Chris V Daquad / 🇭🇹 🇹🇿

[stiff ice]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[dusty nebula]

@limber ferry you said it's easier to understand accents closer to your family's. Where are they originally from, if I may ask?

[limber ferry]

My dad is from haiti.

I basically have a better time understanding carribean or african adjacent accents

Its not perfect but yeah

[dusty nebula]

I see, that makes 100% sense. Our ears are always fine tuned to hear phonemes we're more often in contact with.

And Haitian French has a very... particular rhythm and pronunciation, so it's completely normal that the standard European French you usually hear in here just turns into white noise.

For practicing your listening efficiently, a trick that always works really well for me is watching cartoons I already know by heart, but dubbed in French (in your case) with matching French subtitles (if available). I do this all the time with shows like Bluey or Rick and Morty when I'm practicing a language. It takes a lot of the pressure off because you already know the context of what's happening on screen.

I have been watching all seasons of kids' shows in Swedish to make sure I don't lose the skill!

Also, you could look up Haitian or Caribbean youtubers and watch them, to absorb as much vocabulary as possible, as a stepping stone for when you join a voice channel full of Europeans babbling nonsense in French

At the end of the day learning a language takes a lot of time and pacience... sometimes it can take years. And that's ok. If you keep going the white noise will magically become beautiful sounds that make sense to you and are a part of your personality ^^

[limber ferry]

I see thank you. I actually wanted to rewatch hazbin hotel since they have it dubbed in french while also having subtitles on Amazon but I realized that the subtitles don't match with what they're saying

Is this normal

[dusty nebula]

Yeah I was actually going to point that out -- in the case of french specifically, dubbing and subbing is done by different teams.

Dubbing is always more concerned with matching the vowel shapes of the characters on screen and keeping up with time. And subbing is all about keeping the translation as loyal as possible, and localized.

It's hard to find content in French where the dub and sub match.

[limber ferry]

Oh wow I haven't even thought of that. But that makes sense

[dusty nebula]

if you are able to find French TV shows with closed captions, those are 100% matching what the speaker is saying. But then you're looking at B1-B2 up to C1 level French.

[limber ferry]

That's fine. You have some recommendations that would help?

[fair vigil]

call my agent or dix pourcent on netflix is really good

about the french movie industry

they have subtitles

[dusty nebula]

Do you know Skam? They have a version in french called Skam France. They should have subtitles

It's a teen drama series, really good

[limber ferry]

Ooh alright

[dusty nebula]

Are you in Europe at the moment? Because some sites are geoblocked, i can send you one

[limber ferry]

Nope. Also I really wanted to watch this video because its art drama commentary. But someone in a different server to me it might be difficult since the YouTuber is belgian https://youtu.be/NzWapSkx7EM?si=gRBttGgpFtEddsVP

[dusty nebula]

As a belgian I 100% recommend you watch anything belgian so yes do watch that hahaah

[limber ferry]

Lol alright then

[fair vigil]

belgian accent isn't really that different from French accent

in some respects may be more similar to an antillian accent, not sure

just listen and watch whatever seems interesting. it's ok to not understand much. the only way to learn is by doing it. trust yourself that it will become easier over time

[dusty nebula]

found it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSP7BX6OZ4E&list=PLoKg7BA8P0tc7wc-SCTi6sBDQqkcBIoFn

all episodes are subbed in french

and it's a reaaally good show.

[limber ferry]

I'll check it out

[dusty nebula]

if you do end up watching it, they use a lot of slangs and idioms in a proper way

as in

they dont sound like old people trying to sound cool, so you'll learn how to talk how we actually talk

[limber ferry]

I recently joined two french art servers to immerse myself however its not really active. They mostly just say hi to each other and post some art

[fair vigil]

yeah, in my experience discord servers are not the best sources of input

i meant more like movies, tv, videos, podcasts, etc. whatever kind of media you already consume in English