Feedbacks from a new member

[Freddyben]

Hello Thomas,

I'm actualy a new member of your website and I'm a geek of your podcast. Basically I discovered it just a few weeks ago and I swallowed the whole thing in the meantime. To introduce myself, I'm a French native and have been living in the south of France for nearly 21 years (that's my age) in a district ("departement") called "La Drôme". I'm fluent in English because I spent up to 1 year in New Zealand and basically I had still many things to learn even from the beginner's lessons. First and foremost that's the pronunciation I try to work hard because even after 1 year spent in an english speaking country I still have some troubles to utter properly certain words like :
though (this one is my nightmare !!), threat, knight, knock, to weigh, living/leaving etc... and I reckon you could insist on these kind of words with : th, kn, gh, ou, au, because that's the ones of which we get crazy with for us Frenchies (we're called frogs in New Zealand too, is that the same in USA?).
And I gotta congratulate you for the great advanced lessons I was glad to find, these ones are a great practise and don't worrie about peoples telling you it's too fast, it's the natural way of talking and that's what we must hear to be able introducing ourselves into english speaking countries (it's why we do it, isn't it).
Last thing to say : If we'd have only teachers like you in France we'd be away in English, there's no doubt because you tell exactly what I heard and what I felt for 1 year, that's the big difference between you and French native teachers. You not just transmit the grammar and vocabulary but also the accurate way of talking and the culture. In one word you put us in an american surrounding for us to reach the grammar and vocabulary and not the opposite, plus that makes it pleasurable. That's what I felt in French courses, they don't mostly give you the desire to learn. So I just can advise you to keep on that way and why not planning to be an English teacher in France, you'd be great for sure.

As they say in New Zealand : good on you !! (perhaps in USA too)

[Thomas]

Hey Freddy I've already "met" you in a different thread, but just to answer this post...

Yes, the pronunciation is definitely difficult, especially for French speakers, because of the drastic differences. I'm curious about English in New Zealand, though -- are their accents similar to the Australian accent, or completely different? And yes, I've heard people call French people "frogs", but I think it's an older term here that a lot of people don't use anymore (just my opinion, though ). As for those words you mentioned, they are definitely ones with weird spellings that don't match their pronunciations at all, so I can see how they would be difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to discuss some of them in the podcast, but if you have more specific questions about any of them, feel free to ask

lol, I've never heard "good on you", so it must be a New Zealand thing

[Freddyben]

Hey Thomas,
Thank you for answering the last post. About the accent in New Zealand, I reckon it's a bit different than in Australia, I guess they speak faster, apart of this they are one of the fastest paced english speaking country (so that was pretty tough for me at beginning but I see all the benefits now when I hear you on advanced lessons), they have definetly british influences upon accent, ortography and vocabulary which is surprising with all the american TV programs and movies they watch on and on. They say definetly "good on you" which is a friendly slang to say I guess "porte toi bien" in french or "wish you well" perhaps in english, they have this friendly expression as "big fellow!!". In Australia they have this funny expression that makes me laugh : "g'day mate!!" to say "hi". About frogs it sounds funny to me and they call us this way because they think it's strange we eat frog's legs (and snails) which is other that pretty tasty  . I could have done some mistakes in this paragraph so don't hesitate to correct me if you will to.
As you told me to feel free asking any questions I'll bring back some mystery I always had along my trip overseas (abroad?) and which I never managed to elucidate even after my one year travelling .
By the way I wanna congratulate you indeed for the great last advanced lesson that shoves us deep into the american culture  Hope there'll be more of them...

[Thomas]

Yeah, from what I understand, Australian English tends to follow British English, and Canadian English tends to follow American English (or perhaps we follow them? who knows...).

And feel free to post anything from your trip abroad (yes, you can say that) that confused you, and we'll see what we can do to help