Stupid footballer!

Extremely hurtful actually when one's real personal experiences are totally dismissed by others as rubbish. Again, a huge difference between expats and those totally immersed in the everyday culture and language without hardly any contact with 'back home'. If you do not speak your mothertongue for weeks on end, and work and live daily in the new language, it does have a strong influence on your use of vocabulary, structures and accents. Most expats, even if they work with locals, go back to their family in the evening and speak their MT and watch UK TV, read English books, etc. Some of us did not, partly by choice and/or circumstances- and it makes a big difference. So why tell me this does not happen - when I've experienced it and seen this many times ???

Thanks for that Butty - full and long-term immersion, especially if married to a local with different MT, is very different to the 'average' ex-pat - with different influence on one's accent, often

My brother who has lived and worked in France for the past 40 years - which I would call total immersion - has an accent which is part Somerset and part French when speaking English. Quite unusual. His sons say he has a terrible French accent, although I think they jest.

Hey Ana, I think we were saying the same thing in a different way ???

Sad to say Granjura some posters like spats , it is meat and drink , don"t take it personally.

I understand the point you were trying to make, granjura.

Unfortunately these threads take on a life of their own, with everyone seeing things from their own perspective and sometimes taking offence or sensing criticism where none is meant.

Onwards and upwards!

Fair enough - all I was saying that it happens to some many, quite naturally over years living abroad - IF TOTALLY IMMERSED IN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE without contact with 'back home' most of the time. It is indeed funny/hilarious but not stupid in such cases...

Just shows that what is said without context on 't'internet' can seem very different from a different angle, in different circumstances.
I do wish my comment were taken as a personal comment, to explain why I objected to the word 'stupid' - was seen as a valid comment, and not turned into a spat. Why oh why? Sad.

Just thought to ask GS aged 14 and football knowledgeable about JB and he said 'tw*t'.

Also assures me that JB uses french accent to take the mick.

...and what Bibical sense would that be Ella46 ?

I only met the man for about 20 minutes in swimming pool in Majorca but I suppose his bits might have been somewhere near mine at some point!

Thank you Greatnan I am a good girl, I am .

By the time our first daughter was born, 3 years after my arrival in UK - I was totally unable to bring her up bilingually - as speaking French had become almost 'un-natural' for me. I had spoken nothing but English for 3 years, apart from a few short visits back home. All our friends were English and of course I only spoke English with British OH and family.

No problem absent, actually Geneva is right on the French border, ans as you say, same language (but definitely NOT same accent btw).

Not germaine at all - as if you've not experienced this yourself, and seen it happen to many around you - it of course won't register. Most expats in France are there with spouses or family - so speak English part of the time, at least at home. If like me you have NO CONTACT WHATSOEVER with your own language because you are on your own, working and living 24/7 in a new language- then your accent does change. Really- and I am not the only one to whom it has happened. And to whom it is now happening in reverse- clearly. My English has really changed in the last few years since I am back here- many of my friends in the UK have said I was 'reverting'.

So if this guy is in France on his own, and lives and works with French people, possibly has a French GF- then he may well NOT be taking the *iss. It is actually very difficult to forge. Why take offence at my comments, which hail from long-term personal experience- not just with me, but others in the same situation. I know a few here on are in that situation right now- and we've discussed this recently.

Sorry Juragran. I thought it was France – and I do know that that is different country from Switzerland. However, both are Francophone.

Sacre bloo!!

You can practise your franglaise Greatnan in the safe knowledge that you aren't being videoed!

It is a lovely, sunny morning here, so I am off for a long, very steep walk up to the crest of the ski slopes, where there are magnificent all round views. That will soothe my savage breast. Just carry on without me! And with a bit of luck I won't see any French people so I won't have to break my vow of silence!

Ella, she is not that sort of woman! (Are you, gilly?)

gillybob Just curious, did you 'know' him in the biblical sense

My first reaction was 'he's having a larf'....of course he's taking the p**s.
I love it!

Exactly what I have been trying to say all along Anno it is he that is taking the p*ss out of the press!

Germane, before the spelling police hit on my typo!

The English expats I knew all worked with French speakers. They still did not speak English with a French accent. I don't think my own personal circumstances, or language skills, are really germaine to this discussion.

I saw this item when the press conference first took place and I thought no more of it than that Joey Barton was taking the p...s. I am sure he is well capable of it. He may be a hothead but intellectually stunted he is not.

In isolation from French-speakers, not expats. Some people who live abroad live and work every minute surrounded by local native speakers, and do tend change their own accent in their own language, over time, as it rubs off. This certainly happened to me when first in UK. I did not have ANY contact (by choice) with anybody who spoke French when I worked in London in 1970. By choice, as I wanted to learn fast - and certainly could not afford to attend a course or school, and became totally bi-lingual within 6 months that way. But when I returned to Switzerland for holidays, people did laugh and said I sounded English, and often I couldn't find my words in French anymore. Those who had travelled understood, but perhaps some of my old friends who'd never left home felt I was 'showing off' or try to be different. This of course does not happen if they tend to only mix with expats. This is not an argument, just a discussion.

Thank goodness the sun did rise this morning at last- it feels good. Off to work in the garden and feel that sun on my back.

Geneva is French speaking.

Same to you Granjura .