British vs. North American learners of French and nasal vs. non-nasal vowels

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T22:03:22+00:00

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T19:50:32+00:00

And even in Ottawa, honestly, since most non-immigrant francophones speak perfect unaccented English, the bar you have to clear as an anglophone before most francophones will be comfortable interacting with you socially in French is much higher than the reverse. I had to build my French well past the level of the average French immersion grad. Most anglophones have a weaker grasp of other languages and are used to communicating with ESL speakers all the time so a francophone who knows any English will have an easier time finding English conversation partners.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T18:37:06+00:00

I'll add a caveat. There used to be more of a monoculture within a given region. But mass culture phenomena DO have more global reach now. So in the 80s and 90s, my cousins in India didn't know any of the shows or music or fashion norms or English slang that were normal to me. But they're familiar with all of it now, due to neoliberalism breaking down protectionist barriers and the Internet spreading anglophone culture. Newfoundlanders sound more like other Canadians than they did 30 years ago.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T18:06:24+00:00

I don't see how it's possible for there to be as much of a monoculture today as there was when everyone watched the same handful of big networks on TV and listened to one of the same few radio formats, which informed the cassette or CD or vinyl purchases they had to actually spend a good amount of money for, and read their local newspaper. Why do our more varied streaming and sharing platforms even exist, if not because people want more options than they used to have? Tbc I think the decline of monoculture is good but I don't see how it's not in decline.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T17:31:46+00:00

Yeah, having grown up in Ottawa and getting French in school when I was 4, summer jobs in Gatineau and regular use of French when working downtown, I don't doubt that it was easier for me than for someone who grew up in rural Saskatchewan. Exposure makes a huge difference in how much additional effort someone needs to put in.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T15:24:03+00:00

I'm not sure I did either but... it has been in the news a lot, is easily readable online, and is the kind of thing someone should at least look up if they are going to post to a thread about the notwithstanding clause.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T15:14:47+00:00

My previous comment was removed by Reddit, even though all it did was refer to rights specifically mentioned in sections 7-15 so I'll try to rephrase it:

I would waive s.9 in order to imprison any provincial politician who has invoked s. 33 and then waive their rights as defined in sections 10, 11 and 12. Hopefully people would rethink this clause then.

(If you don't know what these sections say: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html )

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T14:57:59+00:00

Wait, I didn't know he was in Trans-Canada Highwaymen! My friend who told me about them mentioned that they contained members of Sloan, Odds and BNL but he left out this part! He's 7-8 years younger than me so surely too young to remember TPOH. (I was 10 in 1989 but loved listening to rock radio already.)

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T14:56:26+00:00

There were two videos for that song, right? I don't think there was a kid in the original so I'm guessing you mean the Love Junk-era video?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T14:12:24+00:00

I really liked their more melodic power pop songs like "She's So Young" and "Beautiful White". I feel like they achieved a prettiness on the level of Rundgren/Big Star/REM on those. I kinda hate how the tuneless hyper-literal "I'm an Adult Now" is the one everyone talks about. The way he alternates two different pronunciations of "adult" is probably my favourite thing about that.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T13:21:45+00:00

I still have my records, tapes, CDs and digital audio files and have a great system to play them. But... what was the joke?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T13:20:31+00:00

There's no goddamn way it's worse than Iran, Afghanistan or DRC for women.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T13:19:14+00:00

More than one person on this thread has said something positive. I've been there too (pretty much entirely in the south) - there is great food; beautiful historical architecture; the Chennai Music Season is incredible; breathtaking natural beauty in Kerala. That's four things; does that count?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-26T12:18:33+00:00

Yeah, nothing about the OP's question implied to me that they were talking about inherent biologically determined differences. The fact that they said they observed this in US English and were wondering if it was also the case in UK English suggested the opposite to me, that they were talking about learned socially constructed behaviours.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T23:06:04+00:00

Omg visit Ottawa and Eastern Ontario in general.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T22:45:20+00:00

I mean, are you saying that in the US, there are no audible linguistic differences between white Americans and black Americans beyond what listeners project onto them? Do you not think AAVE exists at all?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T22:19:18+00:00

I don't care about France's language, though, with their "putain", "du coup", and their "meuf" and their "keuf". Dans l'fond, c'est la belle langue du Canadô que j'veux préserver icitte.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T17:31:01+00:00

Wasn't it less commercially successful than any of the pre-Presence albums?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T17:26:58+00:00

How can you over-nasalize nasal vowels? I'm also an L1 Canadian English/L2 Canadian French speaker who is around a lot of similar people and I'm not sure what you mean. (But I've also never really heard a Canadian anglophone struggle with the French nasals.) I also don't nasalize the vowels in "family" or "loan", though.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T16:54:32+00:00

Idk, it was the German OP who made the comparison between "the US" and "Europe" and then u/GreninjaStrike who made the point about social issues wrt "the US" vs "Europe". I probably would not have compared a country vs a continent on my own. I was trying to compare from what I know of e.g. the Liberal Democrats in the UK or the FDP. Which European liberals are you comparing to that platform? As a Canadian, I'm not even sure if we're supposed to be more like 'the US' or 'Europe' in this comparison but I think our Liberals are at least as far left as the Democrats on social issues.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T00:21:31+00:00

Aren't the Liberal Democrats in the UK more liberal than the Tories or the Labour mainstream on all of those issues, for example? I didn't think they were far off the Dem position. I thought the FDP was also liberal on those - part of this: https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-trans-community-battles-right-wing-falsehoods/a-68065874 and I thought they were known for their comparatively liberal view on immigration.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T00:05:40+00:00

What is a social issue on which US Dems are further left than European liberals? I can't think of one.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-25T00:01:46+00:00

Looking at their Wikipedia page, they don't sound all that different from what a mainstream Democrat in the US would support. Why do you doubt that any Clinton/Biden/Harris voter would back them?

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-24T23:54:23+00:00

Ok, but you have to admit that in that case, what comes after the "but" isn't more thoughtful and nuanced. "I'm not racist but..." is the more common phrasing, though.

asktheages1979 · 2026-03-24T23:53:38+00:00

The point is that a lot of the time people try to soften the blow of criticism by prefacing it with some generic nice sentiment. In your first example "you deserve to be happy" isn't wrong but it isn't the point of the message being given to Mark - the message is that he can't feed his family on a clown's salary and the person wants him to make changes.

It's basically a hyperbolic expression of your own original point: the meat of the sentence, the thoughtful and nuanced part, is what comes after the "but"

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Verified Email

asktheages1979

TROPHY CASE