Fi, do you read him the English books in English?
Oh yes, I speak (and read) only English to both kids. The bilingual thing is working well: B. is a natural. C. is having a slightly harder time, but she's doing OK, and she's still only two-and-a-half. B. mostly speaks English to her as well, which suits me fine; there's already enough German about.
The rule in our house is that things are always read or watched in the original language, where possible. So I read "The BFG", and SO reads "Der Räuber Hotzenplotz".
That is so very very cool.
Looking for anyone who is familiar with Acadian or Quebec French. Figure if there is a Buffista who is, they would hang out here...
What kind of familiar? I'm passing familiar, but might be able to point you places.
I am familiar with not understanding either when I hear them.
ita, just looking for a resource. From what I understand, the tenses and the like are different because of the 18th century split linguistically between Metro French and Quebec French, since a lot of the rationalization of the French language rules happened in the 19th century post split.
I have a Canadian character who grew up as a member as part of a minority, which means either one of the French minorities or a First Nation. The story is set in the 1830-1850 timeframe, so I was thinking that the character would be a expat that left Canada due to the 1837 Patriotes' Rebellion.
For instance, yes is Oui in French, but because of the different tenses, do I modify that?
You're definitely beyond my scope there, CaBil. In Montreal I didn't have exposure to different tenses, but it might be because of the # of English speakers there who would have learnt textbook French, if any--the biggest differences were pronunciation and vocabulary.
Also "oui" would have nothing to do with tenses. It's just "yes."
Since this will be written, I won't have to worry about pronunciation then.
Do you think it still seem authentic if I just used a Quebecois slang dictionary to get a handle on the different vocab?
I haven't taken French since Grade Ten, but my understanding is that most of the differences between Quebec French and French French are about everyday and idiomatic language and accents. I'm pretty sure the grammar and tenses are similar. But my knowledge of French tenses past the basic ones is almost nil.
I don't know anything about Quebecois, but I believe there are some tense differences in Cajun French.
