Re:Best ways to learn a foreign language
by jacques_chester on Sunday June 30, 2013 @06:47AM
(#5965337)
A small thing I've noticed about seeing news from France and Switzerland.
Swiss newsreaders seem to speak more slowly. I don't know if it's a peculiar Swiss behaviour, but I wondered at the time if it was connected to the fact that Switzerland has four official languages, some of them having overlapping linguistic footprints.
To make a Swiss French broadcast accessible to Swiss Germans who have rudimentary French, it would make sense for the presenters to speak more slowly.
Meanwhile, over on France 2, the appallingly videogenic presenters of Le 20 Heures drive a swishy gallic stereotype through the paper thin limits of my understanding.
Re:Best ways to learn a foreign language
by carlob on Sunday June 30, 2013 @10:35AM
(#5965910)
The French have this stereotype of the Swiss being slow-spoken (some go as far as to claim they are slow-witted). So it's not just newscasters, but the general public as well.
Swiss newsreaders seem to speak more slowly. I don't know if it's a peculiar Swiss behaviour, but I wondered at the time if it was connected to the fact that Switzerland has four official languages, some of them having overlapping linguistic footprints.
To make a Swiss French broadcast accessible to Swiss Germans who have rudimentary French, it would make sense for the presenters to speak more slowly.
Meanwhile, over on France 2, the appallingly videogenic presenters of Le 20 Heures drive a swishy gallic stereotype through the paper thin limits of my understanding.