my French accent never bothered anyone. In short, people didn't care if I sounded a bit French as long as they understood me.


Yet, I've always been looking for some sort of "validation" and I'm extremely happy when someone cannot pinpoint where I'm from, or if an Irish colleague tells me I sound Irish, which happens sometimes. I shouldn't really care. After all, everybody has an accent. Only in Ireland you can hear tens of them and it's the same in France.


What I don't understand is when I hear someone who has been living in Ireland for 20 years, speaking with a very heavy French accent. I mean, if you have lived amongst Irish people all that time, worked with them, basically lived your life in English, why do you sound like you just arrived yesterday? I realise I sound mean, but I genuinely don't understand how it's possible. It's either a choice or a lack of willingness. I'm not saying those people should have a perfect  accent because that's impossible, even to me, but how is it their accent hasn't improved one bit?


One of my friend actually confessed he kept his strong French accent because it was giving him an edge, a difference, so we all have different motives I suppose.


The weird thing is when I hear a foreigner speaking French with an accent, it doesn't bother me at all. I just want to praise them for their command of the French language and it doesn't matter if they can't pronounce the "R" sound, as long as I understand them!


I actually find it quite endearing and it just made me realise I probably shouldn't care so much about how other French people speak.


I initially wanted to write this post because I really didn't get why some French people persist in speaking English with their native accent, but now that I have finished my "rant", I realise this is a non-debate. People should be able to speak the way they want (and can), as long as they  make themselves understood.

What's your opinion? Do you think the accent is important when speaking a foreign language?

Comments (7)

Loading... Logging you in...
  • Logged in as
While I agree with you it seems that having a good accent is really due to how good your "musical ear" is. I've always been good at accents and imitations because I lived in three different countries before the age of three and I had a musical education so again good for developing an ear to subtle nuances. It seems that no matter how hard you try to make someone practice these sounds, some people will never get them. An analogy would be flexibility which I have none of, I went to the physio quite a bit but despite all the stretching exercises they made me do my body remains stubbornly stiff!
1 reply · active 487 weeks ago
You're right, not everybody has an ear for accents. My husband can take any accent and I am very jealous ;-)
Well, I quiete share your wish to "sound Irish", like if it was a challenge, you know? Some fun to be thought of having an Irish English rather than an American or British English. Something to craic on, you na'

But I also have this colleague, been here for 7 years, perfect English, perfect grammar, perfect French accent! His reasons? He never tried to lose it because of... well, because. And also because he was too lazy to try!

But yeah, you won't find hard to understand him and no english speaker would because he is bilingual (at least, he also speaks German...).

But now, I'm like, why not having both? A bit of French accent, a bit of Irish accent? Could be fun, don' ya' tin?
1 reply · active 487 weeks ago
I think I tried to get rid of my accent because I wanted to show the Irish I could speak like them and that I was truly integrated. I do sound Irish sometimes, depends on what I say ;-) Like Ana said above, for some people, changing or improving their accent is just impossible. I know a guy, he's been here for 15 years and still says "Vat" for "That", and he speaks English with a French flow, it's so bizarre and cringeworthy...
If you stick around Irish people and you have an ear for accents, you'll pick it up. That's what happened to me. 8 years working exclusively with Irish colleagues helped and I learned A LOT of curses too ;-)
I do really poor accent impressions, but that never stops me from trying! Nice post :)
My recent post Ireland’s Most Beautiful Drives as Selected by the Irish
1 reply · active 486 weeks ago
Ah ah, I thought it would be easy to pick up another English speaking accent as an English speaker ! Having said that, I've seen American actors butcher the Irish accents in way too many movies so I guess we're not all equals when it comes to accents...
good one

Post a new comment

Comments by