Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul

I wish I'd known about this book when we first came to live in France over a year ago. My ancient O-level French was all I had to rely on at the time and that included none of the extremely useful words and phrases I now know since reading Pardon My French. Not only has it improved my understanding of the language but also my understanding of certain aspects of the French way of life which can be so different from our own. Informative, entertaining and very easy to read. Great book.

French dressing (0/0 people found this helpful)

It doesn't matter what language you learn, as soon as you have to interact with native speakers in their natural habitat you find they use a whole series of verbal tricks, tics, terms and routines you never covered in the classroom or textbook. Getting up to speed with these takes a while, not because they are difficult, but simply because they are so poorly documented. Traditional courses are always based on an `idealised' version of the language and native speakers are often quite bad at spotting the non-standard way in which their language is actually used. Indeed it often takes an alert non-native speaker to really understand what is going on! Timoney fits the bill perfectly and provides us with a useful (although not over-long) list of terms for the intermediate student. Normally this type of material is lazily presented as an alphabetic list, but here the author categorises the terms in section such as Food and Drink, Relations and so on and provides an often very funny commentary to go with each. This works very well and Timoney is an engaging and observant cultural and linguistic witness. It reads a bit like the accompanying textbook to Stephen Clarke's very funny "A Year in the Merde". It loses a star though for the annoyingly retro "Brush up your French" design of the UK edition of the book. Surely this type of book can sell without Sempé-lite drawings of baguettes and berets and the irrelevant "Unleash your inner Gaul" strap line.

A Good Fun Read (1/2 people found this helpful)

Thank you Mr Timoney for adding something more entertaining to my daughters standard French texts.

An effort hovering between odd and interesting (8/11 people found this helpful)

Mr Timoney claims to know "all the words" but shares only a very limited selection in this book, excluding for a start almost all the rude ones, which makes it pretty hard to unleash one's inner Gaul, as promised by the book's cover. Beyond its limitations there are some good entries in this book which is a very modern sort of product but one that left me ultimately not quite satisfied. It is a book because it looks like a book, and is indeed very attractively presented. But it is really just a long list, or a list of lists. Why am I not satisfied? It is not just for the missing obscenities (I have Genevieve's Complete Merde for those) but the missed opportunity to be just a tiny bit more interesting and to show (dare I say) maybe just a little scholarship. Some subjects are opened but not explored. What does it mean to be bilingual? Or fluent? This book will have more to teach intermediate level students than it reveals to anyone who is already pretty fluent. Those who really want to polish their French should be buying books in French.

Vive La France (5/5 people found this helpful)

What an excellent read! I can highly recommend this for anyone about to venture to France for their vacation or even to live there. Extremely humorous with a very light touch, this warm-hearted, affectionate read is the perfect antidote for those who've had enough of the bile generated by the Francophobic tabloid press.

Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul

Charles Timoney

Reader Reviews:

Brilliant (2/2 people found this helpful)

French dressing (0/0 people found this helpful)

A Good Fun Read (1/2 people found this helpful)

An effort hovering between odd and interesting (8/11 people found this helpful)

Vive La France (5/5 people found this helpful)

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