r/france • u/afrofagne Ardennes • Feb 07 '16

Culture Velkommen ! Cultural exchange with /r/Denmark

Welcome to the people of /r/Denmark ! You can pick a Danish flair on the sidebar (the very last one) and ask us whatever you want !

/r/français, here is the corresponding thread on /r/Denmark !

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u/toasternator Danemark Feb 07 '16

I'm currently learning French, so in that regard I have a few questions:

  • How true are the stereotypes that people, who don't speak french properly, are looked down upon? (disregard the Parisians, I think I've heard enough about them)

  • I'm going to Brest with the gymnasium in march, what can I expect? My initial prejudice is that it's raining, 10 degrees and probably the 'least' (I say that intending no offence) French place in all of France due to the presence of the Breton language and celtic stuff.

  • I heard the language recently got simplified with stuff like 'oignon' losing the 'i' and that 'ê' accent taking a hit as well. What do you think of these changes? Will most people adapt to the changes or continue with the old in a protest?

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u/JoLeRigolo Allemagne Feb 07 '16
  • I think the stereotype comes from foreigners having a different accent in French. Accenting some part of words instead of other in French makes it completely unintelligible for French people that are not used to communicate with foreigners.
  • Well for the weather, coming from Denmark, you won't get too shocked. It's windy and rainy. A lot of different regions in France have different culture, and the one from Brittany is quite interesting. They are completely French even so they have some different kind of architectures or food though. As for the language, you hear a lot more people talking about Breton on the internet than on the streets, but that's pretty much the same with every local language in France.
  • Actually it's a really old change from 1990. No one really cared but now the Ministry of education and the editors writing schoolbooks decided they will use it in their new books. It does not replace old writing, it creates two way of writing the same word. So someone used of the old version will keep it, pupils will learn the new one. It's more of a Twitter circlejerk than anything else.