Monday, October 11, 2010

Anglophone?

I stopped by the local Monop to pick up a couple of things and had an odd exchange with the cashier. It took place in French, here’s a rough translation.

Him: Bonjour
Me: Bonjour
Him: (after a few seconds): Do you speak English?
Me: Yes
Him: Are you Anglophone?
Me: Yes
Him: You’re not American?
Me: Yes
Me: Did you ask because of my accent? (even though all I had said was “bonjour)
Him: No, I’ve seen you a couple of times and you have a certain style.

I’m not sure how I should interpret his comment…

4 comments:

islandgirl4ever2 said...

Compliment?!! : )

Anonymous said...

Anglophone? is that like anglophobia, anglophile?
seems to me like the large heavy black rotary phone my parents had in their 70's house....

such weighty heavy matters - are we?

A (Parisian) Seattleite back in Seattle said...

Anglophone = native English speaker. Sometimes I forget that some words don't work so well in both languages.

Maarten said...

James Fallows had an extended discussion on his blog a while back about identifying people's nationality by sight, based on how they dress or walk.

See:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/11/field-guide-to-identifying-americans/66165/

(That post has links to previous posts that started the topic.)

Greetings from a fellow Seattle-ite soon to move to Paris. :)