Linguistic Potato

So I've been here a week now and I thought I would fill you in a bit on how much fun it is constantly trying to speak another language.

If you have ever been lucky enough to have had foreign friends then you'll know that they make mistakes and some of them can be pretty funny. Whether it's pronunciation or simple just the wrong words they can get you sniggering. Well basically for the last week I have been that foreign person and here are some of the faux pas I have made and hopefully learned from.

Beaucoup

I have a great issue with pronouncing the 'ou' sound in French. I always say it as 'u' instead. I've always had this problem, even in English! My A Level Music Teacher always used to criticise me when I sung the word 'you', because, and to quote him, it made me sound like I was 'from somewhere in Scotland.' Anyway, turns out pronouncing the 'ou' sound correctly in 'beaucoup' is quite important, because if you get it wrong it sound like 'beau cul' which actually means 'nice arse' instead of the intended 'a lot.'

I have now been given a little bit of an exercise by my colleague at work to practice the 'ou' sound:

Tous les ours trouvent beaucoup de sous pour faire des courses

All the bears find lots of money to do the shopping.

(I find it really hard)

J'ai chaud vs. Je suis chaud

So someone says "How are you?" It's really hot so you reply, "Je suis chaud." No! That is either you saying you're up for a fight, in which case you are starting on them, or you are saying you are horny, in which case you're hitting on them. Either way both of these are unacceptable things to say to your boss! Enough said.

Je l'aime vs. Je l'aime bien

The former meaning I love him / her / it and the second meaning I like him / her / it. Also very important when talking about your boss.

Argot

This is basically French slang, I thought it was widely used and accepted by all as normal. The guy I work with talks in argot all the time and he can also speak and understand Verlan, the reversed French language, fluently. As I've been spending every morning and lunch time with him I've started to pick up some of the things he says which are apparently 'mauvais français'. A few of these are ' 'y a' instead of 'il y a' and 'j'ai des fesses' which is 'I can't be arsed'. Apparently these things aren't that great ... 

So basically I've been going around telling people I'm horny, that I love my boss and talking 'beaucoup' de 'beau cul.' Over all successful week, although that being said I do feel like I'm improving a lot already.

P.S. The French say franchement a lot and are shocked when you use really formal words like vraisemblablement, which is my favourite French word so I use it a lot.