Common Courtesies

The key to understanding the main cultural difference that exists between the French and the rest of the world is the word “guest.” In the United States it is considered good service for the shop keeper or store employee to greet the customer, but in France it is just the opposite. Cafes, bistros, boutiques, hotels, and even supermarkets and department stores are considered to be private spaces in France. For this reason it is expected that the guest, or customer, will be the first person to offer a greeting, just as if we were entering someones’ home. So when entering a building in France, look at the shopkeeper or hotel clerk, smile, and say “bon jour.” When leaving the establishment we are expected to say “au revoir.” After six in the evening replace both bon jour and au revoir with “bon soir,” unless it is very late at night, in which the final bon soir can be replaced with “bon nuit.” France is a very polite society, we are also expected to say please (S’il vous plait). Here are the definitions of those useful phrases.

Bon jour: Good day.

Bon soir: Good evening.

Bon nuit: Good night.

Au revoir: Goodbye.

S’il vous plait: If you please.

Proper Attire

In addition to being polite, France is also a more formal society than the United States, with the sartorial consequences that come with being less casual. In other words, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts, flip-flops, and white sneakers are best left indoors. David Lebovitz, a well-known chef and cookbook author currently residing in Paris, tells a story in his latest book, The Sweet Life in Paris, of the moment he realized he had truly become a Parisian. He was lounging in his apartment, dressed in his comfortable, laid back attire, when he needed to take his trash downstairs. He promptly showered, shaved, and put on his Sunday finest to walk the few steps from his front door to the elevator, then outside to the trash receptacle and back again, a journey of less than a few dozen steps.

Try to Speak the Language

You may have heard that the French are quick to pounce on someone mangling their native tongue. That is only partly true. They are proud of their language, and will in fact correct any grievous errors in pronunciation, but make no mistake about it: they will absolutely love you for the effort. A cheap pocket phrasebook from Berlitz has kept many a visitor in the good graces of the French on numerous occasions.

One of the best ways to understand a culture is by watching their films. For more information on the French and French cinema go to French Movies, where you’ll find information on some of the best action, comedies, and dramas that the French have to offer, as well as a few American movies that were filmed in France. (C) Will Atkinson

Author: Will Atkinson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

Tags: bon nuit, bon soir, cookbook author, dozen steps, hotel clerk, private spaces, trash receptacle, useful phrases, white sneakers, word guest

Are you looking to learn how to speak French? If your answer is an emphatic YES, I can tell you that you are not alone. If you are travelling to a French speaking country, speaking their language marks an enormous respect. This respect can go a long way once you are in need of any help or just information. Whatever reason you have, the most important factor to learn how to speak french is how committed you are.

The best first steps you can take to ensure that learning French will be easy and painless are:

Step 1: Brush up the BASICS of your own language structure and grammar.

That’s right! I am not saying that you have to go back to your old grammar book and review it from beginning to the end. I am just suggesting you to review the main components of a sentence and how you use them and in what order to compose a sentence. The reason you have to do that is because when you learning french you will continuously looking for similarities with your language. This way it will come much easier when you will try to understand and remember new vocabularies and parts of the sentences. This is called Similarities Analogues and it happens when between the two languages there is an analogous use.

For example, in Italian, prepositions words like over, under, in, around correspond in many ways on how they work in English. With the only difference that in Italian prepositions can have many meanings. Besides if you forgot what is a preposition in your language, all those analogies will mean nothing for you, and it will be more difficult to comprehend prepositions in the French language. It is necessary to open your mind to new rules and concepts that you might find nonsense and just need to master them for the way they are. For example when everything you come across in French has not similarities in your language, it will put off the majority of the people that try to make sense of it using the rules of their language. At that point you just need to memorize it without questioning.

Step 2: Listen and repeat French in a quiet place if possible.

After you have brushed up the BASICS of your language you can go to the next step. Listening and repeating French if possible in a quiet place as to forget the outside world for the time being. The fastest way to start developing your listening is the two way approach:

First is the Slow approach, where you need to listen to French with a beginner audio course where the pace of the speaker is usually slow. There are many courses on-line that you can download or on a CD. Free courses tend to be limited.

Second is the Fast approach. While you listening to your beginner French course you should try watching few french movies, with or without subtitles, as to get acquainted with the speed and pronunciation. Also if available you could listen to french radio or TV channels even if with little or none understanding.

As you are listening you should repeat the words or phrases immediately. Try repeating the words and phrases immediately concentrating on the sound of the words. Stop and repeat anything you like. Usually finding how to pronounce the alphabet is the first thing one should do. Repeat it singing and notice the similarities and the differences to your alphabet memorizing the latter. If necessary you can make a new song out of it.

Step 3: Start Talking

You can now begin making easy conversation be it real or simulated. Yes even if you can only say ‘hello, what’s your name’ you need to begin doing that at the very start of your learning. If you wait to get to that country before starting you are risking to never begin. It may sound funny at first but you need to start taking the embarrassment you might have to your advantage. Simply say to your audience that you are learning with a smile and you will be rewarded with ‘patience’. Be Humorous like ‘Sorry my French is bad’ and you will disarm anyone.

Here is an insight on how to learn to speak french. Again my name is Joey Silvestri and I want to help you learn French easily. Visit my site http://www.languagelearningsecrets.info/french for a free 6 day email French course to get you started.

Author: Joey Silvestri
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Smart cooker

Tags: analogies, analogues, first steps, French Language, french speaking country, grammar book, language structure, learning french, vocabularies, what is a preposition