Hi, I'm Andrea! I'm a French-American writer who has lived in the UK, Spain, France, and New York City, now living in Montreal, Canada. I make videos about living abroad, traveling, writing and creativity, and all the wonderfully nerdy things I love. Also...I'm a bit of an unashamed coffee addict ☕️
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PS: Check out my writing channel for more bookish videos!
Bonjour Andrea, merci pour cette vidéo intéressante. En voyant les livres en arrière-plan, je me demandais si vous (et votre mari) pourriez faire une vidéo de dialogue où vous parleriez de littérature, peut-être en français. Thomas d'Allemagne
I know, I don’t have a favorite type anymore either. I like drip for my mornings and Nespresso for afternoons. But I find French press is hard for me. I never get the measurements right! Lol
haha your issue with "dessus" and "dessous" would become very problematic in a French ballet class as it's 2 directions of one step, so you can literaly be asked to do a "dessous-dessus/dessus-dessous" 😅
In Germany the French teachers would usually also teach Spanish. You'd know they're coming from a Spanish class if they answered your questions with 'si' witout even noticing ^^ And that's a bit trippy in the beginning, before you realise that, because 'si' exists as an affirmation, after somebody negated something: So if someone asked ---- "est-ce-qu tu as l'heure" (do you have the time?) ----- you answer "oui, il est ..." (yes, and you give them the time) If they asked ---- "est-ce que tu n'as pas l'heure?" (you don't happen to have the time?) ----- you answer "si, il est..." (yes I do, it is....) So there's a difference in 'yes', depending on if you're insisting after a negation, or just answering an open question. Except I never negated anything, I was just asking openly, and my teacher comes out with 'si'? What is ---- ohhhh Spanish classes XDD And we would have the same problem as soon as we started Spanish ourselves XDDD
French "être" is very closely linked to both "ser" y "estar" être - estar - (estar) -------------------------------------------------------------------- je suis - yo soy - (ser) tu es - tu estas - (estar) il est - el esta - (estar) nous sommes - nosotros somos - (ser) vous êtes - vosotros estais - (estar) ils sont - ellos son - (ser) So this confusion is only natural
on nasals, it seems to just be the 'an', 'en' part, that you struggle with I don't know it might also be from a local accent but you always have a little 'in' within there ^^ for me personally it's just the fast articulation, and I have word-finding difficulties, because I rarely speak it. Do you know the expression 'sans dessus dessous'? it means in chaos ^^ Also to make you feel better: My father is French and emigrated to Germany, suffice to say that French has 'u' and 'ou', and the same sounds in German are written 'ü' and'u' (the one with the trema is called an Umlaut, you might have heard). But one set of words that always tripped him up was 'schwül' (muggy - as in muggy weather), and schwul' (gay). So he would say, oh did you know Peter is 'muggy' (/ 'humid') ? Or damn if there's one weather I hate it must be this oprressive 'gayness', it's really wearing me out, can't wait for a thunder to clear that ou XDDD Oh and my mother is from Germany, so she has difficulty to differentiate between voiced and voiceless 's' sounds. It's like the difference between 'poisson' (fish) and 'poison' (poison/ venom). So one time in an African market she went to the market tender and she wanted to haggle the price of one item. Imagine the reaction of everyone present when she asked hi 'tu peux baiser ?' (as in baisser le prix) I won't translate this, suffice to say it must have lead to confusion, perplexity and quite a lot of hilarity XDDD
On a tour through a port cellar, as most tourists could understand French, the guide did the explanation in French. She was referring to the port as wine, but was pronouncing it as wind, to our amusement.
I realize sometimes, when I talk with my spouse (who is not native french) or when I watch your videos, that our language is very complicated and challenging to pronounce even just understandably. I remember when I was living in Japan , we were having fun asking our japanese colleagues saying the word "arbre". As simple as it is, the word is cumulating two different 'r' sounds back to back, and must be very hard for a foreigner to say smoothly in a sentence...
«Bouilloire» is not one of my often used words, but one I had problems with when I was a kid is «baignoire». I pronounce the four nasal monophthongs as the nasal versions of /a/, /o/, /æ/, and /ə/. /æ/ is not a French phoneme, but my first native language is English, and it may also be Norman or Salvadoran influence. (What even is Salvadoran French?) Here's a tongue twister I made up for the /u/ and /y/ sounds: La roue sur la rue roule, la rue sous la roue reste. Short phrase with all four nasals: un bon vin blanc.
