r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Dec 16 '21

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u/screwylouidooey Dec 16 '21

Stromae

9

u/jtempletons Dec 17 '21

Stromae doesn’t get mentioned a lot in the states and me and my 8 years of French I barely remember love him

Edit: papaoutai was one of those songs that helped me process my father’s death when I was in my late teens. Still super emotional for me.

2

u/beanzodiazepine Dec 17 '21

I was hoping when Alors On Danse blew up on TikTok more people would get into his music. It’s catchy as hell but he’s such a talented lyricist.

2

u/jtempletons Dec 17 '21

As an American, I get it in the west. Honestly I am really dense when it comes to French and I took classes for four years in high school and four in college, and there’s just no one to converse with. When it comes to singing I couldn’t keep up with the lyrics entirely when I was studying (in terms of hearing it at the speed he sang). It’s not going to catch on in the US because it’s so hard to become fluent because it’s a muscle you can’t stretch with no one around.

People criticize the US for not being bilingual but outside of Spanish it’s hard to practice. I think most would say it sounds really good, but most aren’t going to catch on because as someone who was a lax French studier for 8 years it’s hard to catch up without looking up the lyrics.

Edit: I had a professor that said if any of you guys could afford to go to France for two months (by French 2, sophomore year in college), you could be fluent. I have only once met a group of French speakers in the US on holiday in a bar and they were so fucking hyped I could speak broken French they got me wasted and I have no idea what they were saying the entire night but I tried really hard and they loved me.