Which (or what) language do you speak when you are at home with the family?

General Discussion
1

For myself I speak french at home.

I have been in France since 1966 ,

WOW that is a long time ,but i do speak english with my 13 grandchildren (now and again) when they choose of course.

As you might of noticed i have trouble writing english , so please accept my mistakes.

2

Hello Carol

Wow, that’s a lot of grandchildren, they are so lucky to have someone to practise their English with.

I speak English at home as my mother cannot speak French. Once outside I speak French all the time and funnily enough find this easier than having to swap between the two!

Why worry about any little writing mistakes, after all it’s the content that counts. None of us are perfect, wouldn’t want to be, just think how boring it would be :wink:

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Thanks for your reply Anne ,I speak French at home as my OH does not like to speak English and he was born in Poland, ,but never mind i enjoy speaking French anyway.It is a subject of conversation cos i have a HUGE English accent which seems to amuse people i speak to." Oh, my goodness after 50 years you haven’t lost your accent " No and i am going to keep it til I die.
Finally, it is my trademark. But quite often i don’t realize i am speaking French with English friends and i swap back into English when they have a puzzled look on their faces.
Same as you Anne i would rather speak French without the" franglais" bit
.Vive la France. Long live Great Britain

4

I get lots of gentle teasing when with French friends about my accent, plus there are some words I can never pronounce!

I was quite chuffed a couple of months ago when at a Brocante, a young man said “oh I could listen to you talk all day, your accent is lovely”. My French ‘partner’ now gets reminded (frequently) about that when I mispronounce some things ! :slight_smile:

I find myself sometimes speaking French to my mum without realsing, she just looks at me and says “very nice, I don’t know what you are saying but can you now repeat it in English” !:joy:

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5

Hello Ann

I’m interested that you often refer to you French ‘partner’ in that way. I’m curious, why do you use the inverted commas? Tell me to mind my own business if you want!!

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If I could work out how to PM you I would sate your curiousity Mandy ! :wink:

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@anon89172871 Ann… click on Mandy Davies where it is written in bold above her post…a box (like a business card) opens and you click on the envelope in the top right corner…

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8

Thank you, found it and a reply has been sent :slight_smile:

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9

French, every day since 1963! Originally because my wife’s English was poor and then because we moved to France in 1967 and our son was in a French school. It now feels very forced if we speak English.

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English except when the kids bring their French partners home.

11

Mainly we speak French and English (or vice-versa) just as I did growing up. I speak German as well as English and French with my parents and Spanish with my partner.

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