I think that can help you to separate the word in syllable to make an "invisible" stop when you pronounce the word. Ronronner can be pronunce as the three words rond-rot-nez. Préfèrerais can be pronounce préfér-rais or pré-fé-re-rais 😉
It's funny cause in English I also struggle with double Rs in a word. Like "Rural", in French it's SUPER easy for me. But in English my mouth just fumbles :') squirrel is also up there. You can also notice the way we pronounce in Quebec versus France, the "En" and "In" sound are SO different. France will have a sound that is between, and the nuance is so subtle, that even I as a Quebecoise struggle with. In Quebec we really have a very distinct pronunciation between "En" and "In". Our "i" in general are really .... pointed? I dunno how to describe it better haha. But in all honesty Andrea, you're doing so good!!!! Take your time, I think that's the key to a good pronunciation!
Le "U" qui est difficile revient souvent pour l'apprentissage du français! notamment pour les anglophones j'ai l'impression. un des exemples reste quand même l'expression "C'est sans dessus dessous" (qui prononcé rapidement à l'oral fait : "c'est sans d'ssus d'sous") J'aurai cru qu'après tant d'années, tu aurai juste des difficultés sur l'argot ou encore du verlan qui t'oblige l'espace d'un instant à te dire "attends je remets le mot à l'endroit et je comprends!" Pour l'anecdote, mon père immigré en France à ses 18 ans ne comprenait pas quand ses amis lui donnait rendez vous "Rue de la ré'" il avait beau chercher il ne la trouvait jamais, jusqu'à qu'il découvre que ses amis parlaient de la rue de la "république" 😂
What is it with languages and rs? 🙈 Could be just me, but lots seem to have trouble with that sound when learning another language. Maybe not a word you need super often, but I never feel like I say the word "zurdo/a" (left handed) correctly in Spanish.
As a French native that has been following you for years, your french sounds so good today. As you said, it may never be perfect, but your pronunciation is already outstanding!
Your content is absolutely amazing! I'm a huge fan of your channel. I've been inspired to create a unique video edit using one of your clips to highlight my editing skills. I think you'll love it! Would you be interested in checking it out?
I like the idea of combining hobbies/interests. One can combine one's language interests with almost anything. One just needs to think outside the box...
I relate to you in that I’m way more likely to watch a tv show over a film. I think it’s that the barrier to entry is lower. 30 minute episode for me seems like less of a commitment than 1.5-2 hours, even though most times I do end up watching more than one episode. Anyways, The Holdovers is a movie I saw in the last year that I can’t stop thinking about
@@juliaszabla8317 That’s the problem for me too! I tell myself I’ll just watch one quick episode, even if I end up actually watching two or three and taking the same amount of time (or longer) than a movie 🤦♀️😅 Thank you for the recommendation!!
Je définirais très brièvement la raison pour laquelle j'apprends de nouvelles langues : parce que je veux m'immerger de manière authentique dans un environnement et une culture étrangers. Thomas d'Allemagne
je partage beaucoup de tes idées pour améliorer son niveau de langue étrangère, et plus particulièrement lorsqu'il s'agit d'apprendre avant tout la grammaire de sa propre langue. Et d'une manière générale, je dirais que plus on essaye d'apprendre de nouvelles langues, surtout si elles ont des racines communes (espagnol/portugais par ex), plus des connexions / rapprochements entre langues se feront et plus "facile" sera l'apprentissage salutations de Lyon ;)
@@gpoenviededonnermonnom9005 C’est tellement vrai ! Même si parfois les similarités peuvent créer des confusions 😅 La plupart du temps, c’est beaucoup plus facile de comprendre une nouvelle langue quand on peut trouver des liens avec un autre qu’on connaît déjà ! The more you know 🤓
Interesting video! Combining my other passions with languages has definitely been a huge joy in my life. I've had so much fun playing video games in Spanish, even though it was harder that I thought it would be. 😂
TAKE YOUR PICK: Children of Heaven, The Banshees of Inisherin, Moonlight, Babel, Chunking Express, Harakiri, Stranger Than Fiction, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Shaurya, The Great Indian Kitchen, Love Sex aur Dhokha, Wild, Nightcrawler, Inglorious Basterds, What If, Paris je Taime, Lars and the Real Girl, Frances Ha, The Platform, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Clerks, The Bucket List, Dasvi, Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar, August Osage County, Constantine, Pacific Rim
One movie comes to mind that surprised me by how much I liked it. It's pretty old and I don't think it's well known. It is called "Restoration" with Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neil, and Meg Ryan. This is one of those rare times where the movie is better than the book. I would recommend.
@@bill4691 Thanks for the recommendation! I haven’t heard of that one, so I’ll look up a trailer (if there’s a good one out there-sometimes older movie trailers don’t exactly land! 😅)
Oh boy! I love movies!! Well, to be fair, tv shows too. lol. There’s not much on mainstream these days that I really like but older shows are where it’s at! I enjoyed this video so much!!!❤
@@karenkingrey6142 I definitely find myself watching slightly older shows a lot too, mainly ones from my teen years! There’s something so comforting and nostalgic about them 🥹
J'ai vendu ma télévision en 2009 et j'ai rarement regardé des films depuis. Il m'arrive d'en télécharger un, mais la plupart du temps, il reste sur le disque dur de mon ordinateur pendant quelques années. En ce qui concerne les séries, je n'en ai vu pratiquement aucune, pas même Game of Thrones. Je suis très porté sur la littérature et celle-ci me prend énormément de temps. J'aime aussi les jeux vidéo pour leur interaction. Regarder une série ou un film me semble terriblement passif, et j'aime faire travailler mon cerveau. Thomas d'Allemagne
@@tomaslaskovsky722 Je pense qu’il y a une manière passive pour regarder des films/series, mais on peut aussi les regarder avec plus de concentration et trouver plus dans l’art et l’histoire ! Je fais de plus en plus l’effort de ne pas regarder mon portable pendant 😅
Hey Andrea! It's good to see you so happy, how are the cats? I would say 2 of my top 5 movies that changed my life are DUNE, the 1984 version, I tried to watch the new one but having watched the original so many times I have most of it memorized, I just couldn't do it, and Highlander, the original. Both of those were a large part of my Middle School and Highschool personality. Honorable Mention to the original Total Recall and Time Cop.
I stopped reading for a very long time for similar reasons as I was reading books I didn't enjoy, now I only read books and watch movies that I'm actively interested in. Watching a TV series can be comforting if it's one I know well, and when the world is as it is there's nothing wrong with wanting to experience a comforting series. A really good movie that came out about ten years ago is Her, I rewatched in the last few months and I'm amazed at how it's still incredibly relevant. Hope you figure out yout movie watching! (If you want, no pressure)
I live in New England and have spent many summer vacations in Montreal. There is a really cool foreign language bookstore, Michel Fortin, on the plateau. You should check it out.
I love Québecois, the accent as well as all the differences that there are with French from France. One thing that I always find funny is that Québecois use a lot of words that would seem very "old" in France, and same with the names. Some of their very young and actual names would probably be more suited for a 50/60 yo person in France and vice versa. And some words are not to be used in the same way if you want to avoid weird looks (just have a look at what "gosse" means in French from France and Québecois ;) )
Naming conventions are so fun! You have a little bit of the same effect between the US and UK, where there’s a lot of overlap until suddenly you find a name on one side of the pond that sounds quintessentially British or American and doesn’t fit at all in the other 😂
Does anyone say «computatrice»? In Spanish, it's "computadora" on this side of the Pond, but in Spain it's "ordenador", which is totally clear to me, since I also speak French. Thanks for your answer!
I haven’t heard “computatrice”, although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear “computer” because people here can use anglicisms with an impressive fluidity sometimes! 😛
TBH, Paris today is a horrible city (lots of dirt, lots of rats, lots of roadworks, lots of violence, etc.). I think you're better off in Montreal than in Paris now.
Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse honnête à ma question (NY ou Paris). Je vous souhaite bonne chance et bonne santé pour l'avenir et j'attends avec impatience de voir d'autres vidéos. Thomas d'Allemagne ❤
What you will notice in Quebecois, we have stuck with old French words for hundreds of years. Also old way of pronouncing it. It evolved, of course, but in general that's what happened with our French. Andrea I don't know if you have access to a car, but let us know if you want recommendations of places to visit outside of Montreal!
I have noticed that, although there are also certain ways that Quebecois can surprise you and seem more modern than France French too! Language evolution is fun 🤩
📌 SUBTITLES: To activate the English captions for the portion of the video where I speak French, you can click on the CC button at the top/bottom bar of the video. (They might also turn on automatically for you, but that depends on your settings!)
Outgrow the clique! Widen your range of influence by avoiding them, and develop relationships with everyone you work with on your own terms. You do not want to be lumped into a group. Get your own life, rise above the BS, and quit worrying about the silly judgements of people, who are too insecure to have their own independent thoughts/voice.
Thanks for creating this video! You’re definitely not alone in feeling this way. It’s so odd because I used to spend almost my entire weekend writing and creating bookish content at university and now I struggle with spending two hours writing. Hopefully we can all find our delusion again soon and get these creative projects done ❤
I had a very similar feeling at the end of my graduate program. I got an entire PhD and my confidence in my academic and professional abilities had never been lower. It certainly feels like the more you know, the more you know how much you don’t know. And like you touched on, it’s so easy to fixate on the not knowing part versus how much you’ve grown!
Yes, exactly! If only we could keep the same confidence that we had when we were freshmen and knew so little 😂 (Congratulations on your PhD by the way! That's an incredible achievement!!)