practice practice practice

this week, i have been playing my favorite MMO and i had a sudden idea to play it in french! they have two servers for french speakers. the whole game, and a greater portion of the people playing on the servers, is all french. most of the players are quebécois, though, so their accent comes through pretty heavily. fortunately wikipedia has something to say about the phonology, which helps me understand and not pick up those pronunciation habits. the most prominent one among the players (now my friends ^^) is the [ε] ➝ [a] shift. they say "a" for elle and "y" or "i" for both y and il. je vais [ve] is written "jva" and probably pronounced that way too.

while this is a linguistic playground for me, it's also some great practice! i've been introduced to one idiomatic metaphor that i've not bothered to look up, but it's cute: souris, la vie est un fromage. yes, i agree, life is a cheese.

prend-le, p'tite souris!

i've been challenged to actually communicate, but reading the conversations in french also helps me know how to articulate what i want to say. my syntax parsing/production system is working so well that it affects my syntax when speaking english. this is good, mind you. franglais is just one step from français!

i have the impression that my fellow players like me and think i'm funny. thank God they know i'm american ("englaise" haha) and forgive me for my faux pas -- sometimes. according to them i'm "full smath" whatever that means; all i know is i convince some people at first that i'm quebécoise and surprise them by saying i'm americaine. i can't seem to find a quebécois internet speak dictionnaire, though, so many things will be unfotunately left to the devices of my imagination.

alors, i'm getting my hairs did today, maybe kinda short, like 3 in past my chin. all the same, fewer layers for a more dramatic, kicker type look.

ciao!