The New Yorker on JK's French

[MBS]

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/03/11/130311ta_talk_collins

pp 18-19
The website is blocking me from copying the article, but it's worth reading. It's this week's issue, March 11.

Here are some excerpts, which I've typed out here, just for you guys, by hand:

.

. The language that dare not speak its name came burbling back last week. .as Kerry visited Paris on his first official trip as Secretary of State. His fluent French -- honed as a Swiss boarding school and on vacations at a family house in the Breton village of Saint Briac-sure-Mer -- was now an asset. . . In a scratchy baritone, Kerry said, in French, that he's just finished a delicious lunch. He concluded by saying, "And now I'll speak in English, because otherwise they won't let me return home.: The French press swooned, "LE NUMERO DE CHARME EN FRANCAIS DE JOHN KERRY" was the headline in Le Monde.
America's other leading Francophone of late is the actor Bradley Cooper, who studied the language at Georgetown. . and spent half a year as an exchange student in Aix-en-Provence. .
. .So in a French-off, who would win? Camille Chevalier-Karfis. . agreed to be the judge.
" First, he has a good accent," she said of Kerry. "He sounds upper-class, he speaks slowly, his voice is really pleasant in French." Chevalier faulted Kerry only for his stilted delivery and the occasional ascending intonation. "He reads a script, which must mean that he's self-conscious," she said."I'd give him a few glasses of wine and see how he does."
. . Chevalier was impressed by Cooper's gliding elisions, his comprehension of French humor, and his use of casual words like "mec" ("guy&quot . His mistakes were frequent but minor. . "
It was a tie, but bonus points went to Kerry, who, it turned out, when he addressed a town-hall meeting in Berlin, also speaks German. "Sehr gut, danke", he said, to applause. "Alles gut"

[Mass]

1. I listened to him when he did the press conference and was impressed

His accent was good, much better than my husband's and many Americans I have known in France. (and much better than my accent in English).

This said, I would be curious to see him speak French off the cuff.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Je crois que Willard est un francophone aussi.

Non?

[Mass]

3. peut-être. Pourquoi?

It is hard to know from the video whether he speaks French or was just reading a script.

[MBS]

4. The article mentioned that in passing, too

The article opened with how knowing French "can hobble a Presidential hopeful, as it did John Kerry, in 2004. . then went on to say that Romney's opponents ran ads against him in 2012, criticizing him for speaking French. . article offered no details on his competency (though from the tapes I've heard, his accent sounded awful)
Wish I could copy this thing. . no more time for typing. .

[Inuca]

5. Scratchy baritone?

Interesting description, though I don;t think I agree about the scratchy part. And "I'd give him a few glasses of wine...." -

[ProSense]

8. LOL! n/t

[beachmom]

6. I was very impressed with his German at the Berlin Youth event.

French has always been his most comfortable second language, but German is something I think he is less proficient in, so that made his effort there most impressive. I have been learning German for years (my in-laws are German), and I thought he did a great job in Berlin. I talked to a German over here recently, and she was extremely impressed with Kerry. I think he got really good press across Europe in a way we can't completely comprehend. They liked Hillary, too, but I think Kerry speaking different languages than English (something most American politicians never do) have won them over.

[beachmom]

7. Thanks MBS for the transcription.

Can I just say, as a New Yorker subscriber, they have the worst paywall EVER. I just think all media everywhere should look to the New York Times in how to do a paywall correctly. (I'm talking to you, Boston Globe) I think sharing is a big deal, and the New Yorker should meter articles per month while letting sharing to occur. While I'm in complaining mode, I also hate the way they have these huge files I have to download to my iPad. They should just make it less a once a week publication and more just update it daily like the NYT, and allow us to "save" articles in the same way the NYT does. I mean, does this publication want to survive????!!!! Okay, off my soapbox now.

(Edit: oh, and how about allowing me to adjust text size??? This is not paper, it's on a screen! Okay, now I'm really done complaining.)

I also liked this line from the article:

"If Kerry was a modern-day Thomas Jefferson to the French, Cooper was the new Jerry Lewis"

Hey, I'll take a comparison to one of the founding fathers any day of the week!