A BRIEF TASTE OF “REAL” FRENCH
“The world is a village.” Indeed, when you consider the most recent developments in communication and other technology. And I’m guessing that it’s relatively hard to find people who genuinely don’t want to learn a foreign language these days; in the case of Britain – for I am British – it might be French in particular. And what could be better than encouraging a child to learn a foreign language at an early age, like this episode of the old children’s TV show the Raggy Dolls surely does? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwh5YddN7Q0
I used to love this show when I was much younger, but this wasn’t one of the episodes I used to watch time and again on VHS. Yet I sure enjoyed learning French when I was younger as well – to think I should come across an episode of the Raggy Dolls online in which, of all things, Claude teaches the others French! It was inevitable that my heart would warm to it. Certainly when, even though Princess is the only one who originally goes to the lessons openly, all the others were secretly listening in – for all Sad Sack’s display of disinterest, it’s evident that even he cares enough about it to actually follow her and Claude outside with the rest of them – and make out the French doll’s cries for help as French without the benefit of assistance or suggestion. What do you think that is supposed to hint at? And of course, there’s the point where the narrator says “Claude and Princess went on much longer than an hour, because it was a lovely day, and Claude forgot the time.” Talk about positivity in connection with the subject of learning languages.
Talking of which, how nice that Claude enjoys teaching French because to him it’s like playing a game (according to the narrator, at 3:50). Like I said, the Raggy Dolls is a fine show… it’s just that, being who I am, I’m more realistic with this sort of thing, with a hell of a lot more languages experience to impart; to me, real foreign language lessons involve, for example, explaining the grammatical rules with its verbs and adjectives and how to form sentences in the various tenses, and plenty of practice; this is what you need to have a knowledge of if you hope to actually communicate in a given foreign language one day. But that’s just the beginning. Anyway, I’m not aware of any episodes of the Raggy Dolls later than this one where anyone other than Claude shows at least some actual proficiency in French as a result of Claude’s French lessons – not that it really matters, of course. But I have my share of original observations with this episode, and my sensibilities/inclinations and insights, being what they are, have led me to ask this question: when Claude tells Princess that “dans” means “in”, why doesn’t he also tell her what “bin” is? Not that I know, and yet I know I wouldn’t have said “poubelle” because that’s the wrong kind of bin: a dustbin, or maybe a wheelie bin. I know that I myself would have fully agreed to using the franglais word “bin” to describe a “bin” like the Raggy Dolls’ reject bin, just like what the actual content of this episode suggests. I also find it odd that, while everyone knows that French for “goodbye” is “au revoir”, at the end of the story Claude should translate it into English more literally as “until I see you again” (when you realise that you only need to know the infinitive of the French verb for “to see”, which is “voir”, don’t you agree that you have overlooked the obvious, for possibly a long time?). Not least because, at that point, the Raggy Dolls and the French doll never expect to actually meet each other again and everyone knows it!
One final point: considering that Sad Sack agrees to start learning French at the end of the episode, I take that as an indication that it’s impossible to predict what may motivate someone to start learning a language. For what it’s worth, bless him.
I’m a professional translator, though; as such I willingly state that, for all my progress in French to date, even today, in keeping with my work, I wrestle with questions concerning even my own very knowledge and understanding of the language that the average casual learner couldn’t begin to understand. I can’t end this blog without explaining what is meant by “a brief taste of ‘real’ French”. When Claude and Princess start going, “Where are you?”, “Ici!”, I’m there thinking, “Well you’re merely confirming that you know the French for one single word! And that really is what it’s all about; it’s not like you’re playing hide and seek or anything! What about ‘Where are you?’” And there’s the rub. This “real” French thing that I am talking about is as follows:
I’m actually by no means saying that the straight French translation of “Where are you?” “Où est-tu?” is in any way wrong, or that no French person would actually use those very words to say “Where are you?”, but in my experience I can fully imagine a French person saying “Où te trouves-tu?” (lit. “Where do you find yourself?”) for it. But I could be wrong – maybe this phrase should only be asked to an entrepreneur if you wanted to ask them where they were based – just a thought. Let me know what you think, especially if you’re a French person. Bye for now – or should I say “au revoir”. (Or maybe “Jusqu’à ce que je te/vous revoie”)