On Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:23:34 +0000, Invisible wrote:

> To speak French, you have to actually speak in a French accent, or
> nobody knows what you're saying. Which actually makes sense, really...

Well, I've been told that the French (and in particular, Parisians) often 
will pretend they don't understand if your French is bad.  I had a 
similar experience to this in Barcelona - the difference between Spanish 
and Catalan is small enough that if you speak Spanish, they can 
understand you.

For example, in Spanish, the city "Barcelona" is pronounced "bar-se-lone-
a".  In Catalan, it's pronounced "Bar-theh-lone-a".  But if you don't 
pronounce it the second way, the locals will tend to pretend to not know 
what you're saying.  They damned well know what is meant, though.

Jim

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