My Only Choice is French

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My Only Choice is French
Tsevie, Togo West Africa
Thursday, April 19, 2007

I have only one choice, I need to learn French better, if I wish to travel in these African Francophone countries, and learn more about the culture, than I need to talk better French.

If I spoke French about 4 degrees better, I could interview of give the quiz to the Hotel Owners and avoid their lies better, and have a better room and travel cheaper.

Sometimes, I am quite positive, the people here speak horrible French, and then I think, they speak good French. There is only one way to know, and that is to speak better French than them, and to know when I am not pronouncing the words correctly or maybe them.

There a many phrases in French, which are repeated many times in conversations. I am going to start writing them down, therefore when I hear them; I know I can repeat easily. The locals appear, although I cannot be sure, they appear to speak these pat phrases, sort of like canned answers. Then when there is a word that is not common, it will baffle them.

I tried two times today, to say, I am going to go see the Hippos, finally when I wrote it down, one person instantly understood, however, the two girls in the Shell Station next to the Hotel Grand here in Tsevie had to think for a long time to know what this was.

I think the girls called an Animal an Aneemoe and I think it should be pronounced Aneemah. This is the confusion, I am never positive, therefore I am easily confused. I will study my French.

Languages, French, Togo, Hotel Finding, Togo Hotels,

My Only Choice is French

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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

Anonymous said on Friday April 20th, 2007 11:49:00 AM

french animal is pronounced animahl and is singular (1 animal)french animaux is pronounced animoe and is the plural of animal (more than 1 animal)as in english, the plural is normally used unless you are talking about a specific animal. "Je vais voir des animaux" = "I am going to see the animals", rather than "Je vais voir l'animal" = "I am going to see the animal"

Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Friday April 20th, 2007 12:17:00 PM

Thank you,The conversation was sort of cluttered. I wrote down the word Hippo, and tried to say it the way I believe it was pronounced.Neither girl recognized the word, and the one finally did. The one that did not, suddenly realize it was an Animal, and said,Animoe or maybe Animax. I was trying to explain and maybe used the word Animal or Animahl, the one suddenly blurted out.AnimoeWe was talking about a specific Animal, the Hippo.The bottom line is this, when I know the singular, plural and the different sounds. I will be able to better discern if it is me or them that speaks French poorly.The mixing of Mina and French is constant, and when there is more than two persons talking with me, they switch in and out of Mina, thinking in Mina, sometimes answering in French, or talking together in Mina.It is much easier to talk with one person than two.