Do You Have a French Accent?

French Sign

 

It strikes me funny that being back home I hear myself saying, "bonjour" instead of hello, "pardon" instead of excuse-me, and "merci" in place of thank you.

Those French words pop out in a flash of habit, reminding me that France has slipped under my skin and taken root without my awareness.

 

Bon sign

Equally surprising is the bombardment of English. It feels strange to understand everything, and not be able to tune out anything. Tidbits of conversations, three dressing rooms down, I hear and I'm intrigued. The words sound fresh and new, like old friends that I haven't heard from in a long time. I realize that I don't have to speak slowly for others to understand me. Soon thereafter I lose my voice from non-stop talk.

 

French menu

With French Husband here he sounds soooooooooooooooooo mysterious, and his accent is renewed to being sexy again. There is something spicy in words being spoken in another language, n'est-ce-pas?

 

 



Comments

13 responses to “Do You Have a French Accent?”

  1. How cute~ Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family!!

  2. A French accent is so sexy for sure.

  3. I used to work at SeaTac and I loved when the International flights arrived. The buzz was foreign and exciting, sometimes sexy.:) It was much more pleasant that listening to a mom screaming “Johnny get off the turnstile!”.

  4. i agree with the accent thing mysterious sexy funny and cute all rolled into one-

  5. Corey, after having lived in Geneva, Switzerland for four years, we returned home to the states. Anxious to be back in familiar surroundings. Anxious to understand every word spoken. Like you, I was surprised at my reaction. We all were in sensory overload! There was just too much “noise” now as every word spoken, we understood. And being in public situations where many conversations are going on at once… well, I wanted to make it stop! I guess we must be careful what we wish for!

  6. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    One of the things I regret on returning home from holidays in Europe: being able once again to understand every dopey conversation being held nearby. I have to re-learn to tune it out.
    And I love that FH’s accent refreshes into sexy for you again.

  7. Oui. Oui. Interesting observations, Corey! Before getting the pleasure of meeting you, I fully expected you to speak with a French accent!
    Why? Because when you type here you often use French idioms or make adorable mistakes in English that a French, English-as-a-second-language person would make.
    I always assumed that you spoke French for the last 20 years with Yann while in France and that English had slowly become generally less familiar.
    How surprised I was when you not only spoke English perfectly, like a local girl, but did so super fast like us!
    Never occurred to me that shifting between two languages as you do would evoke so many subtle feelings from differing language cues.
    xoxoxo, s

  8. Love all of your postings
    Oooooh la la
    Love Jeanne

  9. terrific post and a big and loooong spelled oauiiiiiii….. 🙂
    am just back from a week in Switzerland and the number of times I apologized ‘oh pardon’ instead of ‘äxgüsi’ in shops is countless. or riding in a train/bus/tram and finding that the driver is actually talking to you, something that just does NOT happen in Paris, i found myself speaking in French first before realising that I should be speaking in Swiss German.
    et c’est vrai; l’accent français EST sexy – c’est ce qu’on dit à mon mari magnifique! My well-mixed accent of Swiss German, German, Canadian and British English and at least three different French draws far less attention and cries of delight…. 🙂

  10. Corey, I know exactly what you mean! Every time I return from the Azores, at first I still use Portuguese phrases (as you do with Frenc ones):
    bom dia / boa tarde / boa noite;
    por favor / desculpe / com licença;
    obrigada / de nada…
    And when I’ve gone to Montreál and France, it’s the same with the French expressions!

  11. naughty Girl,
    love it

  12. Zut alors: Montréal!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *