Last year, Marie Cappart helped me get my Jerrain family into France. It was a wonderful series of experiences that felt so miraculous! I was delighted to finally meet Marie in person last week and give her a well-deserved hug and thanks for her help.
When we had a quiet minute between interviews in the RootsTech Media Hub last week, I asked her for some French pronunciation help. You see, I have allllllllllllllll of these newly added family members in my tree and my French pronunciations leave a lot to be desired. Marie agreed and what ensued was a lot of laughing as I tried to make my mouth do things it was completely unaccustomed to doing.
Well, after we got through several names, Marie suggested I video so that I can remember and practice later. That one video led to several more videos and they are pretty entertaining.
So, here you go, I hope it gives you a little laugh today.
Lesson One:
Lesson Two:
Lesson Three:
Near the end of lesson three, Lynn Broderick joins us and then we had to stop to take one last group selfie with Laura Hedgecock and Cheri Passey:
Lesson Four:
And that is a wrap on the French Pronunciation lessons until RootsTech London when we see each other again.
As Marie, Lynn, & I left the Expo Hall together, Marie had to stop to take a picture of the “Foonnel Cakes” stand. I proceeded to say “Fuuuuuunnel, fuuunel, funnel.” After a few seconds she got it we were laughing all over again! 😂
Thank You, RootsTech, for creating an event so special in nature, that genealogists from all over the world come together and have awesomely fun and educational moments like these!
way too much genea-fun at RootsTech. Thank you for sharing! I could use some French lessons too.
Haha, yes Randy, it was lots of fun! 🙂
How fun! I need help with German.
It really was lots of fun! Oooooh, German, I wonder who you could get help from…?
So cool! I spent hours learning phonetics as part of my French major including studies in France as part of a course at the Sorbonne. Learning a language as a child actually affects the formation of one’s hard palate, thus you have the ability to speak some languages better than others. I can read more languages than I can speak.
Bachelors degree with majors in French and Spanish minor in German (not good at it but could probably hail a taxi.) I also research in Flemish (Belgian) and Swedish (learning) and have done some work in Italy for a family member.
Lynne
That makes total sense. There are just some sounds I can’t seem to make. Haha! I research well in French, but speaking it? Yikes – not yet. I have a long way to go. But it was fun to learn a bit about pronouncing the names in my tree. Thanks for stopping by, Lynne. ❤️
Very cute! I took French for seven years and never got the pronunciation right. Good luck!
Thank you, Amy. It’s definitely tricky! 🙂
Half of my and my wife’s family comes from French Canada. We grew up on the French Canadian border so French names were all around us. It was fun watching you try to pronounce the names.
Thank you, Charles! My Grandma is mostly French – lots of her ancestry by way of Québec, some directly immigrated from France. I’ve been researching in French for years, but my pronunication skills are definitely lacking! It was fun to practice with Marie. 🙂
Amberly, c’était incroyable! I did not realize how difficult this is for people who have not learned the languages. Marie is a Facebook friend and I’ve never met her but she seems like a really fooon person. 🤣
Thank you, Cathy! Yes, my very American mouth doesn’t find its way around some of those sounds very easily. I suppose the whole only ever speaking English thing is a big part of my problem. But I am getting more and more comfortable reading French documents, so at least there is that. 😉
Marie IS a lot of fun!! It was so wonderful to meet her in person and be able to thank her for her incredible gift of time and knowledge that helped me get my family into France. I will be forever grateful.